Double Figures

The PCs in my "Storm King's Thunder" campaign have recently hit 9th level. Given that we're nearing the end of the campaign, my expectation is that they'll probably reach 11th or 12th level by the time we're done (which is a little higher than the 10th level the book nominally expects, but given the 'cheat' in the final encounter and my preference to remove it, that's a good thing).

What that likely means is that this campaign will join the very short list of campaigns I have run where the PCs reached the double figures in terms of level:

• There was a pretty dire 2nd Edition Dragonlance/Spelljammer campaign that hit 15th level and then proceeded to have the PCs attain divine ascension. I'm not sure that really counts, as by the end of the campaign we were cheating the system pretty wantonly, basically to rack up those XP to 15th level as quickly as possible. But we did it, so I guess...
  
• The first full 3e campaign I ran got to around 12th level, I think. I don't seem to have the most recent character sheets any longer, even in scanned form, and don't really have the interest to go and search for a definitive answer. It was a reasonable campaign, although one beset with a number of problems - it was lucky it ended when it did.
  
• The highest level I've ever run to was the "Shackled City" adventure path, which I still number as one of my best-ever campaigns. In the last session the PCs were 18th level; they would have hit 19th if we'd bothered to run the numbers after the final victory. Also of note is that this campaign saw XP calculated meticulously - they most certainly did earn that level!
  
• Also in 3.5e, the "Eberron Code" campaign ended with the PCs at 15th level. Again, the XP were calculated and the levels 'earned'.
  
• As noted, if everything goes to plan, "Storm King's Thunder" is likely to hit the low double-digits. Here I'm using a slightly customised approach to XP, but the upshot of that is that the PCs are quite possibly getting less than they 'should'. In any event, I'm happy to claim that the levels have been 'earned', in a way that I wouldn't for that 2nd Ed campaign!

And that's it - in 30 years of play, only four (soon five) campaigns have hit double digits in terms of levels.

(Of course, it's worth noting that five of those years were spent running an epic Vampire game that ran right through that game's power range. Vampire doesn't have levels as such, but if it did then "Rivers of Time" would most certainly qualify!)