D&D 5E Do you use XPs or Milestones?

[Zio_the_dark]

In my current campaign I use XP to keep a track (but PC have no XP on their sheet) but sometimes even if they meet requirement for the next level (from an XP point of view) they may take on one additional journey without leveling (seems like a milestone approach). I'm using 4th edition right now and reduced xp gain from monster by a third but reward xp for everything played out of battle (even if player don't see xp on their sheet I do tell them when they have done something I consider rewarding)

 

[iserith]

My players don't need the carrot and stick method. They are invested in their characters and the campaign.

Inherent in your statement, perhaps unintended, is that groups that use XP need it because their players are not "invested in their characters and the campaign." Is that what you mean to assert?

We do have portions of sessions that deal with down time activities, which is part of the game. If they feel the last days were too harrowing and the characters want to rest and chill I'm ok with that.

I sometimes use downtime activities, depending on the campaign, but these get resolved in minutes so the party can get back to being bold adventurers confronting deadly perils in a world of swords and sorcery.

I prefer the neutral session-based approach. Anything I can stop doing outside of narrating/adjucating is a win for me.

I don't find adding up some numbers and dividing by 5 after each challenge to be a hardship, but otherwise share the value that having less to do as DM is generally better than having more to do. But of course there are trade-offs with any method. You're much more likely, for example, to have good portions of your sessions spent shopping or in taverns which is not the sort of game play I want to experience as a DM or player.

 

[Stoutstien]

Both and then some.
I found XP to be one of the best ways to have the players control pacing from both in and out of character viewpoint.
Let's say there is a possibility of 4 encounters, 2 combat, 1 exploratory, and one milestone I have planned out for the party within the parameters of a short rest.

• Party bypassed the 1st encounter by stealth rewarding with max XP
• Party fails stealth trying to bypass the second one resulting in combat. They are successful in resolving it rewarding max XP.
• The party decides to retreat to regroup therefore facing the encounter bypassed previously. They decide to eliminate it but only receive 1xp due to already being rewarded from previously.
• The party rests and tries again but because they rested each encounter is worth 25% less or 50% if they long rested. This effect is cumulative.
• Party completes the objective and knows that their decisions drive the ending results both narratively and mechanically.

 

[atanakar]

Inherent in your statement, perhaps unintended, is that groups that use XP need it because their players are not "invested in their characters and the campaign." Is that what you mean to assert?

Not at all. From my personal experience when I stopped using XPs, they players stopped «cleaning the levels» to get the maximum points. They became more invested in the actual narrative, missions.

 

[Oofta]

I use sort-of-milestone leveling. More hours of play or number of sessions leveling assuming the story is progressing. It's not really milestone because I don't have set goals, achievements for plot lines. I have events, organizations and obstacles but where the PCs decide to go or what direction they take the campaign is up to them.

So I may have a vampire trying to take over the city, but if the group isn't interested or decide the overly organized and well equipped orcs rallying under the flag of a black fist is a greater danger. Because they've made a decision on what the bigger evil is, maybe the vampire will succeed. Maybe that leads to another campaign or a different campaign arc later on.

At the same time I want to throw different types of threats and grow the scope of influence of the PCs over time. I don't want to use a system that encourages (or discourages) behavior from a meta-game perspective. Rewards and motivation should all come from the PC's perspective.

 

[Raunalyn]

"Do you use XPs or Milestones?"

Yes

 

[ART!]

I can't be bothered to decide what the XP should be for every cool thing that happens, so I go with milestone. I try to incentivize with Inspiration, instead.

If anyone has ever made an XP rewards list for player and PC behavior, accomplishments, etc, for 5E, I'd love to see it.

 

[Fenris-77]

I use XP. I have XP amounts for different levels of encounter difficulty, both combat and story related. Maybe that counts as a modified XP system though, IDK. I'm not handing out levels by fiat though. Generally I have the campaign planned on X encounters per sessions and X sessions per level, at least roughly.

 

[Arilyn]

The players level up when it feels right in the story. We slow it down around 4th level because no one in our group is a fan of flying up too quickly.

 

[iserith]

Not at all. From my personal experience when I stopped using XPs, they players stopped «cleaning the levels» to get the maximum points. They became more invested in the actual narrative, missions.

What I see in my games is that they go after the XP and are also interested in what's going on in the setting. These things don't have to be mutually exclusive.