So, for people who play classic D&D and it's simulacra, what's the farthest you've advanced a character from level 1 - but specifically, in the last 5-6 years, rather than in the good old days.  I think old school advancement schemes are admirable, but I've not run a game since I 'got back into' RPGs where people have managed to get higher than level 3.

Mandy has lost a lot of characters since our current campaign started in 2008 or whatever, but her main one is 17th level at this point--she gets in alotta play time since she plays in every home game I run. I think Connie has lost fewer characters but is next at 14 or 15.

Since people started running old school games on Google + in summer 2012, it's been pretty easy to track who has high level characters in the shared "FLAILSNAILS" games.

Joe The Lawyer has some kind of multiclassed half-orc that has reached max level (for AD&D anyway) for that kind of character by being reincarnated as different classes and races. He's some shit like a thief/cleric/wizard with levels at like 4/5/11 or something because of the way the class and race restrictions worked out

My oldest FLAILSNAILS PC--who has been going since 2012--is 9th level now (thief). I lost about 5 along on the way and he's been resurrected a couple times.

I haven't played a D&D game starting at level 1 in the last ten years. Closest we've come to that is 13th Age, but that's almost as far from "classic" as you can get.

My ACKS game (which is based on B/X) started the PCs at level 5. Though if I were to do it again, I'd start them at level 3.

10 or 11, albeit in a game with Bledsawian level distribution where PCs started at 3rd level. A human fighter, which is the character class for REAL MEN. Also, as of the campaign's final session, he was the second longest surviving character, only beaten by the wizard who has survived from the very first session to the very last.

characters in my dcc campaign are now 5th lvl. before that we played wfrp (fourth and fifth career) and before that ad&d 2nd edition planescape (7th to 9th lvl).

I'm playing in a Labyrinth Lord, Westmarches-style Barrowmaze dungeon crawl game offline.  After two years of real time, my Dwarf is 4th level, starting to eye 5th.  He is the old man of the party.

Level 8 LG Monk named Lóng 龙 ("Dragon") in a hybrid 1E/2E campaign. The name was cheesy and generic, but turned out in the end to be prophetic.

He died trying to save the party in a confrontation with an evil cleric riding a dragon.

Fist fighting a dragon with your bare hands goes about as well as one would expect.

Most of the party survived the encounter though.

We're running a Pathfinder game and we have a couple of level 19 characters. We plan to have the big bad guy/thingie when my character (which is the "main" one) hits 20th, but for now we're using the level to do some delving into the background of another of the characters.

He does a chaotic-good character very well, and properly CHAOTIC!

In the past 5 years, my only OSR long term campaign has been my humanocentric OD&D almost-always at FLGS game days event and if we were tracking XP and doing normal leveling, the highest PC would probably be 7th after I'd estimate 20 sessions. But that's troupe play where players often choose different pregens.

In the meantime, I played in friend's painful PF campaign from 1st to 8th and my three RPGA characters in 4e went from 1st to 7th max. I arbitrarily leveled one to 11 just play some paragon tier adventures.

Recently?

AD&D/OA/Spelljammer campaign I DMed. PCs went from level 1 to level 20, eight players initially, five made it to level 6 before having to drop out due to logistics and the transports failing health. One dropped out around level 10 due to being shipped overseas military. Campaign wrapped up when the remaining PCs hit 20.

Ongoing BX campaign I play in very sporatically. Currently level 10 magic user.

Long long long long Spelljammer-esque AD&D campaign I play in with alternating characters, one level 12 Thief and one level 20 Magic user. Advancement has been slooooooooow due to quite a few deaths and raises.

One very sporatic BECMI campaign with a humorous twist. One of my few ever cleric characters made it to Immortal and is working up the ranks. Its been pretty goofball romp as the DM really just wants to watch me concoct some new scheme to advancement at the expense of his pet pantheon. Probably the most meteoric rise of a level 1 character I've ever had.

Hmmm, in the game I run they just hit 7th level after 14 sessions.

XP has been earned by a fairly even split: 40% loot, 30% magic items, 30% monsters. I don't give out story awards.

Quote from: Omega;810248Recently?

AD&D/OA/Spelljammer campaign I DMed. PCs went from level 1 to level 20, eight players initially, five made it to level 6 before having to drop out due to logistics and the transports failing health. One dropped out around level 10 due to being shipped overseas military. Campaign wrapped up when the remaining PCs hit 20.

Man alive, how long did this take??  Were you using btb experience rules?

I have a 13th level thief I last ran 5 years ago and I first ran in 1984.

Been DMing since then except for Cons.

Quote from: AndrewSFTSN;810395Man alive, how long did this take??  Were you using btb experience rules?

About a year. A session every week at first then slowing at midpoint to every other week. Marathon sessions each time lasting 6-8 hours. Though at least two went twelve hours. By the book AD&D EXP.

Ran a cleric for about 20 sessions in a 2nd ed AD&D game. He started at 3rd level and made it to 5th before I dropped after a year. 5 hr + sessions

In the BFRPG game I've been running for 3 years or so, there's a fighter who has reached 6th level. He was started at "almost" 2nd and has figured in 50+ sessions. 4-5 hour sessions.

My new current Rolemaster fighter has played in just one session. And he killed a Gark!