Alternate XP systems

[Staffan]

So, see, they didn't say anything about speeding it up for 18-20th or one rate in tier-2 thru 9, higher at 10 only, then faster for 11 to... etc etc etc.

Seems like to them, those designers folks, they seemed to think what mattered, what the expectation was, was little more than " move thru the first couple levels in just a handful of sessions to get to the rest of the game which has a somewhat slower pace for the rest of the campaign."

Mike Mearls did say, however, that the speed-up at level 11+ was intentional.

 

[77IM]

I used quest XP for Princes of the Apocalypse and it worked very well, except for some weird issues involving the setup of that adventure (it's very easy to out-level the early sidequests). I'm also planning to use quest XP for Curse of Strahd if I ever get to run that module.


The most fun XP system I ever experienced was "Keys" from Lady Blackbird. I tried to convert it to 5E, but I'm not totally satisfied with the outcome. I'm just not sure such a system would work well in D&D (where XP is very important, and the player's ability to play into their character's traits is often hampered by the DM's preconceived adventure ideas).

 

[darkrose50]

Leveling from 1 to 3 should likely be quick, and then slow down. Looking at the XP table this seems baked in. The flat rare leveling systems should take this into consideration.
[*] I like the idea of playing archeologists of treasure hunters where XP was determined by the value of unearthed ancient treasure.
[*] I like the idea that it takes a number of years times the new level attained. I think that different classes would have differing multipliers, but I think that this as a good way to measure classes, especially wizards.

Figure that if a wizard was the equivalent of a fully trained medical doctor (30-ish) . . . then . . .

L1 = 1-year of experience . . . Undergraduate Degree [age 22]
L2 = 3-years of experience . . . Masters Degree [age 24]
L3 = 6-years of experience . . . Doctoral Degree [age 30]
L4 = 10-years of experience . . . [age 40]
L5 = 15-years of experience . . . [age 55] . . . under this thinking a fireball tossing wizard would normally be around 55-years-old.

. . . but these are heroes. I like to think that heroes would level advance quicker than their non-hero brethren.
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[*] I also like the idea of having a winter downtime as a minimum in order to level in order to age a year (perhaps starting at level 4).

 

[5ekyu]

Mike Mearls did say, however, that the speed-up at level 11+ was intentional.

And yet in spite of Mearls commdnt, the final rule for session xp variant did not carry this thru.

 

[S'mon]

I know the old grognard tradition is to have things get slower as you advance, but at some point that becomes un-fun for the players. D&D already has issues with scaling that cause high-level play to bog down. Adding additional time on top of that to the leveling curve means you spend a whole lot of time at a single level as you progress, which can get a bit stale for the players. I try to give my players about ~30-40 XP per session in my 100XP system, which is right in line with the "level every 2-3 sessions," outlined above.

After running a megadungeon game with trad XP where the PCs level 5-10 never seemed to level, I felt this way too and so went to my 20 XP/level system, with PCs getting around 7 XP per session they level up every 2-3 sessions as per the DMG.

 

[S'mon]

Oh, for Princes of the Apocalypse game where we only play once every 4 weeks it's 5 XP/level 1-3, then 10 thereafter. At around 6 XP per session levels 1 & 2 took 1 session each, after 3 sessions the PCs are on I think 18 XP needing 20 for 4th level. For this game I don't mind if the PCs out-level some of the content; I think it should work best that way.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I really liked the 40krpg system of xp. There were tiers of powers and abilities that you could buy but higher tiers were only unlocked when you hit a specific amount of xp.

So, 0-400xp let you buy stuff from tier 1
401-1000xp let you buy stuff from tier 1&2
Etc...

It made powering up more gradual and natural than D&D.

I’ve always wanted to break classes down in to their base abilities and put a cost to them but it would be hard to balance.