The 5e Skinner Box

I've been experimenting with running AD&D adventures using the 5e rule set, but with the older XP tables. Just having a slower leveling pace so changes the nature of the game that it's kind of shocking to go back to the old, I mean new, way.

5e is something of a Skinner box. It's not as aggressive as a video game, but if you're playing by the book, players expect to level up every 2 to 3 sessions. As a result, they're always thinking about the next feat they're going to grab or spell they're going to learn. Many players, when they draw up a level 1 character, are already thinking about what they're going to have at level 10 or even level 20!

This is fine enough for the "storybook campaigns" WotC is selling now, where a year of gaming is supposed to take you from level 1 to 15 or so, but it has a number of unfortunate consequences.

A direct effect of this is that the low-level game just doesn't last long. Goblins and orcs aren't problems the PCs ever have to think about for too long, because after they've cleared a single tower of goblins and cleared one abandoned mine of orcs, they've leveled up so far that they're barely even interesting threats anymore. Consequently, you really can't do too much with the classic "horde" monsters before it's time to move on and start fighting giants.

A second effect is that you often don't spend enough time at lower levels to really do much with your spells and abilities. I played a Bard in a campaign once, and despite having a fairly small spell list, there were a few spells I never used, and quite a few more that only got used once or twice. This wasn't because they were bad spells so much as spells like Animate Objects and Leomund's Tiny Hut get used almost every session, while a good use for Suggestion may come up once or twice before getting much more interesting spells.

Anyway, I've found that spending more time at lower levels results in the base of the character sheet getting a lot of exercises, and enough time getting spent with orcs, hobgoblins, and bugbears for the players to really get to know them. We may never see level 15, but the old way has its merits.