I DM 3 campaigns (one just started this monday). Longest one I run is 37 sessions (weekly) in (many were missed tho because of absences) and the party is 10th level. 20 sessions into the 2nd I run (again, many missed due to absences), party is 5th. Newest one is 1st. The longest I play in is 32 sessions long (again, a couple missed) and we just got to level 6 like 2 sessions ago. The other one I play in is 18 sessions in (absences ;~;) and we're 7th level, we're playing WBtW.
All of these are weekly games. Luckily, I play on a DnD server that makes you document all the sessions you have that count for rewards, so I can tell you the exact age!
Goblinkin Pirate Campaign (37 sesh): 1 year (!!!) 2 months 1 day
Merchant Caravan Circuit Campaign (20 sesh): 8 months 15 days
I've run several campaigns. Some of them under AL rules.
Dragon of Ice Spire peak - 8 sessions - finished by leveling to level 7 at the end of the adventure.
Curse of Strahd - 33 sessions - characters finished around level 12 (there are a lot of milestones in Strahd for a party of completionists)
Home campaign - combination of GoS, TftYP, CM, DoIP+expansions, a couple of other modules and some homebrew - started in 2020, running about 3 hrs/session 1/week - something like 70+ sessions - currently level 8. (and the players still likely feel it is leveling faster than they are used to - I am leveling them at about 1/3 to 1/2 of the rate suggested by the modules being run - this group is folks who started with AD&D and expect a campaign to end in the 8-11 level range - which this one won't do if I have a say in it :) ... since 5e is much more playable at higher levels in my opinion). However, the faster leveling of 5e does tend to affect the verisimilitude of the adventure since the time scale for the campaign is likely a few days to a few weeks. I threw in a few weeks of downtime recently just to add a bit more of a realistic feel to it.
I've run several campaigns. Some of them under AL rules.
Dragon of Ice Spire peak - 8 sessions - finished by leveling to level 7 at the end of the adventure.
Curse of Strahd - 33 sessions - characters finished around level 12 (there are a lot of milestones in Strahd for a party of completionists)
Home campaign - combination of GoS, TftYP, CM, DoIP+expansions, a couple of other modules and some homebrew - started in 2020, running about 3 hrs/session 1/week - something like 70+ sessions - currently level 8. (and the players still likely feel it is leveling faster than they are used to - I am leveling them at about 1/3 to 1/2 of the rate suggested by the modules being run - this group is folks who started with AD&D and expect a campaign to end in the 8-11 level range - which this one won't do if I have a say in it :) ... since 5e is much more playable at higher levels in my opinion). However, the faster leveling of 5e does tend to affect the verisimilitude of the adventure since the time scale for the campaign is likely a few days to a few weeks. I threw in a few weeks of downtime recently just to add a bit more of a realistic feel to it.
the first DM I have every heard say it is more playable at higher levels lol, almost everyone else complains about balance and how hard it is to make it challenging to players
I've run several campaigns. Some of them under AL rules.
Dragon of Ice Spire peak - 8 sessions - finished by leveling to level 7 at the end of the adventure.
Curse of Strahd - 33 sessions - characters finished around level 12 (there are a lot of milestones in Strahd for a party of completionists)
Home campaign - combination of GoS, TftYP, CM, DoIP+expansions, a couple of other modules and some homebrew - started in 2020, running about 3 hrs/session 1/week - something like 70+ sessions - currently level 8. (and the players still likely feel it is leveling faster than they are used to - I am leveling them at about 1/3 to 1/2 of the rate suggested by the modules being run - this group is folks who started with AD&D and expect a campaign to end in the 8-11 level range - which this one won't do if I have a say in it :) ... since 5e is much more playable at higher levels in my opinion). However, the faster leveling of 5e does tend to affect the verisimilitude of the adventure since the time scale for the campaign is likely a few days to a few weeks. I threw in a few weeks of downtime recently just to add a bit more of a realistic feel to it.
the first DM I have every heard say it is more playable at higher levels lol, almost everyone else complains about balance and how hard it is to make it challenging to players
I agree that it's more fun the higher the level of the PCs. It's certainly harder on the DM, as you have to account for far more abilities, but I find the game is fun at every level, just in different ways. At low levels more of the fun comes from the imminent threat to PCs' lives. At higher levels it comes from the long-term investment into the player characters' personal storylines and feeling like bosses.
If DM's find it hard to challenge their players they just aren't doing enough homebrew. It's true that the standard materials (monsters etc) don't offer good high level challenges, because they conform to a fairly basic set of premises but there's no reason you can't challenge the players by designing monsters worthy of the PC's power.
My Twitch channel's main campaign has lasted 24 sessions as of tonight. We play every week except the 1st week of each month, and we took a month off over the holidays. We are nearing the completion of the campaign...about 8 sessions away after tonight.
Well I have been running Storm King's Thunder for about 8 months and the group is currently at level 5 (pretty close to level 6, actually).
