The Journey from 1 to 20

[Catullus64]

Never in my time playing D&D have I run or played in a Campaign which traversed all 20 levels. Because I and my fellow players are university students, campaigns tend to be somewhat limited by the school year, and it's generally agreed that if a campaign doesn't get finished within the school year, it'll probably not get finished ever due to waning interest over the summer. That said, the notion of taking characters all the way up through all of the levels really appeals to me, and I want to try to write and run such a campaign.

Can it be done? With people's schedules and cancellations expected, a school year reliably yields something like 35 sessions. I've got a decent story rattling around in my head that would cover all levels pretty effectively, but would hitting a new level every few sessions feel... weird? Silly? What sort of leveling curve should I employ? Is trying to run a cohesive story under such a strict level progression folly?

You who have experience in running tightly-timed games from Levels 1-20, speak now!

[PhoenixPhyre]

Never in my time playing D&D have I run or played in a Campaign which traversed all 20 levels. Because I and my fellow players are university students, campaigns tend to be somewhat limited by the school year, and its generally agreed that if a campaign doesn't get finished within the school year, it'll probably not get finished ever. That said, the notion of taking characters all the way up through all of the levels really appeals to me, and I want to try to write and run such a campaign.

Can it be done? With people's schedules and cancellations expected, a school year reliably yields something like 35 sessions. I've got a decent story rattling around in my head that would cover all levels pretty effectively, but would hitting a new level every few sessions feel... weird? Silly? What sort of leveling curve should I employ? Is trying to run a cohesive story under such a strict level progression folly?

You who have experience in running tightly-timed games from Levels 1-20, speak now!

I ran one that lasted a bit longer than a school year, but didn't always run weekly.

By the DMG's guidance, you're looking at about (rounded, from memory)

Levels: Adventuring Days
1-2: 1 each
3-5: 3 each
6-10: 5 each
11-16: 3 each
17-20: 2-3 each

For a total of 62 adventuring days. If you push, you can cut that down some. 35 sessions (unless they're marathon sessions where you can do multiple adventuring days) might be a bit too few though.

If you want to hit higher levels faster, start at higher level. I'd recommend about level 5-6.

[ImproperJustice]

Our group did away with experience decades ago.

As a GM you usually know what level you want your players to be at certain junctures so raise them as they fit the campaign challenges.


Alternatively take a look at the leveling systems in Savage Worlds where you gain advancmenets almost every other session, but they come in smaller power increments.

[Lombra]

Just use milestones xp, it's not a problem.

[Pex]

The highest I got was 18th level in a 3E game. It only ended because the DM was tired of the campaign and wanted something fresh. I would reach 14th level in a Pathfinder game a few years later before the group disbanded. Second highest level was 15th way back when in 2E during college, but then I graduated. Real life happens and always interferes requiring players/DM to leave the game. Sometimes players find their frustrations of the game outweigh the fun, so they leave. Sometimes the DM is never satisfied with how the game mechanics work, continuously tinkering with house rules that also never satisfy and end up quitting altogether.

It's life happening that's the ultimate destroyer of 20th level aspirations. Playing on a regular basis is a heavy commitment. As much as one enjoys the game, playing it is among the lowest priorities. Work obligations, family obligations, health obligations, all outrank it. It's nice to say you'll play once a week, but you can't guarantee it will be every week. However, reaching 20th level is still something to aspire and hope. It provides motivation.

[Tubben]

Took us around 130 sessions at 3 hours per session to reach lv 20.

We are currently at 170 sessions and 540.000 xp.

We play weekly (few exceptions).

[MrStabby]

I did run a "campaign" that was a series of linked mini adventures with the same characters. It ran 3 to 16 in levels. It worked well but we didnt play at all levels. From memory it was 3 to 6, 9 to 10, 14 and finally 16.

You can get the feel of a character at all levels without having to spend tme there or to feel levelling up takes too little time. Long downtime periods whilst the world progresses and PCs come back with higher levels work well.

[Astofel]

The highest level I've ever attained was 14th/15th from playing through Princes of the Apocalypse, which took a bit over a year all up. Since then I've been DMing for the same group, with the intent of taking them from 1st-20th with my own custom world and adventures. They're 9th level at the moment, and we recently switched from XP to milestone because I got tired of keeping track of XP and the players were somewhat dissatisfied with the pace of leveling up since I used to run 15-minute adventuring days. We're all busy people so we can't meet every week, and I've started living in a different city since the campaign started, but we all try our best to make time for the game and play online when we can't play in person.

[Finieous]

We took 60 sessions spread over 15 or 16 months to get to 20. I think most of the players were happy with the advancement rate, but a couple commented that it was "faster than they were used to." I think 35 sessions would feel very fast.

