Oh, interesting! I usually award XP at the end of the session (though I call out each award and what it’s for specifically) and have players level up between sessions.
If I understand the question, see above. Awarded at the end of the session, but with each award called out at that time (so, for example, “everyone earned 25 experience for the encounter with the goblins, 50 for navigating the maze, 25 for talking your way past the gargoyle, 25 for the encounter with the bugbear, 75 for the boss fight, and 50 for recovering the McGuffin, for a total of 250 experience.”) I find it to be a nice way to recap the session, and it insures players know what they’re getting awarded for, without interrupting the flow of the adventure to adjust the numbers on the sheet.
My players need their fix on a more frequent interval.
The problem I have with lump sums is they obfuscate where the XP is coming from. It’s still more psychologically satisfying than story-based advancement because you have the progress bar to watch filling up, but it’s less satisfying than seeing the direct correlation between your actions in the game and the XP you earn for them. It also squanders the ability to use XP as an incentive. If the players see that they gain XP for doing a particular thing, it encourages them to do that thing more. But if they just receive a lump sum without knowing what they did to earn the XP, the only thing they’re encouraged to do is keep showing up every week. It ends up being about the same psychologically as session-based advancement.
That’s reasonable.