I use both systems of leveling. I used the benchmark for the first chapters. But as they are on the third chapter, which is pretty massive and can go many different directions before getting back on track with the main quest, I currently use XP.
Funny thing is that they began at level 4, having finished Lost Mines of Phandelver, which took a little over a year to complete.
The problem is that even though we try to play once a week for about 3 hours, this is not always possible. So even though there have been exceptions, with sessions lasting more than 4 hours or with us playing two or three times in a week, the average is below what we were aiming for.
The campaign I am currently playing in has been going for almost two years. Around 20 or 21 months. We play (almost) every week for 3 or so hours. We started at level 1 and we're at level 13 now.
The last campaign I played in was a full level 1 through level 20 campaign that lasted about three and a half years.
I guess I’m at the other extreme here: my current home brew campaign has been going for coming up on a year and the players just dinged level 19 and are about to fight Lolth in the finale.
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I DM 3 campaigns (one just started this monday). Longest one I run is 37 sessions (weekly) in (many were missed tho because of absences) and the party is 10th level. 20 sessions into the 2nd I run (again, many missed due to absences), party is 5th. Newest one is 1st. The longest I play in is 32 sessions long (again, a couple missed) and we just got to level 6 like 2 sessions ago. The other one I play in is 18 sessions in (absences ;~;) and we're 7th level, we're playing WBtW.
All of these are weekly games. Luckily, I play on a DnD server that makes you document all the sessions you have that count for rewards, so I can tell you the exact age!
Goblinkin Pirate Campaign (37 sesh): 1 year (!!!) 2 months 1 day
Merchant Caravan Circuit Campaign (20 sesh): 8 months 15 days
Beyond the Veil (32 sesh): 9 months 23 days
WBtW (18 sesh): 5 months, 11 days
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU
I've run several campaigns. Some of them under AL rules.
Dragon of Ice Spire peak - 8 sessions - finished by leveling to level 7 at the end of the adventure.
Curse of Strahd - 33 sessions - characters finished around level 12 (there are a lot of milestones in Strahd for a party of completionists)
Home campaign - combination of GoS, TftYP, CM, DoIP+expansions, a couple of other modules and some homebrew - started in 2020, running about 3 hrs/session 1/week - something like 70+ sessions - currently level 8. (and the players still likely feel it is leveling faster than they are used to - I am leveling them at about 1/3 to 1/2 of the rate suggested by the modules being run - this group is folks who started with AD&D and expect a campaign to end in the 8-11 level range - which this one won't do if I have a say in it :) ... since 5e is much more playable at higher levels in my opinion). However, the faster leveling of 5e does tend to affect the verisimilitude of the adventure since the time scale for the campaign is likely a few days to a few weeks. I threw in a few weeks of downtime recently just to add a bit more of a realistic feel to it.
My current campaigns are:
Homebrew - 17 sessions - Lv 6 (Almost 7)
SKT - 8 sessions - Lv 5
My longest was 14 months and finished at lv 15 (~60 sessions)
the first DM I have every heard say it is more playable at higher levels lol, almost everyone else complains about balance and how hard it is to make it challenging to players
I agree that it's more fun the higher the level of the PCs. It's certainly harder on the DM, as you have to account for far more abilities, but I find the game is fun at every level, just in different ways. At low levels more of the fun comes from the imminent threat to PCs' lives. At higher levels it comes from the long-term investment into the player characters' personal storylines and feeling like bosses.
If DM's find it hard to challenge their players they just aren't doing enough homebrew. It's true that the standard materials (monsters etc) don't offer good high level challenges, because they conform to a fairly basic set of premises but there's no reason you can't challenge the players by designing monsters worthy of the PC's power.
My Twitch channel's main campaign has lasted 24 sessions as of tonight. We play every week except the 1st week of each month, and we took a month off over the holidays. We are nearing the completion of the campaign...about 8 sessions away after tonight.
Check us out on Twitch, YouTube and the DISCORD!
With my campaign we've just finished session 8 and the characters (party of 4) are all level 5.
Sessions run from 3 to 4 hours.
Well I have been running Storm King's Thunder for about 8 months and the group is currently at level 5 (pretty close to level 6, actually).
I use both systems of leveling. I used the benchmark for the first chapters. But as they are on the third chapter, which is pretty massive and can go many different directions before getting back on track with the main quest, I currently use XP.
Funny thing is that they began at level 4, having finished Lost Mines of Phandelver, which took a little over a year to complete.
The problem is that even though we try to play once a week for about 3 hours, this is not always possible. So even though there have been exceptions, with sessions lasting more than 4 hours or with us playing two or three times in a week, the average is below what we were aiming for.
The campaign I am currently playing in has been going for almost two years. Around 20 or 21 months. We play (almost) every week for 3 or so hours. We started at level 1 and we're at level 13 now.
The last campaign I played in was a full level 1 through level 20 campaign that lasted about three and a half years.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
I guess I’m at the other extreme here: my current home brew campaign has been going for coming up on a year and the players just dinged level 19 and are about to fight Lolth in the finale.