level

[gav]

Just wondering what level characters are people playing out there. We are currently 9th level ish. For those GMs out there how do your games differ from lower level games in the way of challenging the players other than more and harder enemies. We have been roleplaying for 20+years and the highest we ever got was around 13th level.
Just thinking out loud :wink:

 

[High Lord Dee]

Not sure if your question is how high level are we currently running or what the starting level could/should be for experienced players. I constantly run into the debate of what is a good "starting" level for characters in a new campaign. Mixed answers.

For some of our senior players, they like starting around 6th level so the magic users can be productive and because they don't like the idea of first level death which can occur.

I personally like all campaigns starting at first level. Especially, something as different as Conan. You tend to spend most of the game sessions thumbing through rule books rather than playing. Learning new d20 systems works best this way.

It also creates a sense of accomplishment with the players to start at first and advance to higher levels. Less of a chance of them getting bored and performing "suicide" maneuvers that can certainly hurt the campaign strategy. Especially if they drag the rest of the party with them. If they start out at higher level, they may not worry as much about death and losing their time investment. Makes them think a bit more before acting...

 

[Yogah of Yag]

My players are young and relatively inexperienced with RPG in general. (I myself have only been doing it only for the past five years.) Thus, I feel that it is necessary for them to not only begin at 1st lvl, but to have already read at least some of REH's Conan tales. Having them jump in with higher level PCs would be more exciting, but more complicated, requiring a more detailed knowledge of the game mechanics (and more pressure on me to be the all-seeing, omniscient Rules-God! :shock: )

 

[Voltumna]

our characters are 12 level. i play a zamorian thief 8/ barbarbarian 4.

the highest level i remember playing was 15th or 18th thief in d&d 2nd edition. never played d20 until conan rpg.

 

[Zul Daire]

We like to start campaigns at 1st level for the reasons that High Lord Dee stated and 99% of the characters get to 2nd or 3rd providing they don't do anything to stupid.

About last april I moved to a bordering state so sadly had to leave my decade+ group of gaming buddies.

Luckily one friend from that group is a sales rep and where I live now is part of his territory so he comes into town about once a month or so for 2-3 days and we get down with some serious solo sessions with his cahracter.

Due to our infrequency of play and keeping with a fast and furious on the go narrative I bump him up a level after an adventure (2-3 nights) or partway through a long adventure.

I try to keep the adventure contained enough and easy enough to wrap up that we can finish so we aren't waiting a month or so to continue.

This style of level advancemet works great for us and I think compliments the Mongoose suggested Howard style narrative.

When I moved back in April he was 5 th level. He is now 10th.

My player likes it, I'm cool with it and we do not feel that the character has suffered for it(sounds crazy but you get the picture) and were having a blast!

Of course if I was back to playing every Friday night with a larger group I would go back to awarding XP.

Last year the party fought in a couple large scale battle as we tested out the mass combat rules (PDF not FC). Afterwards instead of awarding XP I gave everyone a free level of Soldier and adjustd their XP from the next level accpordingly.

No one complained, a couple players were kinda quitly thinking it over at first but quickly thought that it made sense since they had just fought in a couple battles and they did not sacrifice any hard earned XP for it. And as mentioned we were testing out the rules.

One of the barbarians is the character of my friend who comes into to town. Normally a hardcore single class guy with no intentions of multiclassing. His character was going to stay to his roots not to be tainted by civilization.

But now he has totally gone multi class crazy and picked up another level of soldier, a couple thief and 1 pirate. Sounds kinda familiar actually except he is from the Black Kingdoms not Cimmeria. Now he likes being more civilized and being paid well by kings for his work and spending it all etc...!!

So really you can do just about anything you want depending on your situation and the players think its fair.

 

[René]

My PCs are 11-13th level. They will have a great showdown the next session, after which this campaign ends.

Higher characters are IMO getting more and more difficult to play.

We started at level 1.

 

[Foxworthy]

Well the group I'm playing in started at 1st level. I'm 11th level as a Black Kingdoms Barbarian 9/Thief 1/ Solider 1. The other PCS are 10th level.

 

[High Lord Dee]

My PCs are 11-13th level. They will have a great showdown the next session, after which this campaign ends.

Higher characters are IMO getting more and more difficult to play.

We started at level 1.

How long did it take you guys in terms of game time (months, hours etc.) in Conan to go from first to 13th?

HLD

 

[Auggie]

I've been running my campaign since September of 2004 and we try to play once a week. Currently, the characters are between 7th-8th level. Is it slow? Not really. We play only 2-3 hours per week and as characters advance, rewards become naturally more difficult to get. Killing that 1st level Pict as a 1st level character will, obviously, net more XP that the 10th level barbarian taking a wack at the poor Pict slob.

I don't think I'm stingy in doling out the XP and my players have never complained. If we had played more often in the last year and a half, I'm sure the characters would now be in the 12th level range.

 

[urdinaran]

I started my campaign around the end of the summer, so we've been playing about 6 months, every other week. The characters in my campaign are 4th level.

I prefer to start at 1st level.

 

[arnon]

I like to start at 1st level if its a new setting with new rules (it help to learn them that way), and on the whole i think its nice to start at low levels and slowly raise your PC higher. Personally I have never played higher than 10th level and it took us about 8 month to get there of once a week sessions of about 6-7 hours. I have just finished DMing a Midnight campaign which lasted for about 6-7 months of almost once a week sessions of 6-7 hours and the PCs ended just bellow 8th level.

Next: Conan (but finally I get to play )

arnon

 

[René]

My PCs are 11-13th level. They will have a great showdown the next session, after which this campaign ends.

Higher characters are IMO getting more and more difficult to play.

We started at level 1.

How long did it take you guys in terms of game time (months, hours etc.) in Conan to go from first to 13th?

HLD

We're playing for about one year and a few weeks. Game sessions one / week (afternoon + evening, seldom after midnight).

But several times I threw adventures in which featured other characters, e.g. remembrance stories a la REH's James Allison or prelude stories as REH did in Black Colossus featuring the master thief in the beginning. This method gives the story much more depth IMO.

 

[DasClay]

You guys are really rolling compaired to my group. MY GM likes to slow grind the levels out, I think we started playing late summer or early fall, something like that, and we started at 2md lvl. We tend to play every week or every other week. But I just reached 4th lvl like a week ago. so out of maybe 6 players i think 3 or 4 are 4th lvl everyone else is 3rd... LOL....
I feel sooooo cheated now... But I still like the feel of the game.

The funny part is, when we ask for a lvl he says were asking for too much LOL. Buts its always a great game

 

[MadDog]

I just reached 4th lvl like a week ago. so out of maybe 6 players i think 3 or 4 are 4th lvl everyone else is 3rd... LOL....
I feel sooooo cheated now

DANCE, my puppettes ! Muahahahaha !

I will make you WORK for your levels. When you get a level from GM Tom, you KNOW you earned it.

Mad Dog

 

[DasClay]

EVIL LITTLE MAN YOU ARE MADDOG! LOL

 

[Decurio]

In general, we like to start any campaign, Conan or not, at first level; there is a period of character development you just don't get by starting at a higher level, but thats just my opinion.

Besides, in actual play, my players tend to jump pretty quickly through the lower levels; the only real problem we had was the scholar who kept dying over and over...he finally got the message and tried to stay out of combat for awhile.