Hi, sorry if this is the wrong place for this question, but I am about to start running a campaign that I see having a lot of roleplay. This campaign is going to have less combat than average, and I don't want my PCs to be stuck on one level too long and get frustrated, so I don't want to use the standard method of distributing xp.
I was thinking I would just award them levels for "X" hours of gameplay. I'm not a very experienced DM, and am not sure how long they should be at each level though. What is a good rule of thumb for hours of gameplay per level? Looking for like a medium or slightly slower progression speed.
Since you stated that you want a medium/slower paced game don't take the specifics, but the group I play with throws all concepts of xp and standard leveling techniques out the window. We like fast games (and we don't have much time) so we level up at the end of every session. Yes, that's ridiculously fast. Having each level the same length (in your case, as mentioned, you can extend the time) may not be quite standard, nor is it how the game was intended to be played, but it allows players to feel like they're getting somewhere and eliminates a lot of pointless book work.
Awesome Guys. Thank you for your quick responses. This is good, and I'm glad I asked. I would have progressed them too quickly.
Oh thank you too diamondcat. That's actually what I was planning on doing. One level per good session. I'm in a similar situation where we don't have a ton of time, and don't know how long I will have before people get busy with other things. I don't want them to toil at early levels, and quit before they get to the good stuff, so I will probably do something in between what you and the previous two awesome comments suggested. Maybe 2 levels every three sessions in early levels, then 1 every 2 sessions later on. thanks again guys, this has given me some good perspective.
If you're planning on doing a level per session (or even a couple levels per session, I'm not sure), because the system wasn't really designed to be used like that there are a few things I'd like to warn you about.
Players don't spend as much on consumables (like health potions) and therefore have more total money. It doesn't seem like much, but at later levels they may have a lot more money left for armor and the like than they should. Just keep an eye on them, and if they seem to powerful adjust with the next level's earnings.
They will have difficulty buying and selling items (because they get lots of spending cash nearly every session) if you don't give them access to a market frequently. I always make sure to end every session in a city so they can buy and sell between sessions.
Lastly, there is less in-game time between level-ups. Things like item creation, and other abilities based on in-game time, may be slightly skewed. I haven't really seen a good fix for this yet other than giving lots of down-time in game between sessions, but you can figure something out.
Well, going by the progression tables on the PRD, the Fast track has you leveling every 13 encounters, the Medium track every 20 encounters, and the Slow track every 30 encounters.
Assuming an average of 4-5 encounters per session (in a 4-6 hour session) the PCs should be leveling up every 3-4 sessions for Fast, 4-5 sessions for Medium, and 6-7 sessions for Slow.
Do with that what you will. Personally, I find it takes at least 2-3 sessions for me to get used to my character's new abilities every level, especially if I have a lot of complex abilities (i.e. caster). Though, after about 5-6 sessions I get bored and am chomping at the bit for my next level. So, for me, a new level every 4 sessions or so is the sweet spot.