shilsen
Adventurer
What do experience points mean to you?
According to the DMG (pg. 36), “Experience points are a measure of accomplishment. They represent training and learning by doing, and they illustrate the fact that, in fantasy, the more experienced a character is, the more power he or she possesses. Experience points allow a character to gain levels. Gaining levels heightens the fun and excitement.”
I personally focus on the metagame aspect of XP and the last two sentences. I don’t think the claim that “in fantasy, the more experienced a character is, the more power he or she possesses,” is true for fantasy literature in general (which, admittedly, is quite irrelevant to the role of XP in D&D) or even for D&D itself, especially where NPCs are concerned. For me, the biggest, if not only, reason for the existence of XP is because players like their PCs to go up levels and gain more power. There are a number of accompanying benefits, such as the fact that they can have adventures involving more powerful (and, by extension, a wider range of) creatures and survive more varied situations, but at base I think the only real justification for the existence of XP in the game is to facilitate character improvement.
As far as the result of having a certain number of XPs, i.e. being of a certain level, for me that’s only really relevant for the PCs. For NPCs, I like to take the approach that Keith Baker takes in the Eberron Campaign Setting (which is another reason I like it). NPCs do not gain XP or increase in levels based on any system, but are simply at whatever level suits the character and the game. A war veteran of 25 years can be 4th lvl, while the much less experienced (in the game world) PC is 6th lvl. If I need to justify it, I take the approach that different people/creatures have different levels of potential, and the PCs are special in that their potentiality is both much higher than for most people and is actually achieved.
Since I think XP is effectively a metagame construct that exists purely for the purposes of the game, I mostly divorce it from character actions. I don’t use the “PC by CR” calculation system and PCs get a fixed number of XP per session, usually about 1000, modified up or down depending on when I want them to level up. It’s irrespective of what the characters do in the session. I figure the XP gain is only there so that the PCs can advance in level after a while, so it makes sense to me to keep it occurring at a rate which is conducive for me to run the game. If it weren’t for the fact that many PCs are creating items and doing things that use up XP, I’d have dropped it altogether. And next time I run a campaign (this one’s over a year old and has gone from 3rd-9th lvl), I’ll probably drop XP altogether and find a way to handle everything in the campaign that uses XP some other way (probably stealing from Piratecat’s use of action pts).
I’ve found some serious benefits to this approach to XP. Not only does it save me a lot of time, but it makes my players think about combat a lot more like their characters do. Since combat provides no OOC benefit (namely, XP), the only reason for getting into combat is because the characters think it’s a good idea, and they’re much more likely to consider other options than they would in a game using standard XP gain methods. I also avoid all the debates I see on these boards about situations where the DM isn’t sure how much XP the PCs deserve. All in all, I don’t think I’ll ever use the standard XP awarding system again.
I should add that as a player, I treat my character’s XP in the same way. Even if the DM is awarding it based on the standard system, I tend to think of it as effectively divorced from my character’s actions. I don’t think of it as something I earned but rather as something the DM gave me to measure when he wants my PC to level up.
So, that’s my take on the subject. What do you think of XP and how do you award it?
According to the DMG (pg. 36), “Experience points are a measure of accomplishment. They represent training and learning by doing, and they illustrate the fact that, in fantasy, the more experienced a character is, the more power he or she possesses. Experience points allow a character to gain levels. Gaining levels heightens the fun and excitement.”
I personally focus on the metagame aspect of XP and the last two sentences. I don’t think the claim that “in fantasy, the more experienced a character is, the more power he or she possesses,” is true for fantasy literature in general (which, admittedly, is quite irrelevant to the role of XP in D&D) or even for D&D itself, especially where NPCs are concerned. For me, the biggest, if not only, reason for the existence of XP is because players like their PCs to go up levels and gain more power. There are a number of accompanying benefits, such as the fact that they can have adventures involving more powerful (and, by extension, a wider range of) creatures and survive more varied situations, but at base I think the only real justification for the existence of XP in the game is to facilitate character improvement.
As far as the result of having a certain number of XPs, i.e. being of a certain level, for me that’s only really relevant for the PCs. For NPCs, I like to take the approach that Keith Baker takes in the Eberron Campaign Setting (which is another reason I like it). NPCs do not gain XP or increase in levels based on any system, but are simply at whatever level suits the character and the game. A war veteran of 25 years can be 4th lvl, while the much less experienced (in the game world) PC is 6th lvl. If I need to justify it, I take the approach that different people/creatures have different levels of potential, and the PCs are special in that their potentiality is both much higher than for most people and is actually achieved.
Since I think XP is effectively a metagame construct that exists purely for the purposes of the game, I mostly divorce it from character actions. I don’t use the “PC by CR” calculation system and PCs get a fixed number of XP per session, usually about 1000, modified up or down depending on when I want them to level up. It’s irrespective of what the characters do in the session. I figure the XP gain is only there so that the PCs can advance in level after a while, so it makes sense to me to keep it occurring at a rate which is conducive for me to run the game. If it weren’t for the fact that many PCs are creating items and doing things that use up XP, I’d have dropped it altogether. And next time I run a campaign (this one’s over a year old and has gone from 3rd-9th lvl), I’ll probably drop XP altogether and find a way to handle everything in the campaign that uses XP some other way (probably stealing from Piratecat’s use of action pts).
I’ve found some serious benefits to this approach to XP. Not only does it save me a lot of time, but it makes my players think about combat a lot more like their characters do. Since combat provides no OOC benefit (namely, XP), the only reason for getting into combat is because the characters think it’s a good idea, and they’re much more likely to consider other options than they would in a game using standard XP gain methods. I also avoid all the debates I see on these boards about situations where the DM isn’t sure how much XP the PCs deserve. All in all, I don’t think I’ll ever use the standard XP awarding system again.
I should add that as a player, I treat my character’s XP in the same way. Even if the DM is awarding it based on the standard system, I tend to think of it as effectively divorced from my character’s actions. I don’t think of it as something I earned but rather as something the DM gave me to measure when he wants my PC to level up.
So, that’s my take on the subject. What do you think of XP and how do you award it?
