Hurry up and wait!

Ah, the pine fresh scent of impatience at not gaining levels as fast as they want.  That is what my players are beginning to experience.

It's not that they aren't having fun with the adventures they are having now, they are having a blast.  It's just that they can see the potential of really amping things up with higher level characters and being able to tackle higher level threats.

I don't think I give out too few XP, but because I want them to really gain experience and insight, as they grow as Players, I often think I give too much XP (though in the end I realize I did not give too much, I just am really conservative about giving XP out relative to what they have to do during the adventures.

So, how do we resolve this dilemma of gaining levels faster?  Simplicity itself.  I told them to play more often.   I can always throw in a quick and dirty dungeon crawl in between my home-rolled adventures, both giving me more time to get what I want out of the home-roll and giving them something to do in the meantime.

This is really where Wizardawn saves my bacon in the quick and dirty dungeon generation area.  How you don't love Wizardawn, I just cannot fathom.

What sometimes even happens is that they might even have enough XP to gain a level, but they do not have enough money to be able to afford to train up to the next level. 

Oh yes,  I use training to level up.  This is actually part of the character development procedure for the Players and I.  We get a lot of things done for each individual during level training.  If they cannot afford to do the training, they cannot gain the next level, regardless of how many XP they have.

I use level training to have them go on quests and perform tasks for their Masters or trainers or to gain the necessary material components of new spells they intend or hope to acquire during training.  Stuff like that.

Oh yes, as my Players gain their own experience in role playing in AD&D, I  take the opportunity to add more depth to the games and make the challenge s relative to their ability of play.  They have already improved so much in understanding how to play the game since they started over a year ago.