An example of the cause of my consternation: Bob is playing a 1st level fighter. One year later in real time, and two years in game time, the fighter is 15th level and has crisscrossed the Flaness 33 times. This has always bothered me.
First, distance has always been distorted in D&D. A Hex is 30 miles across on the Darlene Map. This is an enormous amount of land, at just under 450 square miles. Until the advent of trains and then cars, many people never went 30 miles from where they were born. At the beginning of the WWI, there was not a single paved road that went from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
So, for a low level character, travelling from Keoland to the Great Kingdom is unlikely, and very unsafe. If it is accomplished, it is a once in a lifetime trip. Like leaving Europe for American, and then travelling to Oregon on the Oregon Trail.
Aging is a second thing that has bothered me. A human must gain levels faster than most elves and dwarves, or all the demi-human races would generally be higher level than all the humans. This really distorts time/aging.
So this has become my in game solution: I started my most recent campaign 18 months ago, and we meet weekly. It was set in 569. At first level, the characters know so little about the world, the year doesnt really matter.
The characters are now 3rd-4th level and the calendar is in 572. Character leveling is painfully slow, and we also have significant downtime activities.
As they characters progress in level they become more aware of the world, one hex ring per level. At first level, they were generally only aware of the political world in the hex they were in. At second level it is the hex they are in, and the hexes surrounding it. At third, its a ring of three hexes.
My plan is that world events will go on as per Canon (576-598). As they get higher in level they can begin to influence world events, but they will be unlikely to be 20th level by 598 CY. So in each game session I can tell the players a few tidbits of what is happening in the wider world, and it helps create an atmosphere of a living breathing world.
Ironically, this has made the world richer because the party and I are creating much more detail in a very small area. They know about the environs of their home village. They know where the "big city," (Hochoch) is. They eventually travelled to Orlane as a caravan guard, but quickly returned to their village.
As they reached 3rd level they decided that they wanted to go to the City of Greyhawk, and get away from all their old haunts. They made it as far a Shiboleth before getting ensared in politics.
Has anyone else had these issues and how have you handled it? I kind of think I should have started in 500 CY, as all of my characters are demi-human.
I think this is a very important insight for anyone wanting more reality in their campaign. I admit that my own campaigns have tended to allow the PCs to travel across the Flanaess and back once they've finished the initial adventure. That is mostly because I give the party options for what adventures they want to pursue and allow them to choose. Thus, they may go from the City of Greyhawk to Ratik to the Sea of Dust to the Yatil Mountains, for example. Not all that believable, but allows for a more free-style type of adventuring fun.
I think your plan is a good one and very workable, if you are willing to adapt adventures to areas near (within) the world known to your PCs. There is no reason that White Plume Mountain can't be located in Geoff, for example.
Regarding your 'humans must level more quickly than demi-humans' issue: In my campaign, one of the major advantages that humanity has over its demi-human cousins is adaptability. This is simply a design issue that the human creator deities imbued their creations with while the demi-human pantheons chose other advantages to gift to their own creations. Humans can live in almost any climate and can learn new things very quickly. As a result, humans advance in level (skill) more quickly than demi-humans can.
This really only applies to NPCs because no campaign that lasts long enough for the humans to die off will begin again with all the players of deceased human characters beginning new 1st level PCs while the players of still-living demi-human characters continue to play their high-level PCs. If you need an in-game explanation as to why the demi-human members of an adventuring party can match the leveling speed of the human members, just say it is the influence of the humans in the party that keeps the demi-human focus on the singular task of advancing their profession (class) for the purpose of whatever campaign goal(s) exist. Once the adventuring is done, they all retire. The humans will die off first, while the demi-humans turn their attention to other pursuits (not including further adventuring).
I definitely have your concern about how fast player characters advance in level. One day they are 1st level orc fodder. Less than 2 in-game years latter, they are among the most powerful entities in world. In the real world there are examples where young adults reach the pinnacle of their fields - sports being the most obvious. But the game is built around awarding experience for obstacles that are overcome. True, the PCs start with above average - perhaps "elite" - ability scores, but not such that would represent a true and unique prodigy.
My attempts to draw out campaign time has involved the various downtime activities, making them necessary for achieving the PC's goals. It helps if the player's want their characters to set up a holding, their own temple to preach from, etc.
Research is a downtime activity that has worked well for me. When the party just has a name - they have to find out about it. I have a house rule on researching "Mundane Collections of Information." But even if you adjudicate it freehanded, research draws out the timeline - and lets you reveal more of the setting in precise amounts. Even the use of divinations by the party still takes up some time and resources, and will always depend on how cryptic you want to be with the answers.
