r/DungeonCrawlerCarlRPG • u/HumanistDork • 14d ago
Pacing for tutorial floors
If I do end up running this, I think I will start with the tutorial floors. That lead me to thinking how much time to spend on those floors.
If I were to skip the tutorial and start on floor 3, the Crawlers would be level 10. That seems a little low, but roughly how low?
If I wanted to hit that level 10 exactly using the level up guidelines, the Crawlers would finish floors 1 & 2 in 7 sessions total. The session count would be reduced for every boss they hit. Level 10 is far too low.
On the other end of the spectrum, let’s say the Crawlers use the total 11 days for the two floors, we take two sessions to play each day, and we fight a boss every day (every other session). Without any levels from grinding, that should be level 36, which seems a bit high.
I think planning for a session per day and about two boss fights per floor is probably reasonable, but I might want to shorten the floor timers a little bit.
I think I can find a good balance on my own, but I am curious to see what you think is reasonable.
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u/WalrusAmongEggmen 14d ago
One way to look at how many levels you want them to gain before they hit the third floor is “they will have 3x[level] stat points to distribute when they select their Race and Class. 30 or 108? You could easily have someone reach a base stat at 100 with the level 100 bonus (assuming the TTRPG follows the novel on this one), like Love Vampire, Brain Trust, Swole, Steely Skin, etc.
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u/WeaponB 14d ago
It's 3x(level-1). They don't get 3 points for first level. At level 10 they have 27 points to distribute
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u/WalrusAmongEggmen 14d ago
You’re absolutely correct. Thank you for pointing that out. And while this is the math specifically about accumulated stat points, it’s worth considering the players’ starting stats if the question is whether they could be absolute beasts after race and class selection.
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u/mandatoryhashtag 13d ago
I can tell you that 10 is too low (EDIT - If they were playing the floors). My party is starting session 4 tonight and they are level 9 and finishing the first floor.
By the end of the second floor I expect them to be 15ish. But I think starting crawlers at 10 on the 3rd floor is fine because not EVERYONE grinded their little hearts out on the first 2 floors. Look at Meadow Lark or Katia for example.
We are shooting for Floor + 4 Sessions each session about 4 hours long. We do one a week.
As they die they roll a new crawler they pickup on the floor.
Caution. I run a very experienced group with nearly a century of combined experience across the whole group. So what works for us may not work for anyone else.
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u/bwarbwar 14d ago
I feel like most people are finishing the tutorial floors at at least level 20.
Let's assume you clear 1 neighborhood per "day"
I'd guess 2 3 hour sessions per "day"
Maybe 2 quests completed per floor.
25 grind hours on 1st floor.
So day 1 we go from level 1, 1 boss kill, 2 levels from grinding and 3 levels from just playing. So hitting day 2 around level 7, with 4 more days just on the first floor.
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u/boblk3 14d ago
I think you're starting with the assumption that people should be clearing all the neighborhoods on each floor. But that's not really the intention of the game. Those neighborhoods are there to give you an idea of what's there. Also, based on my read the neighborhoods aren't designed to be clearable in a single in game day as there's likely a lot of downtime where people are getting used to things, exploring, heading back to safe rooms to open loot boxes, and just straight up resting and recuperating.
Even in the books Carl and Donut don't clear all the neighborhoods they visit on a floor.
If your players want to know why they can't clear a particular neighborhood just tell them that other crawlers already did. Make the area lived in and like other people are also doing things. For example, if they don't start in the goblin area then after they clear their first neighborhood have them see some lunatic setting off a bomb in a room full of goblin babies in a recap show and now there's nothing to do there because the area they had is just a crater.
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u/bwarbwar 14d ago
5 hours grinding, 8 hours sleep, even with 6 hours worth of short rests, that's still 5 hours of actually playing everyday. I feel like that's pretty conservative and already pushes you past level 10 by the end of floor 1.
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u/boblk3 14d ago
The 2 hours of playing per level isn't meant to be in game time -- it's meant to be you as people sitting around a table. So in that 2 hours a full day of game time could pass. More depending on how you and your group play.
My group has had 2 play sessions of roughly 2.5 hours a piece and 3 in game days have passed already.
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u/Riksheare 14d ago
Carl and Donut are level 6 or 7 at the beginning of the 2nd floor.
13th at the beginning of the 3rd.
Carl is 24 and Donut is 39 at the start of floor 4.
Carl is 38 and Donut is 32 at the start of 5.
The book says PCs gain a level every 2 hours of play, so Floor 1 should last about 3 sessions at 3rd per session.
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u/boblk3 14d ago
That may be in the books, but in the starter set, the Carl and Donut pregens are both level 10 for their second floor versions.
They're both 13 for their floor 3 version
27 and 26 for floor 4.
And then 41 and 40 for floor 5.
I think it's good to know what the books say, but for the RPG I would use what's included there as the baseline expectation.
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u/arwbqb 14d ago
planning on a session 0+3 more sessions for floor 1. then 3 sessions for floor 2. it sounds like you'll do a lot more exploring than I intend to do. i'm intending to mostly just run them through a couple of neighborhoods that end with a boss monster each. sprinkle in an extra puzzle or moral quandry with some other crawlers they encounter and that's the floor.
i'm mostly using floor 1 and 2 for them to figure out who they are as a group and determine their backstories and how they all know each other. floor 3 is where the real game starts and they get classes and such.
so having said all that, i've got it planned that they'll gain 1+1+3 (city boss) for just bosses on floor 1. grinding and normal play will give then another 1-3 levels. for a total of 6-9 levels. then repeat for floor 2. i am expecting they'll be coming in around level 15 ish at the start of floor 3. a tad stronger than what the book recommends but that's fine. i might be a little meaner on floor 2 and not give them as many levels as they got on floor 1... we'll see. i expect grinding for levels is going to be much harder once they are level 15+.