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<blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 7178504" data-attributes="member: 71699">I'm not finding this so far with Out of the Abyss. Story-based awards have been greatly outweighed by encounter XP. My PCs are at level 4 and look likely to hit level 7 at about the right point. I don't know what will happen after that. My approach is that PCs do not have to slaughter creatures to earn XP for them so long as they resolve the encounter. For some creatures of course, there's only one option.For me it is important that advancement is validated in terms of risks taken and challenges overcome. Therefore I dislike story-based awards that simply say &quot;If you've reached this point you are granted this level.&quot; I feel like that is better managed by doing the work of breaking down the XP and assigning any supplementary/story-based awards to concrete challenges. That makes it clear what risks are being taken and problems overcome to validate the advancement. Put another way, I don't demand that all XP is earned from fighting but I do demand it is all earned from risk-taking and problem-resolution. And I expect professional game designers to put in the work to formally map XP out over the adventure. Frankly, that isn't onerous and for me greatly improves the value of the product.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="clearstream, post: 7178504, member: 71699"] I'm not finding this so far with Out of the Abyss. Story-based awards have been greatly outweighed by encounter XP. My PCs are at level 4 and look likely to hit level 7 at about the right point. I don't know what will happen after that. My approach is that PCs do not have to slaughter creatures to earn XP for them so long as they resolve the encounter. For some creatures of course, there's only one option. For me it is important that advancement is validated in terms of risks taken and challenges overcome. Therefore I dislike story-based awards that simply say "[I]If you've reached this point you are granted this level.[/I]" I feel like that is better managed by doing the work of breaking down the XP and assigning any supplementary/story-based awards to concrete challenges. That makes it clear what risks are being taken and problems overcome to validate the advancement. Put another way, I don't demand that all XP is earned from fighting but I do demand it is all earned from risk-taking and problem-resolution. And I expect professional game designers to put in the work to formally map XP out over the adventure. Frankly, that isn't onerous and for me greatly improves the value of the product. [/QUOTE]

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