D&D 5E (2014) Do you use XPs or Milestones?

[iserith]

Personally, I as DM am more than happy to bite that bullet.

The bullet of simple addition divided by the number of PCs, possibly with the help of a calculator. What a terrible onus. It's no wonder people abandon standard XP.

 

[Charlaquin]

The bullet of simple addition divided by the number of PCs, possibly with the help of a calculator. What a terrible onus. It's no wonder people abandon standard XP.

Yeah, if it saved me a tremendous amount of work it might be a more tempting trade-off.

 

[atanakar]

Oh, sorry, I thought we were talking about story-based advancement. Yeah, session-based advancement does have the progress bar effect. The disadvantage it has from a player perspective is divorcing progress from the players’ accomplishments. XP has the player-side advantages of both (the progress bar effect and the tangible connection between accomplishments and progress), but lacks the advantage of being easier for the DM. Personally, I as DM am more than happy to bite that bullet.

Divorcing progress from XPs is precisly the point. As stated by Oofta, accomplishements should be rewarded with gold, influence, alliances, land, property and magic items, which are in game rewards. They are more believable and useful to the characters. XPs are a meta currency outside the unfolding narrative and as such I consider them disruptive. That is why I use session based progress.

 

[jgsugden]

I started using milestones back in 1984. Or, in other words, I became too lazy to calculate EXP (as I called it back then) and just estimated an amount for each session. It wasn't true milestone advancement because each class had different experience requirements, but it was as close as you get.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Fenris-77]

Yeah, I prefer to keep it encounter based, or possibly goal based, but not session based. I want to reward the players for action and decision making. It's not super important, perhaps oddly, if they succeed, or the extent to which they succeed, but I want them to act, not dither and argue. Using milestones isn't lame in game that has significant goals that aren't combat based either. Major encounters are major encounters, regardless of how many orcs you do or don't kill. That said, I don't want to quicken advancement, but I do want to reward progress and action, and not all of that is combat related.

 

[Charlaquin]

Divorcing progress from XPs is precisly the point. As stated by Oofta, accomplishements should be rewarded with gold, influence, alliances, land, property and magic items, which are in game rewards. They are more believable and useful to the characters. XPs are a meta currency outside the unfolding narrative and as such I consider them disruptive. That is why I use session based progress.

I don’t feel the same way, but if you do, then yeah, session-based advancement sounds like a good fit for your goals.

 

[jgsugden]

I always use XP (monster, treasure, plus individual RP'g).

I think using milestones to quicken level advancement is lame for an RPG system.

That is like using the "leave no child behind" in the school system into our RPG's.

If your PC has not learned enough to advance, then they do not advance.

Why do you assume we use it to 'quicken' level advancement? By placing it around story milestones, you could extend it beyond the expected ~13 encounters per level or reduce it below that number. Either is possible.

For me, the level advancement is tied to story element for balance purposes, primarily. I know what level the PCs will be when they hit a challenge, so Ican account for the abilities Iknow they will have. That allows me to create a more balanced game.

 

[Charlaquin]

For me, the level advancement is tied to story element for balance purposes, primarily. I know what level the PCs will be when they hit a challenge, so Ican account for the abilities Iknow they will have. That allows me to create a more balanced game.

I will say, this makes a lot of sense for event-based campaigns. I still prefer to use XP for those, but I see much more utility for story-based advancement in such campaigns than I do in location-based games.

 

[Oofta]

I always use XP (monster, treasure, plus individual RP'g).

I think using milestones to quicken level advancement is lame for an RPG system.

That is like using the "leave no child behind" in the school system into our RPG's.

If your PC has not learned enough to advance, then they do not advance.

Who says it quickens advance? That's not a goal I have and depending on group preference leveling may take longer.

Kind of insulting that you think that's a primary reason to ditch a tool that simply adds no value to my game.