WotC Milestone leveling in WotC editions?

[JustinCase]

In my first game (AD&D2) we got xp like (probably) most tables at the time.

My second ever DM counted xp for the players, and when we reached enough he told us to level up. This was a 3.5 game, although both this one and the first were in a time when 4e was already out.

I found that not having to track xp myself as a player to be a relief, so when I became a DM myself (3.5 and 5e), it was natural to switch to milestone leveling. My players don't need to track xp, and frankly I find milestones to make more sense story-wise.

 

[CleverNickName]

One of my favorite features of Roll20 is that it keeps track of XP for everyone.

We use a script called LazyExperience, by Robin Kuiper. It works like this.

Spoiler: LazyExperience on Roll20

LazyExperience​

Version: Latest 0.1.14
Authors: Robin Kuiper

LazyExperience is a script to record experience during a game (the idea comes from EasyExperience).
Biggest difference is that it has an option to reward experience directly, and keeps track on statusmarker changes on tokens.

Config​

The first time you add this script you get a first time config menu in chat.

• Command - The command you want to use with this script, eg. !xp.
• Marker - The "dead" marker you want to use to give an option to reward experience when something dies.
• Player XP Attribute - The player's experience attribute in the sheet you are using, this is defaulted to the 5e OGL sheet (experience).
• NPC XP Attribute - The npc's experience attribute in the sheet you are using, this is defaulted to the 5e OGL sheet (npc_xp).
• Extra Players - This can be used to add to the experience divisors (eg. for npc under no one's control, etc).
• Give XP Instant - If you want to instantly give experience to the players when you reward it, otherwise it will be rewarded at the end of the session.
• Update Sheets - If you want to update the characters sheets when experience is rewarded.
• Refresh Players - Refresh the player list (eg. when a new player joins or someone leaves).
• Reset Experience - Resets the experience back to 0.
• Reset Config - Resets the config options to default.

Player Config​

Player Config

• Active Toggles - Sets the player/character active (or not). A player/character who is not active will not be rewarded xp at the end of the session and will not be in the LazyExperience menu list.
• Add Experience - Reward experience to (one of) the player's character(s).
• Back - Back to the config menu.
• Remove - Removes the player entirely from the LazyExperience config.

Commands​

• !xp help - Shows the help menu.
• !xp config - Shows the config menu.
• !xp menu - Shows the LazyExperience menu (more below).
• !xp add session [XP] - Adds (or gives if you want to give instantly) experience to the session experience threshold, where [XP] is the amount of experience.
• !xp add [characterid] [XP] - Adds (or gives if you want to give instantly) experience to the character experience threshold, where [characterid] is the character's id and [XP] is the amount of experience.
• !xp end - Ends the session, reset experience, and rewards experience to the players (if you didn't reward it instantly).

LazyExperience Menu​

This menu shows the current experience in the session threshold. It also show the amount it will be divised with when rewarded.
A list of active players with there active characters is also shown here, and experience can be rewarded.

Statusmarker Dead​

When a token is given the statusmarker you have set up in the config (dead by default), you will get the question if you want to add the experience to the session experience threshold.

This works great with TokenMod statusmarker changes and with my DeathTracker script.

Roll20 Thread: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6275681/script-lazyexperience/?pageforid=6275681#post-6275681

Basically, once you set it up you never have to worry about tracking XP ever again. When the party slays a monster, it automatically adds that monster's XP to the party's XP pool, and at the end of the gaming session it divides it up among the party however you like--evenly or otherwise. Awarding bonus XP to a single character? Just click one button and type the amount. Want everyone to automatically level up? Just click.

 

[payn]

One of my favorite features of Roll20 is that it keeps track of XP for everyone.

We use a script called LazyExperience, by Robin Kuiper. It works like this.

Spoiler: LazyExperience on Roll20

LazyExperience​

Version: Latest 0.1.14
Authors: Robin Kuiper

LazyExperience is a script to record experience during a game (the idea comes from EasyExperience).
Biggest difference is that it has an option to reward experience directly, and keeps track on statusmarker changes on tokens.