[PhoenixPhyre]

19 level-up events (because the first one happens at character creation) in 35 sessions is moving at a pace slightly faster than 1 level-up every two sessions. That's blisteringly fast. That means that you've got at most 2 sessions to play with any new toys before you level up. 4 sessions (3.xx) per level of spells.

I strongly recommend starting at a higher level if you want to finish at higher levels.

[Catullus64]

Just use milestones xp, it's not a problem.

I guess my original post was unclear on this point; I never had any intention of doing anything other than a milestone system. Like Astofel or ImproperJustice, my group has long since abandoned using XP for anything outside of published adventures.

My question about level progression had more to do with the feel of the campaign with such a rapid progression. Will it feel jarring to have characters go from being insignificant scrubs to earth-shaking demigods over the course of such a (relatively) short campaign? Even with in-game timeskips, that's likely to be a result. I was more interested in the problems of pacing the story in such a way as to mitigate this effect, since that journey from scrubs to demigods is ultimately what I want to capture here.

To that effect here is the intended story in broad strokes: a godlike dragon is wrecking things things up but good in the otherwise peaceful kingdom, and in the course of surviving/investigating/combatting the thing, the PCs slowly uncover the centuries-long series of f***ups on the part of the mortal races which led to the dragon being unleashed.

[UrielAwakened]

I ran a 4e campaign from levels 1-30 in college. Around paragon tier I realized I needed to fit 5 levels in per semester to finish, so that's what I did. I eschewed XP from that point onward.

Basic breakdown:

1-5: Discover a hologram map in a nearby ruins, investigate monster camps uprising near the city, culminating in an attack on the city by an Orc Warlord and the destruction of a magical statue.

6-10: Following the map through the mountains, defending and losing statues in two additional cities. Killing the Orc Warlord, being betrayed by a love interest who was a succubus working for a Chimera Lich. Discovered the map led to an Astral Tower which led to Sigil.

11-15: Plane hopping, acquiring a flying ship, finding the main plot. Party needs to protect statues as they each have a shard of Tharizdun's heart from the BBEG. If he breaks them all, bad things happen. Party splits, comes back together to fight the Succubus from before who went rogue and merged with a shard.

16-20: Sealing the hole in reality caused by the Succubus, gathering 3 parts of Bahamut's blade Justicar. Doing so required crashing the flying ship into the Tarrasque, fighting a mechanical Avatar of Tiamat, and recovering it from a Pit Lord. Also fought the Chimera Lich, killing him temporarily, and was captured by the true BBEG, an Deva-Demon from the Dawn War.

21-25: All of reality is slowing breaking down. BBEG's army is on the move, taking out planes of gods to get to their statues directly. A half-tarrasque hybrid is murdering its way through entire continents. Bahamut gave his life to save the party from the BBEG, and the Raven Queen got killed as well. A PC fused his own heart with one of the last shards of Tharizdun to protect it in a last-ditch effort.

26-30: Party has assembled their last stand against the forces of evil. They travelled to Tiamat's home plane to cut off her armies before they can reach the battlefield, and battle the Elemental Lords. Allabar crashed into the battlefield, wiping out huge portions of the armies and opening a path to the body of Tharizdun once the last shard is taken from the party. The BBEG wakes up baby Tharizdun with the shards and plans to use his power to split reality in half, so that the gods and primordials can each have their own universes, at the expense of humanity. The half-tarrasque from before breaks free of its imprisonment gem, and merges with Tharizdun, as it was the phylactery of the Lich Chiimera the whole time. He comes this close to taking over the universe, but falls just short. The party defeats him, seals Tharizdun away for good, and sets to rebuilding the world.

[Citan]

I guess my original post was unclear on this point; I never had any intention of doing anything other than a milestone system. Like Astofel or ImproperJustice, my group has long since abandoned using XP for anything outside of published adventures.

My question about level progression had more to do with the feel of the campaign with such a rapid progression. Will it feel jarring to have characters go from being insignificant scrubs to earth-shaking demigods over the course of such a (relatively) short campaign? Even with in-game timeskips, that's likely to be a result. I was more interested in the problems of pacing the story in such a way as to mitigate this effect, since that journey from scrubs to demigods is ultimately what I want to capture here.

To that effect here is the intended story in broad strokes: a godlike dragon is wrecking things things up but good in the otherwise peaceful kingdom, and in the course of surviving/investigating/combatting the thing, the PCs slowly uncover the centuries-long series of f***ups on the part of the mortal races which led to the dragon being unleashed.
Hi!

