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Message: <blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 6954360" data-attributes="member: 12377">I'm glad you like it. I should clarify that this document is not playtested. Like, at all. So, I'd very much like feedback about specific XP awards that seem way off, especially from people who've played the adventure. (I'm currently a player in this campaign -- we are level 9 and are about half-way through the Castle -- so I do have a bit of experience with it.)To determine XP values, I worked backwards from the "Areas By Level" table on page 6. I wanted each pair of areas to contain about enough XP to level the party, plus a little extra to account for things they missed. This was mostly guesswork and gut feeling, but I came up with guidelines as I went along.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I tried to make boss monsters or set-piece encounters worth at least the face-value of the monsters. Often this would then get split between XP for meeting the creature and XP for defeating the creature. In general, monsters that I expected the players to parley with or flee from are worth more for meeting; monsters that are pretty much just obstacles that need to be eliminated are worth more for defeating. For example, Exenthanter the lich is way more interesting to talk to than to destroy, so his award slants heavily towards meet.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I tried to account for monsters in the area and incorporate their XP into the main award. For example, the arcanoloth in the Amber Temple is worth extra, to account for all the flameskulls around. Likewise, getting the magic gem from the statue is worth extra XP for all the druids around it, but getting the same gem from Wintersplinter later is worth a lot less, because Wintersplinter has his own XP award.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Meeting a friendly NPC is usually in the 100-300 XP range, depending on where they are and how important they are to the story; more important NPCs in harder-to-reach areas are worth more. Witnessing an interesting and scary event (such as the March of the Dead in Barovia Village) is generally worth 150 XP.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Travelling to a new place is worth 500/750/1000 XP based on expected level. The higher-level places tend to be farther out, so a greater risk of random encounters on the way there.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"Major" quests tend to be worth 1000+ XP. This award is increased based on how much overland travel is involved, how important it is to the story, and what level the players are likely to be when they accomplish it. Again, lots of guesswork. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In general I didn't give XP for finding treasures, even good ones, because treasure is its own reward. I did give XP when there was some kind of puzzle or challenge to finding the treasure (challenge above and beyond "get past scary monsters"), or finding the treasure advanced the story somehow. For example, finding the three special treasures from the fortune reading is worth XP because they are part of the story. But the Tome of Strahd is worth extra because it advances the story much more (by revealing background info), and because it's pretty useless (the other two treasures are worth getting just because they are awesome).</li> </ul>The adventure itself wasn't very helpful with assigning XP values for anything. The only one I remember seeing was that destroying the Heart of Sorrow was worth 1,500 XP. -- 77IM</blockquote>

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