EXP - What's Your Method?

[the_bruiser]

I'm curious how many people pay close attention to ELs of opponents, average
party level, and number of characters when it's time to give experience.
Our group never has, and it seems like it would be a pain - further, it
would seem to undervalue the sessions where there is little or no combat. I
certainly don't want my players to think, "Gosh, that was fun, but I want to
kill something or my character will never get better!" Obviously you can
get around this with storyline or individual EXP bonuses for good
roleplaying, but our group does it a little bit differently.

Here's our system:

On average, I have arbitrarily determined that the average party member will
go up a level *on average*, *over time*, approximately once per three game
sessions. Every session gets marked with either a "1," a "2," or a "3,"
with me (the DM) trying to keep an average close to 2. A great combat,
great role-playing initiatives from the party, crucial campaign moments,
etc., merit a 3. The sessions where it takes longer to get started, players
are less involved or distracted, and little significant combat occurs are
granted a 1. 'Normal' nights get a 2.

Then, each character present gets an amount of EXP equal to: average
character level * 1000 * X/6, where X is the quality and excitement of that
night's play. As long as X averages close to 2 over time, then they'll
advance roughly one level every three sessions. Note that we might have
five consecutive '1's and have no advancement, or two consecutive '3's for a
quicker level.

This gets us to a pace I like, and allows me to make a more holistic,
top-level judgement regarding not just combat results, but also player
involvement and role-playing quality. And, to my players, they know that
their EXP will be (to some extent!) by the *nature* of the session, and more
by things under their own control. And yes, I do give individual awards for
preparation of background material, quality role-playing, etc., so that
quality individual accomplishments are also rewarded, though I don't do as
good a job of this as I would like.

One might argue that this method kind of hurts the party's ability to
advance super-quickly through great action over time, since they'll never
exceed or fall behind +1 level / 3 sessions over the long term. To some
extent this is true regarding level advancement, but I should note that I do
give significant in-game rewards (such as treasure, reputation, followers)
from which they do benefit should they consistently outperform, so it's not
like they're shackled and their performance becomes meaningless.

Anyway, just curious as to other people's thoughts, both on this system and
regarding what they do. I'm pretty good at intuitively balancing foes for
our party, so for me CL is almost a non-factor entirely.

PS - If anybody in Charlotte, NC is looking to join a game, let me know - we
currently have four players plus me, but one of those players is moving away
this summer and we really like having a group of five.

 

[Gothmog]

I never liked the CR/EL/XP method for giving XP in 3E. Advancement for slaying beasties according to the table in the DMG is WAY too fast, and doesn't give characters time to become used to their new abilities before hitting them with more. Instead, I give XP for accomplishing goals during the adventure, good roleplaying, innovative problem solving, etc. You still figure up appropriate encounters based on CR and EL, but just don't award XP for them. I have been doing this for about two years in my campaign, and the difference in play styles is dramatic- this results in less random violence on the part of the PCs, and encourages roleplaying. The system I use is:

1. First, find out how many XP it will take for a character to reach the next level. Example: going from 4th to 5th level would require 4000 XP.

2. Before running the adventure, designate a number of minor, lesser, and major goals the PCs are looking to accomplish. For example, the characters have been hired to investigate the disappearance of the inhabitants of a small town, find them if possible, return them alive, and remove the threat that caused their disappearance in the first place.

A minor goal is something that the PCs need to do in order to get to the heart of the adventure: in this case, investigate the town looking for clues, and following a disguised trail that leads from town to an isolated forest. Finding and disabling a trap that guards the corridor into a cave where the track lead would also me a minor goal. Typically I give 2-5% of the XP needed to get to the next level for accomplishing a minor goal. So for our 4th level party, it would be 80-200 XP each, depending on the difficulty of the task.

A lesser goal would be something the PCs do in the course of accomplishing the reason for the adventure. In this case, finding the missing townspeople being held in a cave by bugbear guards, and eliminating the bugbear threat and their aboleth master are both lesser goals. Lesser goals should net the PCs 7-10% of the XP nedded for the next level. In this situation presented above, there were two lesser goals, each worth 280-400 XP each.