Well, there are a few cursors you could play with...
- Starting level: if your group is familiar with 5e, starting at level 3-4 may be a nice idea: people don't need the "first level tutorials", it's at level 3 for most classes that you really get the feeling of your character thanks to archetypes, and if some players have a dual-class in mind you give them a decent chance of having a proof-of-concept online as soon as they start playing.
- Levels up to 7: as long as in a session you give them enough challenges (combat OR otherwise), I think you could bet on one level gained every two session. That way they get fun new tricks each month, enough to keep them interested in invested over the wait between each session.
- Levels up to 11: now you are more on the blurry fuzzy line. I'd say the minimum condition for a milestone level to be awarded is the completion of a quest that spawned on several sessions, and that brought some influence into the world (saving a whole village, routing a troop of bandits that was harassing a region, finding a precious relic in an infamous tomb). You should'nt have a level gained in less than 3-4 sessions anyways...
- Levels ++: I cannot give you any decent piece of advice here, I'd myself go with my gut essentially. Seems complex especially if you want to level up everyone at the same time. If you would be ready to individualize progression, then it could be easier.
Things that may warrant a level up: downtime that player declares spending solely on training, resolution of a personal quest, act of awesomeness in whatever way...
The only thing I'd always set is making the next level 'further' than the previous one so they feel that the power gain is not linear.

EDIT: reading back the thread and reflecting on my own post, I think the best advice is the one of PhoenixPyre

I ran one that lasted a bit longer than a school year, but didn't always run weekly.

By the DMG's guidance, you're looking at about (rounded, from memory)

Levels: Adventuring Days
1-2: 1 each
3-5: 3 each
6-10: 5 each
11-16: 3 each
17-20: 2-3 each

For a total of 62 adventuring days. If you push, you can cut that down some. 35 sessions (unless they're marathon sessions where you can do multiple adventuring days) might be a bit too few though.

If you want to hit higher levels faster, start at higher level. I'd recommend about level 5-6.
Indeed, whatever way you look at it, with 35 sessions (average! You could have less) it would feel artificial.

One workaround, IF all players are ok with it, could be using ellipsis at times in addition to starting at level 5 min. For example between level 7 and 9, or level 11 and 14...
But I'm not sure it would be pleasant.

Really, best way is to start at high level indeed, or increase the number of sessions, or find ways to play "between" sessions through shorter plays with mail/forum/roll20.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Would moving to Roll20 or something similar over the summer be possible? Otherwise, I'd suggest two linked campaigns: 1-10 one year, then run a sequel the next year from 11-20.

[NecessaryWeevil]

We went from 1 to 20 in 18 months, abandoning XP about halfway through. We could have ended the storyline around level 17 or so if I recall correctly, but we agreed that we'd like to see level 20 at least once so the DM accelerated us through the last three levels (being empowered by the last wisps of a dead god helped). I think we were all fine with it.

[Malifice]

Just did it in my 1st ever 5e campaign. 500,000xp was the finish point (and the PCs slaying Kyuss atop the Spire of Long Shadows).

Three years of weekly play.

Was my first time in a long while though. My longest ever campaign Ive played in was a Rolemaster campaign that went to 60th level and ran every weekend for 5 years. That was over 20 years ago though.

[Malifice]

I ran one that lasted a bit longer than a school year, but didn't always run weekly.

By the DMG's guidance, you're looking at about (rounded, from memory)

Levels: Adventuring Days
1-2: 1 each
3-5: 3 each
6-10: 5 each
11-16: 3 each
17-20: 2-3 each

For a total of 62 adventuring days. If you push, you can cut that down some. 35 sessions (unless they're marathon sessions where you can do multiple adventuring days) might be a bit too few though.

If you want to hit higher levels faster, start at higher level. I'd recommend about level 5-6.

But then you need to factor in days with no encounters and RP or fewer encounters. Not every session is going to cram in several encounters.

That said I did find the pace really picks up past 11th after slowing down from 5-10. My PCs were levelling every second or third session for the last 10 levels after taking 5+ sessions to level in the mid levels.

The easiest way of doing it is to run a game where every X sessions you level. From there, work backwards to figure out how much time you are going to have for the campaign and figure out the value of X.

[furby076]

im not a fan of XP because its cumbersome. Also, if a player misses a session then the player is behind. He gets annoyed, and you have to deal with disparate levels in the group. The DM saying "you levelled"works for me. Now, the problem with rapidly running through 1 to 20 is your inability to learn your characters. Yea, level 1-3 can be done in a 6-8 sessions for experienced players, but it should taper down a bit.

I played in a 1-20 game and it lasted about ten years. Earlier on we played weekly, sometimes it went to 2x per month. Summers we were largely off (DM went home to india for summer). Now as a grown up with kids, i game once every 1-2 months with my group. We are level 6 in a game that has run almost 2 years. Nobody care that we are not level 15. We are having fun.

Being in college is tough: classes, mid/finals, sports, activities, breaks, summers, etc. Your best bet is to enjoy as much as possible, and when you g raduate, find a good group to play with and go 1 to 20 the right way...over a multi-year campaign that will be fully immersive, and when you finish you will be sad and happy at the same time