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Nitpicks to an otherwise good presentation: Xp for the golems should be listed with the monster write-up. Just saying 2200 xp for the whole scenario isn't granular enough, as for example it's always possible the PCs will for some reason never meet Za'Gatul (maybe they defeat the golems, take...

No, it's merely one more criticism in a list of them, as shown in the post you quoted. Then perhaps not the best example to pull out?

Been running games fairly regularly since 1984 and playing fairly regularly since 1982.

As nothing overlaps vertically this map could be done top-down just as well, with numeric elevation values given to indicate elevation changes...which this iso map still doesnt tell me! How deep is the shaft from the rug room to the passage? What's the vertical and horizontal on the stairs...

First very quick thought there is that blanket % resistance to all magic should be EA no matter what, while immunities or resistances to certain specific spells or effects or elements should be SA (resistances just one SA no matter how many different things you're resistant to, immunities 1 SA...

My assumption is that the milestones are a fixed thing and, once set and told to the players, cannot be moved or altered; same as any other story or setting element in the game. (I view levels as actual things in the setting rather than as a metagame construct - you know what level you are...

Which in a way brings up yet another variable, leading to a question: When playing, is your* primary goal "to level up" or is your primary goal "to just play"? Put another way, is levelling up your main reason for playing or is it just a once-in-as-while happy side effect? For me it's very...

Well, those who survive the funnel, I suppose...... :)

While I sort of agree with this in principle, the moment you have more than one player I find it often becomes an exercise in cat-herding: what's a great and highly-interesting adventure for one player holds no attraction whatsoever for another.* And so I just run what I run, with the players...

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!) :)

Confidence and ease go hand in hand. If a module's hard to run due to lack of clarity, page-flipping, too many buried details, poor mapping, etc. then that will quickly lead to a loss of confidence.

There's been a few adventure modules I've read (and at least one that I've converted and run) that expressly tell the DM to level up the characters when they reach a certain point. If one goes strictly by the book, that means if for some reason the PCs never reach that point - even if they do...

@ilgatto , I'm starting to think you're worrying too much about whay "they" were thinking at the time, where the true usefulness of this exercise in fact lays in redesigning the SA and EA lists - and maybe all of Appendix E in the process - such that "we" can make more sense of them today.

Which completely discourages them from doing anything other than the mission given to them, becuase that's where the milestone is, even if it's something that doesn't capture their interest (either in-game or at-table). Fine for AP play, not so fine for anything remotely sandbox.

Still doesn't account for some characters earning more xp through their in-game actions while others earn less, and that also can lead to imbalance after a while. It also strips out the idea of items or effects granting bonus levels or xp (e.g. Deck cards, some of the major magic tomes, some...

Pardon the terrible pun, but that would be a messy poll as you'd have to list each level by each edition. 15th level in 4e ain't the same as 15th level in 1e.

The big thing milestone xp doesn't do is reward individual characters for what they do and-or not reward them for what they don't do. Everyone gets the same reward at the same time, which (unintentionally, I hope!) encourages a mindset - particularly in a larger party - of letting others take...

Are you talking as a player or DM here? If yes, does this mean as a player you count the number of encouters your character has had this level? The thread is asking your xp preference as a player.

Anything I do is still done as if being printed on paper, usually 8.5x11 or close. Similar to the classic adventures, I'll put as many area write-ups on a page as happen to fit. The map is detached so you can always see how an area or room relates to the others around it; your thumbnail idea...

Crits and fumbles are fine in principle. In practice, however, having each occur 5% of the time is too frequent meaning confirm rolls of some sort are needed. I do like the idea that the worst roll you can do always fails (in D&D, a nat 1) and the best roll you can do (in D&D, a nat 20) always...