When to award XP?

End of every session. That way they can level their character up out of game then I can look it over before the next game, and we're good to go.

BiggusGeekus said:

When they beg for it. When they beg like the dogs they are!!!!

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BiggusGeekus, you make me laugh and I thank you.

Awarded at the end of every session -- actually emailed between sessions.

Level advancement occurs only when the PCs have had some sort of "down time", which could be a simple as a good night's sleep.

I chose "something else" because it varies, mostly among the first three options given.

After each encounter for combat XP, at the end of the session for story awards.

I also allow the PC's to level as soon as they earn the XP.

I've adopted a bit more of a "mission" style of play. The players get XP at the end of adventure or at the end of the session (whichever comes first). They each get a lump sum plus a bonus for certain successes (like talking their way out of combat, finding a different way to complete the adventure beyond charging in and killing everything that breathes, and so forth). I don't give XP for each individual monster that's killed. This way, I can more easily regulate advancement and still give them a good sense of accomplishment. Not to mention it's easier on me than tallying things up as we go along!

Kane

I chose end of the session. However, I sometimes give out XP in mid-session, if the group is at the end of an adventure, and party are close to levelling up.

Also, if the party is likely to level up, I try to end the session a little early to allow them to do so immediately. But then, I maintain the group's character sheets on Acrobat forms, and it's generally more pleasant to get the new levels added before leaving, so I can print new sheets for the next session, rather than have them done at the start of the next session.

Would have preferred a multiple choice poll myself - I usually award when at a minor or major safe place or at the end of a gaming session, but it does vary.

I had a homebrew game system once upon a time where character advancement was done on-the-spot; it was essentially a percentile system and every time they succeeded or failed a skill roll within a 10 point margin, they got an experience check. To do this, they rolled on the skill in question, and if that roll was a failure, they got +1% to their skill. They also got experience at the end of the session to apply to skills they specifically wanted to improve.

The players all liked this, because they got to watch the characters grow before their eyes, instead of just session-by-session, and because an experience check was like a chance at "free" experience points. It also really enhanced the "you improve at the skills you're actually USING" concept that I was trying to establish. The problem was that it had a tendency to bog down play (the Blade Combat skill got a lot of experience checks, in the middle of combat, for instance), and it also tended to make people mediocre in lots of different things rather than good at any one of them -- skills that had high rolls were statistically much harder to improve with an experience check.

I don't know of any good way to implement that in D&D other than awarding lots of story experience during the game session. "You solved the sphinx's riddle! 100 XP all around." But unless you're going to also let people level-up on the spot, you're just as well served to do it all at the end of each session. Less frequently than that, is not much fun from a player perspective IMO.

-The Gneech

Rel said:

BiggusGeekus, you make me laugh and I thank you.

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I don't think he was joking.....