Finally, a greater goal would be the main reason the PCs went on the adventure in the first place. In the example, bringing as many townspeople back alive as possible is the major goal. Major goals should net the PCs 15-20% of the XP needed for the next level, or in this case 600-800 XP each.

There can be multiple minor and lesser goals in an adventure, but there should usually only be one greater goal. You should adjust the XP recieved in each goal to match the difficulty the PCs had in overcoming it. Also, the more goals you have, the less XP you should dole out for each goal.

3. Roleplaying XP- I usually give 0-15% of the XP needed for the next level for good roleplaying, staying in character, and innovative problem solving. In this case, something around 0-600 XP for each character, which is nothing to scoff at.

Using this system, characters will advance at roughly the same rate for each level, even if there are characters of differing levels in the party. It takes 3-4 adventures for characters to advance a level with this system. The 4th level party mentioned above would get around 1600-1800 XP each for the adventure. And the big bonus is you don't have to mess with that wonky CR/XP chart.

 

[Ibram]

When i started DMing i tried usint the CR/EL chart (and ended up needing a calculator). Now i give out a set amout of xp to everyone who arives (depending on the average party level, 300 right now) then i keep track of when ever anyone does something cool (either in RP or combat) I usualy give 100 xp for each. I also give out 100-200 xp per combat encounter (depending on how hard it seemed). at the end of the night i add up all the tick marks next to the players names and hand out the xp.

 

[shilsen]

The PCs get as much XP as they need to go up levels at the rate I think is appropriate. I would have dropped XP totally but I keep it for purposes of item creation, certain spells, etc. which are XP-oriented.

 

[EricNoah]

Each session I award the group the amount of XP I want to give them, based on how quickly I want them to level up. It wouldn't work as well if the players needed XP as a "carrot" to (for example) roleplay more or be more adventurous. In that case, they'd probably want to know which specific actions netted them how much XP. But my players basically give it their all most of the time and so it's just easier to ballpark it.

 

[kamosa]

Story awards

I've been doing exclusively story awards for the past 15 years. I use EL as a way to determine what would be a challenge for the party, but I reward the players for advancing the story not fighting the monsters. Sneaking past a monster or avoiding a nasty combat with skillfull use of social skills is just as valid in my game as running up and hacking the beast into small pieces.


Of course hacking is still allowed.

 

[Nifft]

I was really getting fed up with one of my players nagging me for XP, so I switched to a "flat" model -- 150 * char level XP each session. Sadly, the nagging has continued, so now I'm moving to a "big lump sum after each adventure" model.

The nagging will probably never stop, so I'll try to concentrate it such that it doesn't take up time every session.

-- N

 

[Frum]

XP workload

I used to be meticulous about awarding XP accurately, but I have moved more and more to a system of just giving out the XP I want to give for the rate of advancement we like.

Interestingly, this has slowed advancement significantly. Maybe I just got burned out in 2nd Edition with the terrible experience system, but I don't have the patience to micromanage it anymore. 3rd Edition's XP system is fairly simple, though, and before I quit using it I could calculate quickly.

I think that it might be fun to go back, though, in a game where the players really liked that level of game detail. I liked to give out specific rewards for certain kinds of good roleplaying, but it changed the behaviour of none of my players, and ended up giving some players an advantage over others for doing things that they would have done anyway. Obviously it wasn't enough incentive. But I admit that there was a certain appeal to having characters with different amounts of XP. Perhaps that was just nostalgia

 

[Umbra]

Our system was created to a) reduce the DM admin to neglible, b) allow lower level (new/replacement/returning) characters to catch up, c) reduce the emphasis on hack and slash.

Basically it would take 5 game sessions for the highest level character to gain a level (my group wastes a fair bit of time socialising). Every character therefore receives one fifth of the xp the highest level character requires to go up to the next level. eg. 1000 xp to for a first level character to go up a level means 200xp per session, a fifth level needs 5,000 so each character gets 1000xp per session.

If the highest level character is far above the lowest, the lowest level character will go up in three, two or even one session with their accelerated progression slowing as they approach that high level.

