Quote from: Orphan81;845274Has anyone here actually played, or ran a campaign that went from 1 to 20? If so, how long did it take in real life, and was it worth it?

I only know of one campaign like this, and I wasn't involved:). Reportedly, it took about 5 years, the edition being 3.5 from what people have told me.

Personally, I prefer a game to only have up to 15 levels, so I guess old school for me;).

Quote from: Orphan81;845274Has anyone here actually played, or ran a campaign that went from 1 to 20? If so, how long did it take in real life, and was it worth it?

I ran the Temple of Elemental evil, against the giants, Slavers, and the Demon web pits (the big campaign scenario where you go after Lolth on the 66th plane of the Abyss) with some mini adventures in between.
I ran it for usually 4-5 players and the same people for all of it.
We played that straight for about 3 years and most weekends from Friday to Sunday.
People used to come over on weekends and sleep over at my place.
It was a blast, but I wouldn't run anything like that again.
They didn't get to 20th level, but got to about 17th level I think and they got there legitimately.

I've been running the original Temple of elemental evil campaign module again lately, but it's just boring running one long dungeon adventure once you get in the Temple itself, so I'll be abandoning it and running a more modern adventure.
The players will still keep the characters, but something dramatic will happen to pull them out of it to do something else...
Everything up until going in the Temple itself was fun though.
Hommlet, wilderness, The Moathouse, Nulb Etc.
Both I and the players just want more variety like that..

well i do know that the longest champagne are group ran some of the group hit level 9 on the last boss fight and are game of 3.5 held up even with a few legacy characters that where lvl 14 and 13 respectively and the game dident break witch makes me wish i remembered more on how we played that we kept the game balanced
its also worth noting that none of those characters where ready for retirement
and we expected to use them again in the future

I prefer unlimited levels myself.

I prefer less levels that are more meaningful. 1-10 sounds about right but hell I'd be fine with 1-5.

I'm running my 4e campaign the full 30 levels, it's at 24th right now. I like the idea of Epic Destinies but the fights are very slow and I doubt I'll run 4e beyond low-paragon in future, but it pretty much works.

Pre-3e D&D works fine at any level IME, the game changes naturally as you level. BECM is particularly well designed for 1-36 play.

3e & PF have a very clear sweet spot around 5-8, my PF game is at 12th now and I definitely am reminded why I hadn't run 3e over 8th level since 2003. I think 3e/PF is best with a notional 10-level spread and PCs kept to 8th or lower, maybe retiring/endgame at 9-10.

Quote from: Snowman0147;846375I prefer unlimited levels myself.

i do to actuly so long as the game dosnt absolutely shatter at some point

I like the 12th level  cap in Original castles and Crusades myself though I'm fine up to 20th in 5th edition and I don't really play with caps in AD&D 2e

1e:  Maybe 5th or 6th level is the highest.  I've sadly never played a long campaign.

2e:  Two separate campaigns made it to about 12th.  Both were roughly a year of nearly weekly play.  Lots of time to play as a student.

3.x:  The highest level was a campaign that reached 18th after maybe a year and a half of play.  A few other campaigns reached the teen levels.

4e:  The main campaign hit about 15th level after 3-4 years of sporadic play.  The paladin player bugs me to keep running it from time to time.

5e:  The current game just hit 12th level after a year of playing Phandalin and the Hoard/Tyranny of Dragons.  Highly doubt it will go beyond the module's finale.

Never had a campaign make it to 20th yet, perhaps some day.

I like anywhere from levels 1-10 pretty much the same.  They do a very good job of reflecting a character's rise from mediocrity to hero.  

The teenage levels add little value to the gameplay in any edition of the game, and actively cause the campaign to come crashing apart in many cases.  DMing for a party of 18th level PCs is not easy.

Were I to make a game, it would cap at 10th level.

Quote from: Orphan81;845274Has anyone here actually played, or ran a campaign that went from 1 to 20? If so, how long did it take in real life, and was it worth it?

For the record, I ran a Rules Cyclopedia campaign that went from level 1 to 36.  It took about 6 years.  It was totally worth it.

A big part of the appeal of D&D for me is the "zero to hero" track-- questing for immortality/godhood as the endgame. I'm not a big fan of the lower levels, but the game does seem to break at the levels I prefer.