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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6445661" data-attributes="member: 42582">The main discussion of Quests (including player authorship of them and XP awards in relation to them) is found in the 4e PHB p 258 (the first heading in the chapter on Adventuring), and the 4e DMG pp 102-3 (in the chapter on Adventures) and pp 122-23 (in the chapter on XP awards) . There is also some discussion in Essentials, but I don't think it is as thorough.According to "stealth" errata in Essentials, XP are awarded for a skill challenge whether the characters succeed or fail.As I've often commentd, the function of XP in 4e is very different from in classical D&D. (I won't purport to understand the point of XP in 2nd ed AD&D and 3E.) In classic D&D, XP are a reward. Better players expect to earn more of them; weaker players earn fewer. Poor players might spend a whole evening making a hash of a dungeon raid, having few combat victories and collecting little treasure and hence getting little reward for their efforts.In 4e, XP are bascially a pacing device. Provided the players are actually engaging the game - resolving encounters (be they combat or non-combat) in a way that engages the agreed story focuses of play (ie earns quest awards), they earn XP. In DMG 2 this is even extended to the idea that non-encounter-focused but serious exploratory play earns XP. The basic rate is around one level-appropriate monsters worth per quarter-hour of play. Hence, provided that players sincerely play the game, their PCs will advance in level, thereby progressing through the stages of the game (heroic, paragon, epic and the endgame).Awarding XP for failing at a skill challenge is part of this. But if the players "avoid" a skill challenge in the sense of (say) teleport around it, and hence engage in 5 minutes of play rather than 1 hour of play, then on the 4e logic XP shouldn't be awarded. Obviously the players didn't want to play that part of the game, they wanted to do something else - so let's have them do that, and then award XP when that has been done.This is also why 4e, more than any other edition, lends itself completely to "level when the story makes it appropriate" approach - and the DMG expressly canvasses that option (p 121), the first to do so as far as I'm aware.</blockquote>

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