Finally the DM will adjust the figure for poor/excellent games.

 

[RangerWickett]

Let's see. . . . I don't have a clear method. So far, in my latest campaign, it's been the players asking, "Have we leveled?" and me saying yes or no based on how much I felt like they'd done. But let me brainstorm something a bit more solid for the future.

I want to go for a more narrative progression of power. I certainly don't want more than a few leveling ups in a year. In my latest game, the world just went crazy because everyone was teleporting every day it seemed like. They really couldn't get any downtime. It was a cool experience for a one-time game, but I prefer to let a little more time pass in a game. Seriously, in the span of three days, they gained two levels just from all the crap they were doing.

So, first things first.

I'm all for free-form adventures -- railroading is bad, and you ought to let the characters go about things as they desire -- but I think I'm going to shoot for a chapter-based pacing, with each chapter having an ultimate goal. If I were to take the last campaign, I'd make it this way:

Scourge of the Burning Sky
The cruel Ragesian Empire ruled the world, its army able to travel anywhere in an instant with the Torch of the Burning Sky. Now, with the assassination of its immortal emperor Draco Coaltongue, and the theft of the Torch, that empire has fallen, and those seeking to fill the emperor's place are bringing war to all the world. In the heartland of the Ragesian Empire, the Grand Inquisitor Leska has decreed all disloyal magic-users are to be killed. The party must flee this scourge, the scourge of the burning sky.

* The group starts at 5th level. I think I don't want the game to go much higher than 12th or so.

Chapter One: Refuge The party flees from Ragesia, to the supposed safety of the wizard school Lyceum. A contingent of Leska's inquisitors pursue them. There are many paths to Lyceum, and if they travel swiftly, they should be able to reach this refuge before the nations in the empire get their armies in motion.

* Once the party reaches the safety of Lyceum, they gain a level. Along the level there are a lot of different things they can do, and I'd assign different XP values for each. They ended up taking the quickest route, bypassing any trouble they saw, and only dealt with one thing.

Chapter Two: Resistance The wizards in Lyceum have to organize a resistance to survive the ire of several nations of the former empire. The Elves, in a loose alliance with Leska, try to blockade the harbor of the city Lyceum is in to make sure more mages can't escape there. The Elves are aided by some strange weather magic that keeps the city trapped in a storm. Because of the weird circumstances of the PCs' escape, they are some of the few who can find and defeat those threatening the city.

* If they stop the bad guys, level. If they don't, or if they flee, or whatever, I have to rewrite a lot of stuff, and I'll find something else to do.

Chapter Three: Finding the Torch Lyceum sends the PCs to try to find the missing Torch and Emperor, and make allies with those who assassinated him.

* Along the way, the PCs run afoul of the emperor of the Elves, and lead an enemy army into a cursed forest where they're killed. There was a lot of stuff in this 'chapter,' so they ended up gaining three levels over the course of 10 sessions or so. In the process of getting the Torch, the PCs really pissed off Leska.

Chapter Four: Fighting Leska Leska is also, sadly, immortal. The party has to figure out a way to stop her. They do. Level, and as a cool bonus they get some permanent magical powers, worth an effective level. Defeating Leska was very hard.

Chapter Five: Unification Stop the remaining warlords and emperors, to ensure peace. At the climax, the Emperor returns briefly to power and tries to go all 'scorched earth' because he know he can't keep control of his nation. Stop him and save the world.


So I'm thinking, generally, if you show up at a session, add together the total party level, multiply by 100 XP, and that XP is divided evenly among all members of the group. Thus, even if you don't do anything huge or dramatic, you'll level after ten sessions. But undoubtedly you will be doing dramatic stuff. Various goals will have XP values assigned, which sometimes fluctuate depending on how tough or important they are. For instance:

* Find the way to the Aquiline Heart - 300 XP per level.
* Destroy the spell tombs that stop teleportation - 100 XP per level.
* Take out Pilus and the Stormseeker Warship (including the army on board, and all of Pilus's biomanced monsters, and his allies) - 500 XP per level.
* Help the fey escape the spirit of Indomitability - 50 XP per level.