How I Roll - The Level Race

I've played in games where the GM seems to be in a rush to get PCs to higher levels. I can understand that. Lower levels mean lower challenges. Or they have a story they want to get to but the PCs aren't ready yet.

I don't like it.

It's part of my Session Zero to tell the potential players that I level slowly. I want them to be able to explore their new abilities and learn more about their characters before moving up the ladder of levels. I find it kind of sad when someone gains a new feat or skill only to get to use it as their premier shiny thing for a few games before they get a new shiny thing.

I also like challenges suited to the character levels. Yes, kobolds are boring after a while but that's a challenge on me to make encounters that are level suitable but still interesting. It also lets me learn about the players and what they want out of their characters, out of me, and out of the game in general.

I start very low level. Depending on the game and players I'll either start at level 1 or level 3. I want those characters to develop. I want them to learn how best to use the character builds they made. I want them to have time to adjust things that seemed like a good idea at creation but aren't working out in the game.

If we're doing more of a "kill the monster, get the treasure" game then character development isn't very much of a concern to the players. In those cases I'm fine with starting at a bit of a higher level and letting them advance faster. But I end my games at level 20 so the faster you get there, the shorter the game. There's always a trade-off.

Players like to level. It's a milestone. It's a visible show of accomplishment that they've done stuff. I can fully understand that and accept it. It's why I use a combination of XP and milestones (more on that in a future post) to level up the characters.

Another thought to bring into the discussion is that the higher the characters advance the more it takes to get them to the next level anyway. Lower levels means learning the basics. Once you get into higher levels there's more options and more things to do before you move up. At least I like to think so.

I also dislike having characters level in the middle of an encounter. It throws everything off when we're in a multi session encounter and in the middle one or more of the PCs levels. It kind of breaks the scene for me. Suddenly they figured out how to Cleave while they're sneaking through the sewers to find the lair of the offshoot of the assassins' guild? It doesn't make sense. So holding off on it until they've got some in-game down time is my goal.

Other GMs like the race to the top. That's fine. If the players want it too then that's the game. It's yet another reason why Session Zero is important. You need to find out what the players expect in terms of character advancement, which is something not typically discussed. While my preference is for slow leveling if the group wants to go faster I can go faster. It means the encounters will be more difficult to compensate for their faster grasp of skills and feats. As I said, it's a trade-off. And it's completely up to the group as to how to handle it.