Mundane, long distance travel done "off camera" can help stretch the time line. DM: "After six relatively uneventful months of travel you arrive at your destination. Please deduct the appropriate amount of gold for your lodging and food for this period." Of course, depending on your rule set, you may have to impose some house ruled limitations on travel magic.
One method I am currently pursuing is that my main questline would be easier if a second mini questline was completed. As an example, the big bad at the end of the main questline would be easier to take down if the party assembled the Rod of Seven Parts - the first part of which just happened to end up in their possession during the main questline. The party doesn't have to pursue the second questline - it is optional - and can be pursed whenever they want. But for most of this ancillary quest line, the obstacles are not as challenging. The party will not receive much experience - or just enough to make for any shortfalls in the main questline. But will end up with some useful things, whether parts of the Rod - or the whole thing. Coupled with travel and downtime, this is extending the timeline. I threw this in once they were getting to higher levels to slow things down a little. Admittedly this would not work with a railroad - ish main questline.
Why PCs of long lived races continuously adventure is a bit more difficult. They could easily take off a decade or century before going back to adventuring. Their connection to a particular party of shorter lived members is really in the hands of the players, along with what they view as their character's goals. I have been lucky in that my players are good at creating some "party goals" to achieve. Currently they are all from the Pale and big into spreading the One True Path to all they meet, regardless of the adventure or questline.
With respect to the setting, I don't have a problem with a greater number of high level NPCs among the longer lived races - I view it as the offset for there being so few such creatures to begin with.
With respect to the events in the setting, I have them play out. It's just that they may have little effect or a lot. The magic blackout that occurs during the events of "Vecna Lives" in 581 - occurred even though the party was not involved in that adventure - it was just background. But it occurred while the party was doing research during downtime - and they suddenly didn't have their divinations. So it added flavor and drew things out some more. Undoubtedly, the Greyhawk Wars will affect mundane travel as well.
I like how this thread touches on everything from play preferences, to level limits, to our own real life mortality.
XP rates
IME, XP advancement can't be too slow. Players get bored and/or the whole spectrum of D&D is never experienced. Recently, my players went from 1st to 9th level after playing for five years with a couple hiatuses, equivalent to three years of weekly play.
This 3 levels/year of real time feels like a good pace. We lost a couple players to careers, families, and health, but this allows groups to have a couple long, epic campaigns every decade and get characters to 10th level and build strongholds once in a great while.
Demihumans
The early edition level limits from the 1e PHB are really a great solve for this. Fey, frolicking folk of the forest who get +1 with bows and gravitate to chaotic-good alignment are simply never going to have the drive to lock themselves in libraries and become idiot-savant, 20th level archmages no matter how long they live. Neither are anti-magic dwarves who get +3 on all of their magic saves going to master Flame Strike or Raise Dead spells. And small, slight races who can't use two-hand weapons and suffer overbearing penalties aren't going to become high-level fighters.
In short, I prefer parties more like Appendix N and the Gygax pregens in WG5 than LotR munchkins. We still have powerful demihuman PC's, but the level limits keep it to one or two in the group, staying in their wheelhouse, rather than entire parties based on metagaming bonuses.
Distance
This is definitely tricky. My campaigns tend to stay in political regions and have never even managed to span a map quadrant. I make up for this with occasional one-shots, giving players a taste of other areas and letting them affect outcomes of far-flung events.
Over 13 years, my group has done the following:
*576-580 Tenh campaign homebrew, levels 1-8, 3yrs real time weekly
*582-584 WGS-plus barbarian campaign, levels 8-12, 3yrs real time weekly
*579-582 ToEE/Veluna campaign, levels 1-10, 5yrs irregular
*One shots in: Castle Greyhawk, Ghost Tower of Inverness, Tomb of Horrors, and Allen Hammack's Knight of the Black Swords in the Great Kingdom/Hell.
I rolled the timeline back a few years (10 +/-). I would love get suggestions on how far you can roll it back. 50 years? 100 years?
With all the published lore, I can look at the Greyhawk timeline, give history and make the world real without having to rewrite the fixed points in GH canon.
As my campaign's home is just west of Hochoch, in Geoff, I am going to use Liberation of Geoff, but by that time the players may be of sufficient level to actually alter the events as they unfold.
... In the real world there are examples where young adults reach the pinnacle of their fields - sports being the most obvious. But the game is built around awarding experience for obstacles that are overcome. True, the PCs start with above average - perhaps "elite" - ability scores, but not such that would represent a true and unique prodigy...
-The PCs have an edge over most NPCs due to training (PC classes vs. NPC classes/0 level) and stat's, but their biggest attitude is in determination and courage. PCs often win because the enemy retreats or surrenders in circumstances where PC keeps fighting.
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