This with a minor twist:
I tell my players what encounters would have been worth by the book.
XP - How do you do it?
- Thread starter Mercurius
- Start date
I tell my players what encounters would have been worth by the book.
Ahnehnois
First Post
I've done that too, on occasion. Surprisingly enough, the results tend to be similar, despite the fact that I never used the actual XP rules in play and don't understand them that well.
Pretty much the same as Rel.
I don't do XP. It's annoying bookkeeping and busywork, and I found it lead players to unconsciously do whatever got them the most XP even if it wasn't what they'd normally do. If there is a system, someone will game it - potentially not even intentionally.
New players are the same level as everyone else. Why wouldn't they be?
I don't do XP. It's annoying bookkeeping and busywork, and I found it lead players to unconsciously do whatever got them the most XP even if it wasn't what they'd normally do. If there is a system, someone will game it - potentially not even intentionally.
New players are the same level as everyone else. Why wouldn't they be?
pming
Legend
Hiya.
Old School Grognard DM here (30+ years of RPG'ing), and I play 1e AD&D, Basic D&D (BECMI;RC) and Hackmaster (4e and the new Basic). Anyway...
...I tend to change campaign to campaign, but overall my key thoughts are to give XP as listed in the book, flat bonus amounts for key game stuff (rolling a Critical hit, making a perfect skill check, etc), flat bonus amount for gaming-group stuff (making everyone laugh, keeping everyone focused, keeping good notes/maps from session to session, buying the pizza, etc.), and then I award a "next level %'age" for goals completed.
The "goals" bonuses tend to be Personal (character oriented), Minor, Major and Story. I give a flat % bonus equal to whatever their character needs for next level as a bonus. So, for example, a fighter needing 2000xp for 2nd level who completes a Minor goal might get a "5%" bonus; this would be 100xp. That same fighter who completes a Major goal might get a "10%" bonus (200xp), while the end of that Story bonus may be "20%" (or, 400xp). So, just on adventuring alone, no killing and whatnot, that 1st level character is going to have 700xp.
The 'goal' oriented approach allows for party cohesion, without the players feeling the must kill everything in sight. It actually becomes somewhat detrimental to do that, as it's more likely to get them hurt/killed, as well as alert their enemies, thus making them less likely to achieve certain goals...
For other games, I do tend to be a bit more 'fast and loose' with the xp, but try to keep it in line with my percieved tone of the game.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
Old School Grognard DM here (30+ years of RPG'ing), and I play 1e AD&D, Basic D&D (BECMI;RC) and Hackmaster (4e and the new Basic). Anyway...
...I tend to change campaign to campaign, but overall my key thoughts are to give XP as listed in the book, flat bonus amounts for key game stuff (rolling a Critical hit, making a perfect skill check, etc), flat bonus amount for gaming-group stuff (making everyone laugh, keeping everyone focused, keeping good notes/maps from session to session, buying the pizza, etc.), and then I award a "next level %'age" for goals completed.
The "goals" bonuses tend to be Personal (character oriented), Minor, Major and Story. I give a flat % bonus equal to whatever their character needs for next level as a bonus. So, for example, a fighter needing 2000xp for 2nd level who completes a Minor goal might get a "5%" bonus; this would be 100xp. That same fighter who completes a Major goal might get a "10%" bonus (200xp), while the end of that Story bonus may be "20%" (or, 400xp). So, just on adventuring alone, no killing and whatnot, that 1st level character is going to have 700xp.
The 'goal' oriented approach allows for party cohesion, without the players feeling the must kill everything in sight. It actually becomes somewhat detrimental to do that, as it's more likely to get them hurt/killed, as well as alert their enemies, thus making them less likely to achieve certain goals...
For other games, I do tend to be a bit more 'fast and loose' with the xp, but try to keep it in line with my percieved tone of the game.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I give XP strictly by the book. But some situations are left vague in DMG so here are my views:
- Character has to be somehow involved in the challenge. Some effort like standing in reserve behind the corner as agreed with whole group counts as "involvement" and earns full XP (everyone is hiding far away while roque disarms a trap => everyone shares XP).
- XP for good roleplaying, but the maximum is 50 XP per character level per adventure. However if the characters raise level(s) during the adventure, the maximum is counted by the newly gained level(s)
- I'm stingy with story awards and mission awards, I give them if the standard awards don't reflect the full challenge of the adventure. However usually standard awards (with adjustments) do reflect the difficulty of the adventure quite well.
- I use XP adjustments a lot. If the challenge was too easy, XP is ducked.
- I give CR to non-combat challenges and use them a lot. I feel that assigning how difficult it is to save the captive is better than trying some random story award. Like for instance the fact that orcs can kill the captive at any time makes it tactically more difficult for the players, thus defeating orcs earns 150% XP.
So standard awards with fair adjustments, with occasional and small story awards and rarely mission awards (which are massive), plus miniscule amount of roleplaying XP.
- Character has to be somehow involved in the challenge. Some effort like standing in reserve behind the corner as agreed with whole group counts as "involvement" and earns full XP (everyone is hiding far away while roque disarms a trap => everyone shares XP).
- XP for good roleplaying, but the maximum is 50 XP per character level per adventure. However if the characters raise level(s) during the adventure, the maximum is counted by the newly gained level(s)
- I'm stingy with story awards and mission awards, I give them if the standard awards don't reflect the full challenge of the adventure. However usually standard awards (with adjustments) do reflect the difficulty of the adventure quite well.
- I use XP adjustments a lot. If the challenge was too easy, XP is ducked.
- I give CR to non-combat challenges and use them a lot. I feel that assigning how difficult it is to save the captive is better than trying some random story award. Like for instance the fact that orcs can kill the captive at any time makes it tactically more difficult for the players, thus defeating orcs earns 150% XP.
So standard awards with fair adjustments, with occasional and small story awards and rarely mission awards (which are massive), plus miniscule amount of roleplaying XP.
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