Config​

The first time you add this script you get a first time config menu in chat.
View attachment 344343

• Command - The command you want to use with this script, eg. !xp.
• Marker - The "dead" marker you want to use to give an option to reward experience when something dies.
• Player XP Attribute - The player's experience attribute in the sheet you are using, this is defaulted to the 5e OGL sheet (experience).
• NPC XP Attribute - The npc's experience attribute in the sheet you are using, this is defaulted to the 5e OGL sheet (npc_xp).
• Extra Players - This can be used to add to the experience divisors (eg. for npc under no one's control, etc).
• Give XP Instant - If you want to instantly give experience to the players when you reward it, otherwise it will be rewarded at the end of the session.
• Update Sheets - If you want to update the characters sheets when experience is rewarded.
• Refresh Players - Refresh the player list (eg. when a new player joins or someone leaves).
• Reset Experience - Resets the experience back to 0.
• Reset Config - Resets the config options to default.

Player Config​

Player Config

• Active Toggles - Sets the player/character active (or not). A player/character who is not active will not be rewarded xp at the end of the session and will not be in the LazyExperience menu list.
• Add Experience - Reward experience to (one of) the player's character(s).
• Back - Back to the config menu.
• Remove - Removes the player entirely from the LazyExperience config.

Commands​

• !xp help - Shows the help menu.
• !xp config - Shows the config menu.
• !xp menu - Shows the LazyExperience menu (more below).
• !xp add session [XP] - Adds (or gives if you want to give instantly) experience to the session experience threshold, where [XP] is the amount of experience.
• !xp add [characterid] [XP] - Adds (or gives if you want to give instantly) experience to the character experience threshold, where [characterid] is the character's id and [XP] is the amount of experience.
• !xp end - Ends the session, reset experience, and rewards experience to the players (if you didn't reward it instantly).

LazyExperience Menu​

View attachment 344341
This menu shows the current experience in the session threshold. It also show the amount it will be divised with when rewarded.
A list of active players with there active characters is also shown here, and experience can be rewarded.

Statusmarker Dead​

View attachment 344342
When a token is given the statusmarker you have set up in the config (dead by default), you will get the question if you want to add the experience to the session experience threshold.

This works great with TokenMod statusmarker changes and with my DeathTracker script.

Roll20 Thread: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6275681/script-lazyexperience/?pageforid=6275681#post-6275681

Basically, once you set it up you never have to worry about tracking XP ever again. When the party slays a monster, it automatically adds that monster's XP to the party's XP pool, and at the end of the gaming session it divides it up among the party however you like--evenly or otherwise. Awarding bonus XP to a single character? Just click one button and type the amount. Want everyone to automatically level up? Just click.

Thats still too much work.

 

[CleverNickName]

Thats still too much work.

I mean, if "Want everyone to level up? Just click" is too much work, I shudder to think of how you handle actually levelling up.

 

[Neonchameleon]

As I said, I never felt the xp system drove people to adventure.

Playing in milestone D&D games and in systems that gave xp for other things (Palladium, GURPS, Vampire the Masquerade, Shadowrun, WFRP, etc.) most of which I can't remember what we got xp for, we still adventured.

I feel it is generally inherent in playing D&D that people want to adventure and explore and interact and do things.

I've never thought that XP drove people to adventure. But once the choice of adventuring is made how to adventure gets influenced a lot by XP. People don't sit round when milestone adventuring or even time-XP happens, but if you give XP for GP, XP for playing into your flaws, or XP for killing monsters then people do more of what gets rewarded.

 

[Lanefan]

One of my favorite features of Roll20 is that it keeps track of XP for everyone.

We use a script called LazyExperience, by Robin Kuiper. It works like this.

Spoiler: LazyExperience on Roll20

LazyExperience​

Version: Latest 0.1.14
Authors: Robin Kuiper

LazyExperience is a script to record experience during a game (the idea comes from EasyExperience).
Biggest difference is that it has an option to reward experience directly, and keeps track on statusmarker changes on tokens.

Config​

The first time you add this script you get a first time config menu in chat.
View attachment 344343

• Command - The command you want to use with this script, eg. !xp.
• Marker - The "dead" marker you want to use to give an option to reward experience when something dies.
• Player XP Attribute - The player's experience attribute in the sheet you are using, this is defaulted to the 5e OGL sheet (experience).
• NPC XP Attribute - The npc's experience attribute in the sheet you are using, this is defaulted to the 5e OGL sheet (npc_xp).
• Extra Players - This can be used to add to the experience divisors (eg. for npc under no one's control, etc).
• Give XP Instant - If you want to instantly give experience to the players when you reward it, otherwise it will be rewarded at the end of the session.
• Update Sheets - If you want to update the characters sheets when experience is rewarded.
• Refresh Players - Refresh the player list (eg. when a new player joins or someone leaves).
• Reset Experience - Resets the experience back to 0.
• Reset Config - Resets the config options to default.

