Skilled Characters

[grachinski]

I do feel you guys are giving advancement points to quickly. Remember there is a limit of three advancement points per skill group per adventure phase. That means that in a single adventure phase, a player can get, at max, 18 advancement points.

Also, each advancement point gained in a skill group should make the next harder to get.

The way I see it, players should have like around three adventure phases in a year of gaming. This way you would have only 108 advancement points in two years at max.

And it must be said that a group of characters that had 6 big adventures around middle earth is ready to retire.

[LukeZ]

An adventure phase has nothing to do with an adventure sessions.
We played 6 years of "game time" in 2 years of "real time", thus gaining around 50 AP per year (of game time).
Is this too much?

[Rich H]

Adventures are of varying length so you can fit more than one into a year so that's perfectly okay.

Let's see... on average the PCs accrue between 5 and 10 APs per adventure in my game (and I've house-ruled awarding APs so they're easier to get in my game than the RAW). I usually run about 2 adventures per year so that's between 10 and 20 APs per game year, whereas LukeZ is using the rules as written (assumption) and is awarding more than twice that. So, yeah, at a high-level and as a very quick review I'd say you are awarding them too quickly.

[Rich H]

An adventure phase has nothing to do with an adventure sessions.
We played 6 years of "game time" in 2 years of "real time", thus gaining around 50 AP per year (of game time).
Is this too much?

Rather than talking in game time or real time give us information on the number of adventures you've run. Do two years of real time mean about a dozen adventures? Game time and real time are meaningless to this discussion - its what the PCs have done and been exposed to that matters - ie, adventures and their content.

Your accrual of APs does look very high though.

[Aiwendil]

Based on my current PbM campaign, it looks like the average is closer to two APs per game session.

Although, to be fair, I ask the players to call for or lobby for APs. I do not award them automatically. My rationale is that, with this method, it forces each player to 'know' his/her character (which trait to call on when succeeding at a roll), as well as know and understand the rules (auto gain of 1 AP for higher TNs for example). A slightly more 'hands-off' approach, I'll grant you, but one which I believe ensures greater involvement from the players.

I am also of the mind that 4 APs /session sounds a bit high, but I've only recently started running a TOR game so only time will tell...

[Rich H]

Based on my current PbM campaign, it looks like the average is closer to two APs per game session.

... But how long are your game sessions? Remember, not everyone's are the same so mine could be twice as long and therefore if were discussing AP accrual the comparison with each other would be meaningless without knowing if we're discussing things of the same length.

[Yusei]

Let's see... on average the PCs accrue between 5 and 10 APs per adventure in my game (and I've house-ruled awarding APs so they're easier to get in my game than the RAW).

My PCs gain about 6 or 7 APs per 4 hour session. They used to gain less, but the number of great successes improves as their skills do. Maybe I should adjust and give them APs only for very important rules, but I think the increasing costs should handle that, not the LM.

On the other hand, my biggest problem is not with the common skills but with the weapons/wisdom skills. I've probably been giving too much XP, too quickly.

[Rich H]

My PCs gain about 6 or 7 APs per 4 hour session. They used to gain less, but the number of great successes improves as their skills do. Maybe I should adjust and give them APs only for very important rules, but I think the increasing costs should handle that, not the LM.

My sessions last about 3 hours. I'd say the PCs get around 3 per session, may even be less. That's using my house-rules as well, which like I said earlier do make them easier to get than the RAW in my opinion.

Really surprised at some of the AP progression rates being posted in this thread. They really appear to be quite high although we aren't discussing in a lot of detail, granted.

On the other hand, my biggest problem is not with the common skills but with the weapons/wisdom skills. I've probably been giving too much XP, too quickly.

Although adventures do vary in length I award between 8 and 12 XPs per adventure, which is around 4 to 6 game sessions for my group (ie, 3 hours each).

[Yusei]

Although adventures do vary in length I award between 8 and 12 XPs per adventure, which is around 4 to 6 game sessions for my group (ie, 3 hours each).

I award 2 or 3 XP per session, but our adventures last 2 or 3 sessions. So, in the end, maybe we award the same amount of APs per adventure, but my group may have a tendancy to rush things a little. We had an adventure that involved more roleplaying than usual, and some of them felt they were "doing nothing" (but they were having fun anyway, I hope).

[LukeZ]

Details:
27 seasons of game time (almost 7 years) played in 2 years of real time (at an average of one adventure per season but winter, so 3 adventures per year).
22 adventures played in 84 sessions (3 hours and half per session) for a total of 316 AP (so something like 14 AP per adventure, 1 adventure every 4 sessions) and a total of 99 XP.

Playing 2 adventures per year instead of 3 per year wouldn't change anything, simply the characters would be slightly older.

This seems too off?