XP for Non-Combat Tasks

[guachi]

I give some social and exploration encounters a CR value and the players get the XP if they get a positive outcome. In a dungeon it could be for solving a trick/trap. These tricks/traps could be an exploration or a social encounter.

Outside of a dungeon the only time I've given XP for non-combat tasks are as a quest reward for success in the adventure.

 

[Satyrn]

As a side note, I've foudn this, plus thinking more "treasure packet" like 4e did it instead of just loot-the-bodies, and move people away from the default murder-hobo take.

Aye. To make sneaking around monsters a good strategy, I've moved pretty much all loot off the monster's body and into chests (The only good loot chest is a dead monster's loot chest)

 

[iserith]

Aye. To make sneaking around monsters a good strategy, I've moved pretty much all loot off the monster's body and into chests (The only good loot chest is a dead monster's loot chest)

Yeah, in my games, treasure is generally a reward for success in exploration challenges. You get XP for combat and social interaction challenges. If you want to get paid, you have to do something other than kill stuff.

 

[Satyrn]

. . . What's terrifying to me is that I've just decided that I am going to literally place loot boxes in areas of my megadungeon that the players haven't yet explored. Maybe the players will find Torg's Thundersword, maybe just yet another rustee sord left behind by a bandit. Probably just the rustee sord. Some are bound to be trapped with poison needles, too, or far worse . . . and still just hold a rustee sord.

Maybe I'll even let the players trade pizza for more boxes

My D&D has never been more videogamey!

 

[Dualazi]

I tend to award XP based not only on the difficulty of the task at hand, but how much thought the players put into conducting it. When they're interrogating a noble or sleuthing up clues against a cult, if the players discuss the ramifications, thought processes, and lore considerations for their actions then I tend to reward more generously than I would otherwise. Depending on your group dynamic this might or might not be necessary, but I find personally that combat can be fun even if it's just about the numbers and tactics, but having someone simply say "I roll persuasion" takes a lot more out of a social encounter comparatively.

 

[Yaarel]

I tend to award XP based not only on the difficulty of the task at hand, but how much thought the players put into conducting it.

Personally, when players put alot of thought into reconnaissance, strategy, tactics, etcetera − and because of this easily resolve the challenge − then I consider the amount of thought entailed to be part of the ‘difficulty’ of the challenge.

The playout of the challenge was easy, but the amount of work that was necessary to make it easy, was difficult.

 

[Yaarel]

But having someone simply say "I roll persuasion" takes a lot more out of a social encounter comparatively.

In my games, it is impossible for a player to say, ‘I roll persuasion’. They must come up with some convincing ploy, such as supply something that the target desires. The plausibility of the ploy is adjudicated according to the yes-no-maybe rule. Either it obviously automatically works, or it obviously wont work, or maybe it does. If maybe, possibly the ploy might gain an advantage or disadvantage on the persuasion check, depending on the merits of the ploy.

 

[Yaarel]

Yeah, in my games, treasure is generally a reward for success in exploration challenges. You get XP for combat and social interaction challenges. If you want to get paid, you have to do something other than kill stuff.

My philosophy is different.

If the players are going to get a powerful magic item, then they have to ‘earn’, by first having it used against them by the hostile.

Except for specific circumstances, magic items are always at hand of its owners.

 

[iserith]

My philosophy is different.

If the players are going to get a powerful magic item, then they have to ‘earn’, by first having it used against them by the hostile.

Except for specific circumstances, magic items are always at hand of its owners.

I randomly generate treasure the moment the PCs find it, so its uncommon for an NPC or monster to be wielding a specific magic item in my games.

 

[jayoungr]

Shiroiken, I'm interested in learning more about your system. I have lots of questions!

SXP is based on completing various tasks that require social interaction with NPCs, with the amount equal to an encounter for the adventure's average level (easy, medium, hard, and deadly).

Can you give examples of the various difficulties of social interaction? Do you grant SXP only for "social combat," i.e. when the PCs have to get something they want from an NPC, or are there other examples of social interaction that would award XP?

QXP is normally only used if the adventure has a primary goal that doesn't have to be completed for the adventure to end, or for side quests, and are normally equal to between 10% to 50% of the total value of the xp for the entire adventure.

How do you determine the total value of XP for the entire adventure? Do you just decide you want the party to get to the next level during it, or do you have another method?

To take an example from a converted 4E adventure I recently ran ("Grasp of the Mantled Citadel"): in a pocket dimension with a magic-twisted wood, the PCs encountered an undead dryad who was driven mad by the place. She begged the PCs to take a branch from her tree and plant it in uncorrupted soil so she could be at peace. How much XP would you award for a task like that?

EXP is tricky, and I change it up for each adventure. I tried giving traps a CR, but quickly learned that this just doesn't work, since it can be easy for a party to bypass a higher level trap, earning far more xp than they should, not to mention that it often causes me to litter the adventure with traps to make up the xp total.

Have you come up with a better way of handling traps than giving them CRs? Do you award the same amount of EXP for disabling the trap and bypassing it? Do you award any EXP if the party sets the trap off?

For my megadungeon, I give out EXP for areas not previously explored, generally valued based on the dungeon depth. For a Hex-Crawl I've been running, I've given out EXP based on the difficulty of the area exploring (deep woods is worth more than open plains, for example).

Do you have a formula for attaching numbers to difficulty of terrain? Are there any other factors? (What about finding secret doors? Is there a bonus for exploring every area? If there's treasure, does that affect the amount of EXP the area is worth? I could imagine it either increasing the amount of EXP because there's important stuff, or decreasing it because treasure is its own reward.)

I've also created specific exploration challenges that work the same ways as social encounters.

What would be an example of this kind of challenge? Like climbing a cliff or getting over a rickety rope bridge, that sort of thing?