Player Config​

Player Config

• Active Toggles - Sets the player/character active (or not). A player/character who is not active will not be rewarded xp at the end of the session and will not be in the LazyExperience menu list.
• Add Experience - Reward experience to (one of) the player's character(s).
• Back - Back to the config menu.
• Remove - Removes the player entirely from the LazyExperience config.

Commands​

• !xp help - Shows the help menu.
• !xp config - Shows the config menu.
• !xp menu - Shows the LazyExperience menu (more below).
• !xp add session [XP] - Adds (or gives if you want to give instantly) experience to the session experience threshold, where [XP] is the amount of experience.
• !xp add [characterid] [XP] - Adds (or gives if you want to give instantly) experience to the character experience threshold, where [characterid] is the character's id and [XP] is the amount of experience.
• !xp end - Ends the session, reset experience, and rewards experience to the players (if you didn't reward it instantly).

LazyExperience Menu​

View attachment 344341
This menu shows the current experience in the session threshold. It also show the amount it will be divised with when rewarded.
A list of active players with there active characters is also shown here, and experience can be rewarded.

Statusmarker Dead​

View attachment 344342
When a token is given the statusmarker you have set up in the config (dead by default), you will get the question if you want to add the experience to the session experience threshold.

This works great with TokenMod statusmarker changes and with my DeathTracker script.

Roll20 Thread: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6275681/script-lazyexperience/?pageforid=6275681#post-6275681

Basically, once you set it up you never have to worry about tracking XP ever again. When the party slays a monster, it automatically adds that monster's XP to the party's XP pool, and at the end of the gaming session it divides it up among the party however you like--evenly or otherwise. Awarding bonus XP to a single character? Just click one button and type the amount. Want everyone to automatically level up? Just click.

Is there any way to get it to add-divide-assign the xp at any time the DM asks it to, rather than just at the end of the session?

Reason I ask is we do individual xp by encounter, so we'd want to run this after each combat or other xp-earning event, of which there can be several in a session with not always the same characters involved each time.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's a video game I know, but Baldur's Gate 1+2 had tons of milestones, I think they just called it quest XP instead.
Did they make that up or take it from 2e?

It was in the 2E DMG but not to clear how much to award.

Late 2E products had some very significant xp rewards for missions eg 100k xp each iirc.

Latest C&C game I award xp for 5 or 6 things, 2E could do the same.

 

[GrimCo]

Isn't that basically informal milestone leveling?

Yep. We are eyeing it pretty loose with leveling these days. Since most games are sandbox types, there aren't hard set milestones to begin with.

One of the reasons we doped xp was cause of our play style. We would semi regularly have session or two of pure RP, be it PCs among themselves or with NPCs while not moving a story further in any (significant) way. As in no dice rolls for 4-8 hours. No XP rewards for that long just didn't sit right, and it's hard to deal out fair xp for pure RP. Some players would do lot more cause they were inspired that day, while some would do bare minimum. I couldn't penalize someone for not really role playing because he just got to game straight from long stressful day at work for example.

So we just eye ball it. We level up quick enough so it's dynamic and people get that sense of growth but slow enough so they have time to enjoy and explore new stuff they got with level up.

 

[CleverNickName]

Is there any way to get it to add-divide-assign the xp at any time the DM asks it to, rather than just at the end of the session?

Reason I ask is we do individual xp by encounter, so we'd want to run this after each combat or other xp-earning event, of which there can be several in a session with not always the same characters involved each time.

Yep, just type "!xp" in the chat. A box of options will pop up, and you can click the button that awards XP immediately (instead of at the end of the session.)

I have it configured to award XP after every battle automatically, as well as when I tell it to.

 

[Lanefan]

Yep, just type "!xp" in the chat. A box of options will pop up, and you can click the button that awards XP immediately (instead of at the end of the session.)

I have it configured to award XP after every battle automatically, as well as when I tell it to.

Cool.

Second question: do you get to tell it how many xp to award, or is that baked in based on 5e rules (and what if you're not running 5e)?

Edit to add: Third question: we use paper character sheets; can this script just give out the numbers to the DM or does it expect to auto-assign them to online character sheets?