Any interesting XP variants out there?

[Lost-Johnny]

I was thinking about trying to do something that boosts the role-playing over the munchkinesque killing-- maybe related to accomplishing goals related to a character concept (like WW)- perhaps incorporating something like "Enech" from the old 2e Celts sourcebook. What has worked or not worked out there?

 

[Lost-Johnny]

Why no, silly. The XP rules are great as they stand!

 

[MarauderX]

XP Point Buy:

http://mxpb.wikispaces.com/

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Our variant in both campaigns running is "Everyone levels up when its appropriate to the story, and nobody keeps track of XP".

DS

 

[ValhallaGH]

For a very 'live each day like it's your last' mercenary-ish campaign, I use debauchery xp.

For each GP you spend on pleasant drink, tasty dishes, pleasurable company, and other entertainments, you gain one XP. Buying weapons, housing, traveling gear, etc are considered reasonable purchases and thus are not worth XP.
This sends the characters out, between bouts of partying, to loot the biggest hoards they think they can claim. They convert every spare thing into cash and buy up every vice their seedy little hearts desire.
It's fun and interesting but definitely not for all games.

 

[doggreen1944]

Players Voting

My group uses a modified version of the Unearthed Arcana system.

Each encounter is worth a base number of XP equal to (75 x the average party level) per character. After each encounter I ask the players to vote on a scale of 0 to 10 as to the difficulty of the encounter. 10 being very tough and 1 being very easy. This is done in secret and for simplicity sake I have the players close their eyes and hold up fingers to indicate their vote. I take the average of this and give XP based on the following scale.

0 - 0% of base value.
1 - 20% of base value.
2 - 40% of base value.
3 - 60% of base value.
4 - 80% of base value.
5 - 100% of base value, etc.

This continues up to a value of 200% of base value for a difficult encounter. We feel that this is much easier to manage. Also it takes into account the variables inherent in any encounter.

 

[Mycanid]

Ya know, there is an interesting thread related to this over on the RPG Forums > General section titled Piratecat ruined my game or something like that. In it he (and some others) articulate a few different ways of leveling, etc. You might find it interesting?

 

[the Jester]

In my main (i.e. everything but the experimental low-magic game I'm running) games, I give less xp for monsters- usually half or 2/3- and I also award roleplaying xp.

There are four categories in which characters can earn rp xp each session: class, race, personal and alignment. Typically, each category a character gets xp in earns her 25 xp times a number I pick out of the levels of the party. (In other words, if the party has pcs of 3rd to 5th level in it, each category will earn from 75 to 125 xp for each category; the number is always the same for all categories and, nowadays, for all characters. I taylor the number to the speed of advancement I want in the campaign.) At the end of each session, the players all tell me what they did for each roleplaying category, and I note how many they get xp for. I try to be very flexible with these categories; most games, everyone gets all four categories.

I give extra categories for props and for "lubricating the game"- i.e., doing things that help the game run smoothly or improve the campaign, most commonly involving taking the game notes.

Also, I'm very comfortable with ad hoc xp or CR adjustments. Sometimes an encounter turns out to be much harder (or easier) than I had expected; if it isn't because of just plain poor luck or sheer stupidity, I'll often tweak the xp values a little.

For a very 'live each day like it's your last' mercenary-ish campaign, I use debauchery xp.

For each GP you spend on pleasant drink, tasty dishes, pleasurable company, and other entertainments, you gain one XP. Buying weapons, housing, traveling gear, etc are considered reasonable purchases and thus are not worth XP.
This sends the characters out, between bouts of partying, to loot the biggest hoards they think they can claim. They convert every spare thing into cash and buy up every vice their seedy little hearts desire.
It's fun and interesting but definitely not for all games.

This is awesome. I absolutely want to try that sometime.

 

[AbeTheGnome]

I'm very partial to the willy-nilly approach to XP. In fact, I don't eve deal with the numbers. At the end of a session, I'll say, "You're 2/3s of the way to your next level." Usually, I allow them a level for every 3 or 4 full-length sessions.