I've been running a Council of Theves game and it seems to be going exceptionally quickly. My group doesn't use XP, so I have them level up when the Ap says to, and they have leveled after almost every session:
Book 1: took all of 2 sessions (2 level ups)
Book 2: took 3 sessions (1 level up, this seems pretty decent rate)
Book 3: took 3 sessions (2 level ups)
So we have been playing for 2 months and are already almost done, these are 3.5 hour-long sessions.
Did other people have this issue? It isn't exactly a problem (we have a long list of APs that we still haven't played), but I was wondering if other people had enc0ountered the same thing, and wondered if it continued this way throughouut the AP or if it slowed down.
I haven't played or run CoT, but one of the other groups at my club has and it took them 8 weeks to get through the first module (around 3.5 hours per session).
As long as you and your players are happy with the pace, I shouldn't worry. A lot of AP's tend to get bogged down and drag on and on and on and on. :(
Seems very quick but then if that's the way you enjoy playing that's fine.
I think looking on post posts the average is somewhere around 8-12 sessions of 3hours per book. My skull and Shackles game, book 1 was around 14 weeks and part 2 they are 3/4 of the way through and have been playing for 20 weeks so far. But some people do finish them quicker.
If you are following the normal average of 8 sessions it should be taking you around 24 sessions, you seem to have taken 8 sessions, again if that's the way you like to play that's fine but I think you must be miising huge swathes of parts out, combat must be over very quickly.
Another thing, you say you are using the book to level up. I see you have finished book 3 and it looks like you are level 5, I think you're level count is way out.You need to check the levels in the book, if you have finsihed book 3 everyone should be level 7 not level 5, if you dont level them up they may have problems later as they won't be powerful enough to face the encounters as written.
The books level as follows:
BOOK 1 1st to 3rd Level , ( 2 level ups they should have been level 3 not 2 by the end).
Boook 2: 3rd to 5th level (1 level up they finshed at 3rd and should have been 5th)
Book 3: 5th to 7th level (2 level ups they finished at 5th and should be 7th).
All the points where you level up are at the start of the book, you need to read these.
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I just finished up Bastards of Erebus and it took 5 sessions;
Session 1: Intro (Vizio's Tavern and Sewers (4 Hour Session)
[Level Up]
Session 2: (Children of Westcrown Intros (NPC's) and Arael Rescue (2 1/2 Hour Session)
Session 3: Side Quests Bandits (I used a strange religious cult instead)+ Shadowbeats (4 Hour Session)
Session 4: Side Quests (Whitechin) + Getting Inside Rego Cader (Dead Sector) and finding the lair. (3 1/2 Hour Session)
[Level Up]
Session 5: Bastards Lair (5 1/2 Hours)
So, Book 1 in 18 1/2 hours total.
I did flesh out the side quests though, besides that not much was added.
I don't hand out xp either, we just level at the end of certain sessions (according to the AP). (marked above)
So either I'm going to slow or you are going to fast. (hehe)
Seems very quick but then if that's the way you enjoy playing that's fine.
I think looking on post posts the average is somewhere around 8-12 sessions of 3hours per book. My skull and Shackles game, book 1 was around 14 weeks and part 2 they are 3/4 of the way through and have been playing for 20 weeks so far. But some people do finish them quicker.
If you are following the normal average of 8 sessions it should be taking you around 24 sessions, you seem to have taken 8 sessions, again if that's the way you like to play that's fine but I think you must be miising huge swathes of parts out, combat must be over very quickly.
Another thing, you say you are using the book to level up. I see you have finished book 3 and it looks like you are level 5, I think you're level count is way out.You need to check the levels in the book, if you have finsihed book 3 everyone should be level 7 not level 5, if you dont level them up they may have problems later as they won't be powerful enough to face the encounters as written.
The books level as follows:
BOOK 1 1st to 3rd Level , ( 2 level ups they should have been level 3 not 2 by the end).Boook 2: 3rd to 5th level (1 level up they finshed at 3rd and should have been 5th)
Book 3: 5th to 7th level (2 level ups they finished at 5th and should be 7th).
All the points where you level up are at the start of the book, you need to read these.
You are correct, I was typing the previous post in a hurry and forgot one of the level ups, the PCs are in fact 7th level at the start of book 4.
The party is extremely well built and usually uses great tactics, none of the battles have made it into the 4th round (except Sain's ambush). In the first book the sorcerer spammed sleep and got pretty lucky with saves, with a Barbarian finishing up what she didn't get. I will admit to not doing too much in the way of side quests not written up in the book, the reason I'm using the AP is so that I don't have to write my own material.