How long does your party take to make progress in APs and modules? If not APs and Modules, how many sessions to you go between levels, etc?
I started just after Pathfinder Beta dropped (August 14th, 2009) and in the six months since we have played about 19 5-hour sessions on Sunday nights. We are just at the end of Pathfinder #1, and expect to finish it this week.
We're playing via Maptool, so that might be slowing us down a bit, but it doesn't seem much faster to me than when we used to play in person.
Let's get your data! How fast have your games gone by?
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I DM'd Tower of the Last Baron online over 10 4-hour sessions using my own app.
I've heard, and I guess I would generally agree, that games at an actual table can last longer because people can get up and move around more. Playing online locks you at a computer screen, which causes its own form of fatigue. Our sessions were previously 5 hours long, but we dropped them to 4.
At a table, typically I DM a level every 20 hours or so (this takes much longer at higher levels, of course).
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Let's get your data! How fast have your games gone by?
In running Rise of the Runelords, we now play 1/month for 10 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday. Including creating characters, they have had 4 sessions total (so 64 hours) and they just finished the third adventure path.
So a tad quicker, but I'm the kind of DM that has problems with upping the amount of RP, so I'll let you be the judge.
How long does your party take to make progress in APs and modules? If not APs and Modules, how many sessions to you go between levels, etc?
I started just after Pathfinder Beta dropped (August 14th, 2009) and in the six months since we have played about 19 5-hour sessions on Sunday nights. We are just at the end of Pathfinder #1, and expect to finish it this week.
We're playing via Maptool, so that might be slowing us down a bit, but it doesn't seem much faster to me than when we used to play in person.
Let's get your data! How fast have your games gone by?
It took us six session at five hours a pop to finish Pathfinder one. It does seem like it has taken you a long time to finish but that is just me, as long as you are having fun who cares right.......On another note, I am feeling the pressure to run the adventure paths pretty quickly as I am a subscriber and I can see all these adventures just building up that I will not have the time to run.....I was running two different adventure paths on alternate days but with work, school, and the kids I just found that to be a little too much.
Finished Runelords in 6 months. Once a week, 12 -14 hour sessions.
Same with Crimson Throne.
So 2 APs in 1 year. My group runs through 'em at the same pace Paizo makes 'em.
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My group goes through one installment of an AP every month. The Pathfinder/Gamemastery Modules it varies. We did Hollow's Last Hope in one session. We did Crown of the Kobold King in 3.5 sessions. The remaining .5 of the session was roleplaying. The Revenge of the Kobold King took one session. Hungry are the Dead ended in a TPK in the second session so I couldn't tell you :P
All of those are 6-7 hours sessions, with a 30min break for food.
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We tend to play 6-8 hour sessions, and we level up depending on whose GMing. Typically my games will take around four to eight sessions (it gets harder at higher levels to level up so quickly). We tend to finish a module (such as a RotRL adventure) in about three to five sessions. We play roughly three times a month.
Hmmm ... our group gets together once a month for a weekend of gaming. We do maybe seven to twelve hours on Saturday, and anywhere from four to eight on Sunday. It took us around four an a half sessions to finish Runelords 1, and about the same for Crimson Throne 1. We just started Second Darkness 1 last month, and our next play session is this weekend (GLEE!).
And as someone said, Toy, if you're having fun, speed isn't necessary :)
We play every other Sunday for 5 hours. (approx.) We usually get a level every 2 to 3 sessions depending on the encounters and party decisions. We generally play a 5-7 person party.
We are currently playing "Curse of the Crimson Throne" Mod #2(near the end) and we are using the FAST EXP chart in Pathfinder Beta. We are level 6.
As Gamer Girrl said, it's all about the fun!
Our group plays every sunday, for about 7 hours average. We finish a AP module roughly in 3 sessions, rarely 2, sometimes 4. Our group is a pretty good mixture of roleplay and tactical combat, so it all seems to work out nicely, at least to me it does.
Example: We recently began Crimson Throne. We've done 2 sessions so far, and have leveled at the end of each one.
Guess I'm mighty slow, but as Gamer Girrl pointed out my gangs are all having a blast (and so am I) so I'll say my pace is good. I tend to weave side adventures in along the PF paths and roleplay a good bit.
I'm running 2 groups that each started about a year ago. Each group meets 1/month.
