After nearly 4 decades of D&D, one thing I have realized is that the best D&D is usually somewhere between the beginning and the middle levels. There have been some unique exceptions throughout the editions however that altered things. 1st and 2nd edition had a natural progression because XP was not unified, so characters didn't level up at the same time. 3rd edition you had prestige classes and players really wanted them so you sort of expedited them there and then played at that level for a long time as this was the sweet spot for the game. 4th edition was an unwieldy game after around 7th level (too many powers to track). 5th edition players want their Sub-Class ASAP so you are pretty much expediting to 3rd level and the game is best between like 3rd and about 12th level. After that it gets very unwieldy and becomes a kind of gonzo fantasy where everything is solved with magic.
1st to 3rd level: 2-3 sessions per level
4th to 12th: Progressively slower, essentially its Level + 2 Sessions for each level.. so 6 sessions for 4, 7 sessions for 5 etc..etc..
13th to 20th: If you play at these levels I speed it up. I usually do 3-4 sessions per level from 13th level and sort of race to the finish with 20th level being like 1-2 sessions max for a finale to the campaign, though in fairness most campaigns end by 13th level.
Would be nice to be able to have some kind of session length selection, since I usually let my players level up after around 2 sessions. We do often run 6-8 hour sessions though, so that would be the same as a group that runs 3-4 sessions levelling up every 4 sessions.
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After nearly 4 decades of D&D, one thing I have realized is that the best D&D is usually somewhere between the beginning and the middle levels. There have been some unique exceptions throughout the editions however that altered things. 1st and 2nd edition had a natural progression because XP was not unified, so characters didn't level up at the same time. 3rd edition you had prestige classes and players really wanted them so you sort of expedited them there and then played at that level for a long time as this was the sweet spot for the game. 4th edition was an unwieldy game after around 7th level (too many powers to track). 5th edition players want their Sub-Class ASAP so you are pretty much expediting to 3rd level and the game is best between like 3rd and about 12th level. After that it gets very unwieldy and becomes a kind of gonzo fantasy where everything is solved with magic.
1st to 3rd level: 2-3 sessions per level
4th to 12th: Progressively slower, essentially its Level + 2 Sessions for each level.. so 6 sessions for 4, 7 sessions for 5 etc..etc..
13th to 20th: If you play at these levels I speed it up. I usually do 3-4 sessions per level from 13th level and sort of race to the finish with 20th level being like 1-2 sessions max for a finale to the campaign, though in fairness most campaigns end by 13th level.
Would be nice to be able to have some kind of session length selection, since I usually let my players level up after around 2 sessions. We do often run 6-8 hour sessions though, so that would be the same as a group that runs 3-4 sessions levelling up every 4 sessions.