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And colour. Don't forget colour.

This is encountering the monster; you interacted with it, and it with you. Bypassing the encounter would be if you sneaked past it while it was asleep and it never knew you were there. In either case I'd give more xp for the Giant than the Ogre due to the significantly greater...

You go on to quote the DMG... I've always read the bolded as being separate and discrete from any xp given for the treasure itself that those monsters or tricks were guarding. If - as I-as-DM "determine subjectively" - I feel their outwitting of the guards on the bridge is worth 100 xp then...

Actually it might, under the aegis of "outwitting" them; e.g. if you talk your way past the guards rather than fight them.

Indeed; and as the characters advance in level they tend to become somewhat less perishable; they die less often and when they do, revival effects are more available and-or affordable. The key is to have what happens in character stay in character. I've had parties blow up in huge arguments...

And if-when it matters, you might get xp for something bypassed but you'll never get any for something missed.

Pretty sure 2e kept individual xp as well. 3e got caught up in trying to ensure the PCs were all the same level all the time, which the TSR editions didn't care about.

Hmmmmm.....if my game advanced at this rate and if they'd been playing the same characters all the way through..... <<<<<crunch crunch crunch go the numbers....>>>>> .....then after 1103 sessions of about 4 hours each on average, they'd be - with allowances for a few level drains and other...

And to me, that's mostly wrong. The only bit that's correct is that the Thief who goes down in the first round was exposed to risk and thus should get xp. The Thief who hides by the door for the whole combat and doesn't contribute anything shouldn't get xp; and that the game wants them to is...

We have a somewhat amorphous crew of about 20-25 people scattered across a series of ongoing campaigns, five or six of those people have been around almost since day one. Over time lots of people have come and gone from (and sometimes come back to) our games, there's maybe been about 70 in...

Hinting at the presence of a danger sounds like "hook" from here, just fancied up a bit. That's true of a hook-and-bite type of game as well. The DM (or, rarely, one or more players) sets the hook without knowing if it'll be bitten; if it is then that's where things go next and if it isn't...

Along the way, you’ll face difficult choices and life-threatening peril. It’s important as adventurers to embrace this danger as part of the game. Playing it safe, not taking risks, and overthinking a plan can often slow the game to a halt. Don’t be afraid to leap in headfirst and think like a...

Ruthless exploiters? That's a bit much. Players that are both competitive - against the game, and occasionally against each other - and cooperative - working as a team when the chips are down - at the same time? Sure. You and I either have, or have self-fostered, very different groups of...

So if the PCs never encounter anything (well, maybe except each other) that must make for a rather dull game after a while. Keep in mind, too, there's small-e encounters i.e. the PCs meeting and interacting with various elements of the fictional world they inhabit; and there's capital-E...

Everything the GM creates in an attempt to capture the players' interest is a hook. Rumour of treasure in the mountains. Strange tracks leading off the trail. An out-of-place old wizard in a rowdy sailors' tavern. A place on the map called "Bebekki Ruins". All hooks, just on different...

@AlViking uses the stick, I prefer to use the carrot. How else can a DM gently encourage some risk-taking?

I've been in that game and played with those players and lost characters because of it. I know of what I speak. :) The other nice thing individual xp does is trend play a bit more toward high-risk high-reward, and away from low-event plodding. Nothing extreme, but it does move the needle...

What milestone levelling really devalues is individual character bravery and risk-taking. It doesn't matter what you do or how many risks you take (or conversely, what you don't do or how many risks you stand back and let others take), you're all gonna level up at the same time. Which means...

Might be a dumb question, but isn't that exactly the same principle as dropping adventure hooks in a sandbox game, only on a smaller scale?

I don't think of them as encounters either, at least not during play, but I am almost always thinking about (or looking at, if pre-written) "what comes next, if they don't change course". What's in the next room? What's the next threat? What have they left behind them? Is this a good time to...