H.M.Gimlord
Explorer
I understand SG's concern here, but I also agree with Tenchuu. Being one of these slow DMs myself (I like a lot of RP. Much to the chagrin (sometimes?) of my players) I'm seeing my players falling behind in levels.Fundamentally, if you make time-XP the major source of XP, then there is no incentive for a player (or a DM) to mix up encounters—all they need is time. In addition, very large time XP incentives longer games for all involved which may lead to "dragging it out" in some cases (though, to admit, I have not seen much evidence of this as of yet). There is also the question of how quickly we want folks to level: 1 every 3 months may or may not be too quick (esp as there will be normal, doubled XP in there as well).
I don't think, however, that the disparity between fast paced DMs and slow paced DMs is really at issue here. What's really at issue here is growing in level. You can always retire a character that is too high and start again at 1st level if you get too bored, but never getting to paragon is a pain that must be fixed (my highest level character is Mikara, and she's been stalled at level 4 for nearly 2 months now in a practically dead adventure.). I say we up the time xp by 2x, but also up encounter xp by 2x. I think this would be a good compromise between Tenchuu's and SG's issues. No?
Most DMs I know (including myself) award encounter xp after every encounter (along with whatever treasure the characters find), and time xp at the end of every extended rest.I know that it's up to the DM, I was just wondering how the majority of DMs choose to run it since he was proposing breaking it down into a day-by-day amount. If the majority choose to award only at the end of the adventure, then it seems like that sort of effort (and math, which I know many people aren't fond of) would be superfluous.
Two things I do, that I'm not sure other DMs do the same way, are that I give my characters the chance to level at the end of every extended rest in which they achieve enough xp to level, and I round time xp to the nearest month and keep track of my rounding:
At the first extended rest in my adventures, I prorate the xp of the first month by day, and round to the nearest last month.
At the end of the adventure I prorate the xp to the day
(I know this is not the way it's outlined in the charter, but it seems the fairest when you're awarding xp at the end of every extended rest).
At the end of the adventure I prorate the xp to the day
(I know this is not the way it's outlined in the charter, but it seems the fairest when you're awarding xp at the end of every extended rest).
*PS* IMO the "Whole Month* thing is lazy and draconian (don't mean to be bitter here, just pointing out that you can really screw a character if your adventure end toward the end of what would be one of these "whole months").
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