Experience points and leveling...

[Celtavian]

How do you handle experience points and leveling?

The current way our gaming group handles experience and leveling is to wait until an encounter is over and they are in a place safe enough for them to train undisturbed, and if they have enough experience, they can advance. We roll a d4 to determine how many days of training it takes to gain the benefits of advancement. A very simple method, and a bit too abstract for my tastes.

It would be great to hear how other DM's and groups handle experience points and leveling.

 

[Ferox4]

Well, the whole concept of levelling and experience points is abstract, really. IMC we 1) only level characters between sesions, never mid-session. 2) XP are awarded at the end of the session. 3) Any new spells are not available until preparations are again made.

I realize that this is probably not the answer that you're looking for, but you asked....

I prefer to keep things moving along during our sessions because we only play once a week and anything that is not necessary for my players personal playing enhancement finds no quarter in my game.

Despite my personal handling of XP & Levelling, I still see Experience as an abstract and intangible element that cannot be simulated in 1d4 days of "training." Surviving to reach the next levelling plateau is enough training to warrant character advancement.

Cheers

 

[Celtavian]

Re

We view the d4 days as more of a "finishing touch" than full training. We just felt that adding in a little bit of training would better reflect rising in level.

 

[Ferox4]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing your method. I agree it adds color to the game and it's a great way to stretch out the campaign's timeline. It's just that my players would NOT be interested - (I can almost hear their collective groan as I explain the new levelling technique...). There are lots of bright people on these boards and I'm sure they'll have all sorts of ideas for you - from mundane (as mine) to outlandish.

Today is a game day after a two week hiatus - I've got to get my game face on and finalize today's activities. Joy!

Cheers and well met,
F4

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Advancement is on the spot, as the whole level business is abstract (as has been pointed out), like your age. You don't need half a week to become 21, you're just it (or any other age). If your "new age" gives you some new possiblities (drinking alcohol, driving cars...) and responsibilities, you get them the moment you have "accumulated enough days to turn your new age". Therefore, no training or whatever. It is done right after the event that brought you the needed XP (though the concept of giving XP only at the end of the session, or after adventures, is great, too, since you can let the players roll their HD and make the level-up at home, between the sessions, without time spend at the gaming session).
Of course, new spell slots aren't available before the player has spent the necessary time in prayer/meditation/book learning (although he could prepare the new stuff in a fraction of the time right away, like a wizard that left spell slots free in the morning).

I personally don't like the Idea of the need of training (they spend a year in the wilderness and learn nothing, but after a week in the gyms they're much better than before. If it were like that, people would stay in the gyms and would leave the non-epic levels behind before they'd leave their adolescence). But I had bad experience with that, as former DM's let the players run along for several sessions without being able to level-up, because there was no one to train them. Or they lacked a mere 400 XP or something (in 2e!) to raise a level, but the DM wouldn't give out the quest XP beforehand, and the character had to go to a dangerous mission which they moved through with enough XP to levelup but unable to almost all the time.

 

[grep]

Personally, I like the "general downtime" rule (I think that is what it was called), basically, leveling takes 1 day per character level, but you don't need to pay for training or anything like that. This reflects the couple of days a character needs to refine his new sword technique in a controlled enviroment, scribe a few spells into his spellbook, or just kick back and let his brain absorb some of the things he's learned and seen. I like this rule because it's a good way to handle leveling at strange times. I'm not going to let characters level up in the middle of a dungeon.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Downtime will also mean that you cannot level-up if you're in any hurry - City of the Spider Queen, for example, would hardly give you an opportunity to level-up.
I have absolutely no problem with anyone advancing in the middle of the dungeon, since it really happened all the time. He didn't just get a whole notch better at swordplay, or got the ability to endure even more punishment, that's just the abstract system of numbers which overlays the "real" advancement, which is much more subtle.(if we would give the improvement that comes with every swing, every dodge, in every battle, we'd either have floating point values or really high stats - and a need of equally high dice.)
Refining your techniques in gym is nice, but it won't prepare you for real fighting, which is where you really can perfect your moves.

 

[Dingleberry]

In the 3E campaign I run, the players must have one solid night's rest in order to level up. That doesn't just mean sleep - it means restful sleep, i.e., not sleeping with one eye open. Taking shifts sleeping around a campfire in a haunted forest doesn't qualify, but sleeping in an inn usually does. No complaints from my players so far.

 

[dcollins]

By the book, it's simply at the end of every session, or possibly once every few sessions -- see DMG p. 18, checklist #11.

 

[John Smallberries]

We play Wednesday nights.

I send an email, usually Saturday, with that week's XP.

If you level, do it before the next game so you don't keep us waiting.

I love 3e.