One group is a kind of guys night out gang and we play 10-14 hours. They have 10 total class levels and are between Escape from Korvosa and A History of Ashes.(doing CotCT path, of course)
The other group is 3 couples in Rise of the RL and we play 8-10 hour sessions. They each have 7 total levels but should make 8th as we start this month. They are just at the end of The Skinshaw Murders - we left off in the middle of the Shadow District battle.
As an example of why my game stretches out so long is the additional story lines I weave into Pathfinder's great stories. Long? example:
Master Nivlandis is not high enough level to help you Legend Lore your book, but invites you back to his office when another travelling wizard stops by the school 2 weeks after your arrival. He is Human and offers to Lore your book: for a fee. The Lore takes a good deal of energy and he writes a small journal of the vision as best that he can recall it:
I saw 2 Human men in a throne room. The room was not opulent but subtly showed signs and symbols which reminds me of the Ancient Thassilonian structures which surround us today... The star of the schools was visible. The man I can only take for a King had a calm and pleasing face. He wore a robe embroidered with the Feather of the Peacock spirit, a God forgotten since earlier Thassilonian times. The King welcomed the man, calling him by the name Xaliasa and bid him enter and share his time. Xaliasa smiled and greeted him in return as "King Xin", but his face appeared to have something to hide as he spoke. I do not know all they said. Xaliasa presented the King with a gift of your book saying it was from his Lord Alaznist. The King commented about how powerful an empty book was as it portends of all the possible futures and thanked him and his Lord Alaznist....
As Xaliasa left the King mumbled to himself as if prophetically, and yet out of ear shot of Xaliasa as he left the Hall ... "how strange will be the path you lead and how ironic your gift young Xaliasa ... to live, to die, to live again unending for 10 and 1000 years - blank pages from and for the Scribbler of Time - Lost in Alaznist's Wrath, twisted by Karzoug's Greed, corrupted by a new mother of monstrous Gods ... Your secrets will lead to their future or their failure. Only time will tell. My Lords have corrupted their own virtues. My face will fade as will the Peacock Spirit with time, as all things should. My lords will try and deny this fate of time. It seems they already forget that magic is made of 8 parts, not seven." He smiled and looked at the book .. the scene faded and reappeared in a different hall as the King was enchanting the book - I understood the enchantment.
This is the power of your book: Any Divination Spell prepared from this book is cast at +2 levels. It also will let you enter spells devoted to the Oracle (or Divination) Domain and cast them as if they were Arcane spells. It will draw upon the Peacock Spirit and/or your own Deity to answer these Divinations. The spells are by level:
1 - Identify 2- Augury 3- Divination 4- Scrying 5- Commune 6- Legend Lore 7- Scrying, Greater 8- Discern Location 9- Foresight
That's all for now
-Rose
Pace tends to vary from session to session. For example we just started Runelords and have had only two sessions so far. First session we got through
The second session was last Wednesday. We played for 3 hours and all that was accomplished were two battles:
A more long term example is our recently completed Red Hand of Doom campaign. We player 16 (maybe 17) sessions over the course of approximately the same number of months. Most sessions were 3-3.5 hour weeknight sessions but we had a few 5 hour Sunday sessions sprinkled in. Campaign was divided into five parts, most of which took about 3 sessions to get through. Characters raise from 5th level to 11th or 12th over the course of the campaign.
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Our group meets once a week but it averages to 3 times per month for a 5-7 hour session. We began Second Darkness 1 in September. I would estimate that We've had around 18 sessions and logged just over 100 hours. My party of 6 cretins is level 7-8 now and we are a bit into Armageddon Echo. I'm using fast xp progression and have run all setpieces to date but I'm now reluctant to run Lament for Emerald Rains since 1 party member is already level 8 and things seem like they could be more challenging even with the extra class levels I've been giving to baddies and extra fodder too!
Using the PathFinder Beta game we used the fast progression chart a basically the players leveled up from 1st to 5th every 8 hour gaming session we've had. At 5th we switched to medium progression and it slowed to once every 3 sessions.
We play very slowly. Our CotCT campaign almost exactly lasts one year now and we are at the beginning of Seven Days to the Grave. A session takes about 4-6 hours. We come together very seldomly and had three side treks, yet. We are using the PRPG and its fast xp progression.