Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Poll: Experience, Leveling, and Groups
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Grydan" data-source="post: 6038608" data-attributes="member: 79401"><p>If their mother's in the hospital, I'll express my sympathy, and otherwise proceed as normal. If they double-book with a pub crawl, I'll get a bit miffed they didn't invite the rest of us along, and then proceed as normal. If they just forgot, everyone in the group will mock them for the duration of the campaign and find ways to annoy them with "helpful" reminders leading up to every session... and we'll just proceed as normal.</p><p></p><p>If their behaviour becomes an issue, then we'll discuss their behaviour. Their character's rate of levelling will not be affected, unless their behaviour has become enough of an issue that we ask the player to leave the campaign, in which case their character probably wanders off into the murky woods never to return (unless someone calls dibs). </p><p></p><p>Yes, it removes the ability to reward those things with <em>experience points</em>, unless you reward the whole group simultaneously (which remains an option). It certainly doesn't do anything to stop us from rewarding players and PCs in other ways, many of which are more meaningful than a chunk of abstract points that, in the grand scheme of things may not even lead to a single session advantage in levelling. In game, <em>in character</em>, rewards are (to me) generally preferable to metagame rewards. Would it be a good idea to discuss some of those ways in the DMG? Absolutely. That seems to me to be one of the purposes of the book. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think the number of ways in which my D&D campaign is different from professional baseball is quite a large number. For one thing, none of us being payed even in peanuts to show up at the table and play. None of us in under contract. We are none of us supporting our families, lavish bachelor lifestyles, or future retirements off of our D&D earnings. </p><p></p><p>We have, usually, no non-participating spectators. Nobody has bought tickets to watch us play.</p><p></p><p>There's no D&D Hall of Fame in Cooperstown waiting to enshrine our character sheets, record our XP totals and performance metrics as a shining example to fans and future players. </p><p></p><p>Few, if any, of the players in an MLB game (nevermind the World Series), are there simply because they get enjoyment out of playing. Most of them, if instead of being payed tens of millions of dollars, they were offered access to a communal bag of chips, bowl of dip, and a box of TimBits (all paid for by the players themselves) as their only reward beyond the fun they can find in the game, would probably find something else to do with their time. It's their job. I would hope they find some enjoyment in their chosen profession, but hey, if they don't, they're rather handsomely rewarded for their suffering. If, in addition to the snacks (but still instead of money) we also offered arbitrary points which can not be converted into goods or services, I don't think they'd find that additional temptation sufficient to continue playing a game that (far more often than D&D, at least the way I play it) can lead to the need for reconstructive surgery on major joints.</p><p></p><p>My players, on the other hand, would probably still show up even if we didn't have snacks (well, maybe not... they incorporated their desire for snacks into the adventuring party's in-game name), and certainly wouldn't fret too much over the absence of XP rewards.</p><p></p><p>I certainly won't deny that there's a creative aspect to the game, but I consider that aspect a subset of "fun". I suppose there's some tortured artist types out there who manifest their creativity through D&D play whilst <em>not</em> enjoying themselves, but I'm not sure I'd want to play with them. Watch them, maybe, but I'll stick to playing with folks who enjoy playing.</p><p></p><p>I just don't see the point of keeping score. There's no leader-board. The max score is achievable by everyone, requires no particularly great skill, and I don't know of anyone who would be particularly impressed to find out that my Half-Elf Rogue managed to hit max level three sessions earlier than anyone else in the party.</p><p></p><p>In systems where the metagame points can be traded in for in-game benefits (beyond just levelling up), then sure, there's some reward value to the points. I don't particularly care for that design approach, though.</p><p></p><p>All that said, yeah, if folks get a kick out of keeping score, have at it. It's not going to harm me in any way, as far as I can tell.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Grydan, post: 6038608, member: 79401"] If their mother's in the hospital, I'll express my sympathy, and otherwise proceed as normal. If they double-book with a pub crawl, I'll get a bit miffed they didn't invite the rest of us along, and then proceed as normal. If they just forgot, everyone in the group will mock them for the duration of the campaign and find ways to annoy them with "helpful" reminders leading up to every session... and we'll just proceed as normal. If their behaviour becomes an issue, then we'll discuss their behaviour. Their character's rate of levelling will not be affected, unless their behaviour has become enough of an issue that we ask the player to leave the campaign, in which case their character probably wanders off into the murky woods never to return (unless someone calls dibs). Yes, it removes the ability to reward those things with [I]experience points[/I], unless you reward the whole group simultaneously (which remains an option). It certainly doesn't do anything to stop us from rewarding players and PCs in other ways, many of which are more meaningful than a chunk of abstract points that, in the grand scheme of things may not even lead to a single session advantage in levelling. In game, [I]in character[/I], rewards are (to me) generally preferable to metagame rewards. Would it be a good idea to discuss some of those ways in the DMG? Absolutely. That seems to me to be one of the purposes of the book. I think the number of ways in which my D&D campaign is different from professional baseball is quite a large number. For one thing, none of us being payed even in peanuts to show up at the table and play. None of us in under contract. We are none of us supporting our families, lavish bachelor lifestyles, or future retirements off of our D&D earnings. We have, usually, no non-participating spectators. Nobody has bought tickets to watch us play. There's no D&D Hall of Fame in Cooperstown waiting to enshrine our character sheets, record our XP totals and performance metrics as a shining example to fans and future players. Few, if any, of the players in an MLB game (nevermind the World Series), are there simply because they get enjoyment out of playing. Most of them, if instead of being payed tens of millions of dollars, they were offered access to a communal bag of chips, bowl of dip, and a box of TimBits (all paid for by the players themselves) as their only reward beyond the fun they can find in the game, would probably find something else to do with their time. It's their job. I would hope they find some enjoyment in their chosen profession, but hey, if they don't, they're rather handsomely rewarded for their suffering. If, in addition to the snacks (but still instead of money) we also offered arbitrary points which can not be converted into goods or services, I don't think they'd find that additional temptation sufficient to continue playing a game that (far more often than D&D, at least the way I play it) can lead to the need for reconstructive surgery on major joints. My players, on the other hand, would probably still show up even if we didn't have snacks (well, maybe not... they incorporated their desire for snacks into the adventuring party's in-game name), and certainly wouldn't fret too much over the absence of XP rewards. I certainly won't deny that there's a creative aspect to the game, but I consider that aspect a subset of "fun". I suppose there's some tortured artist types out there who manifest their creativity through D&D play whilst [I]not[/I] enjoying themselves, but I'm not sure I'd want to play with them. Watch them, maybe, but I'll stick to playing with folks who enjoy playing. I just don't see the point of keeping score. There's no leader-board. The max score is achievable by everyone, requires no particularly great skill, and I don't know of anyone who would be particularly impressed to find out that my Half-Elf Rogue managed to hit max level three sessions earlier than anyone else in the party. In systems where the metagame points can be traded in for in-game benefits (beyond just levelling up), then sure, there's some reward value to the points. I don't particularly care for that design approach, though. All that said, yeah, if folks get a kick out of keeping score, have at it. It's not going to harm me in any way, as far as I can tell. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Poll: Experience, Leveling, and Groups
Top