[GM] How many encounters per level?

[Count_Rugen]

I know I read this somewhere, but can't find it now. How many "average" encounters should occur for a typical 4-person-group before they level?

I want to say it's 16 encounters for normal XP awards?
Maybe 12 encounters for fast XP awards?

Thanks

[Lab_Rat]

Your range of encounters is about right. I like to have my group level about every 3-4 gaming sessions. That ends up being ~ 12-16 encounters (roughly 4 encounters per session). This seems to be a good range as Pathfinder society is ~ 12 encounters per level.

If you want to get away from the whole XP system in general Sean K Reynolds wrote up a great alternative. Sean K Reynolds Step System. This system has players leveling every 4 game sessions.

[Count_Rugen]

Lab_Rat wrote:

Your range of encounters is about right. I like to have my group level about every 3-4 gaming sessions. That ends up being ~ 12-16 encounters (roughly 4 encounters per session). This seems to be a good range as Pathfinder society is ~ 12 encounters per level.

If you want to get away from the whole XP system in general Sean K Reynolds wrote up a great alternative. Sean K Reynolds Step System. This system has players leveling every 4 game sessions.

I'll definitely check out the step system. I'm not a fan of the number crunching involved in traditional XP allocation.

What complicates my efforts is I have to design my games around a 3-hour timeframe (the length of our typical Wednesday night games). This means typically about 2 encounters per session (each typically lasting about 40-60 mins).

Any tips, tricks, comments, advice, etc, for that kind of situation is very welcome!

Thanks

[Major_Tom]

The old 3.5 rules were set up so that 14 encounters of your CR rating would level you. That's roughly equal to the fast system, AFAIK. (We still use the 3.5 system for XP, it is just too easy, plus I know the EP for almost every encounter without looking it up.)

If the rating is CR+2 for all or most of the encounters, 8 or 9 encounters should get you there.

[Dosgamer]

Using a 4-person party and fighting CR=APL encounters only, it takes about 20 encounters to level using the medium progression and about 13 to level using the fast progression.

Don't forget that things like traps can be considered "encounters" that provide experience, so not everything has to be a combat. Hope that helps. Good luck!