D&D General XP: How Do You Like To Earn It?

[Scribe]

I guess that is one of the inherent benefits of xp for gold or other concrete, non-combat rewards. If it is worthwhile for players to farm random encounters for xp, they will.

Yeah, this is why I've come to realize Gold is it for me. It just baselines the expectation, the gameplay loop, in a way that both reinforces the game/adventure and removes nonsense XP farms/murder hobos.

 

[Zardnaar]

Zard is often an enigma to me. Though, milestone purpose isnt all about keeping characters the same level. It is also about removing a focus (which my players were entirely obnoxious about) on XP earning activities instead of engaging the narrative organically or in a way that interested the players.

A few examples;

GM: (every time I mention there is a door anywhere)
Players: OHHHHHHHHH IS IT LOCKED AND CAN WE PICK IT FOR XP!?

GM: "Bats fly out of a cave as you peer inside of it." (simple flavor and atmosphere setting notion)
Players: OHHHHHHH CAN WE SHOOT BOWS AT THE BATS AND CAST MAGIC MISSILE ON THEM FOR XP!?

GM: There is a fork in the road. A path that winds to the left with footprints of a beast you have been chasing, and a path that winds to the right.
Players: THE RIGHT PATH IS JUST EXTRA XP BUT WE PROBABLY NEED IT TO LEVEL FOR THE BEAST WE ARE CHASING. (actual discussion at table)

I could go on and on but I dislike the things above. It felt more like the players wanted to sniff out XP then to actually engage the narrative and setting. Everything was like a carnival shooting gallery and the GM expected to be a screaming carny with cheap prizes everytime they tossed a dart into a balloon.

Well you can just hand out milestone xp due to classes leveling at different rates. Everyone has same xp but different levels pre 3E/clone.

 

[Lanefan]

I guess that is one of the inherent benefits of xp for gold or other concrete, non-combat rewards. If it is worthwhile for players to farm random encounters for xp, they will.

Which is fine until they bump a level and realize that because all those random encounters they farmed didn't provide a lick of treasure, they now can't afford their training...

(see, training rules do have a use!)

 

[Stormonu]

Zard is often an enigma to me. Though, milestone purpose isnt all about keeping characters the same level. It is also about removing a focus (which my players were entirely obnoxious about) on XP earning activities instead of engaging the narrative organically or in a way that interested the players.

A few examples;

GM: (every time I mention there is a door anywhere)
Players: OHHHHHHHHH IS IT LOCKED AND CAN WE PICK IT FOR XP!?

GM: "Bats fly out of a cave as you peer inside of it." (simple flavor and atmosphere setting notion)
Players: OHHHHHHH CAN WE SHOOT BOWS AT THE BATS AND CAST MAGIC MISSILE ON THEM FOR XP!?

GM: There is a fork in the road. A path that winds to the left with footprints of a beast you have been chasing, and a path that winds to the right.
Players: THE RIGHT PATH IS JUST EXTRA XP BUT WE PROBABLY NEED IT TO LEVEL FOR THE BEAST WE ARE CHASING. (actual discussion at table)

I could go on and on but I dislike the things above. It felt more like the players wanted to sniff out XP then to actually engage the narrative and setting. Everything was like a carnival shooting gallery and the GM expected to be a screaming carny with cheap prizes everytime they tossed a dart into a balloon.

Reminds me of the tales with PCs keeping crowbars to even pack up the items nailed to the floor because Treasure = XP.

 

[payn]

Reminds me of the tales with PCs keeping crowbars to even pack up the items nailed to the floor because Treasure = XP.

Yeah I remember once being asked about the value of copper pipes and fixtures of a dungeon…

 

[Reynard]

Reminds me of the tales with PCs keeping crowbars to even pack up the items nailed to the floor because Treasure = XP.

Yeah I remember once being asked about the value of copper pipes and fixtures of a dungeon…

I love stuff like this. Not only does it show that the players are invested in the game, it gives me all kinds of opportunities to bring on the wandering monsters and rival adventuring groups.

So you are going to make a hell of a racket and spend a week clearing out the copper piping? Cool. In the morning of day 2 you see a orc work crew with an ogre-ox rolling up to the dungeon entrance...

 

[payn]

I love stuff like this. Not only does it show that the players are invested in the game, it gives me all kinds of opportunities to bring on the wandering monsters and rival adventuring groups.

So you are going to make a hell of a racket and spend a week clearing out the copper piping? Cool. In the morning of day 2 you see a orc work crew with an ogre-ox rolling up to the dungeon entrance...

Meh. I’d prefer to work this out of game instead of just TPK the group for not dungeon crawling correctly while playing.

 

[Reynard]

Meh. I’d prefer to work this out of game instead of just TPK the group for not dungeon crawling correctly while playing.

That is a strange interpretation of what I said.

 

[payn]

That is a strange interpretation of what I said.

I don’t see why. My complaint is the players being hardwired to getting stuff in an extremely boring way and the response was to lean into the boringness with random encounters as a response. Just not my style.

 

[Reynard]

I don’t see why. My complaint is the players being hardwired to getting stuff in an extremely boring way and the response was to lean into the boringness with random encounters as a response. Just not my style.

I am not sure how that leads to the idea of punitive viking hat GMing, but okay.