EXP - What's Your Method?

[wedgeski]

I'm curious how many people pay close attention to ELs of opponents, average party level, and number of characters when it's time to give experience.

I'm still using the DMG chart - five minutes at the end of the session and you're done. Interestingly, when my group first started thumbing through 3ed, the XP advancement rate was one of the main things they balked at, primarily because, as DM's, they're tight sob's when it comes to dishing out the levels. However when I started a new Dragonlance campaign recently and mentioned I was considering cutting the standard DMG advancement rate in half, they all screamed bloody murder at me. Fickle things, players.

I don't consider 'too much admin' or 'rewards combat not roleplaying' as valid arguments against the standard XP system. I hand out appropriate roleplaying and story awards when I see fit. As always, YMMV.

 

[random user]

I simply decide how many sessions I want for the characters to advance if they were doing perfect (realizing that will rarely happen). Then I divide that number into the number you would need for the highest level person to level, and that's the max amount they can get in a session.

Depending on what they do, usually they get around 70-90%, though there are times where they have done worse or better. I give out the same xp to each person regardless of level. I do value individual achievements, but I'll award the entire party instead of the single person. This fosters a "group first" mentality, and minimizes the amount any one person wants to hog the spotlight. It also encourages people to roleplay and find innovative solutions rather than trying to find monsters to add to their kill-list.

I've thought about breaking things into "minor goals" and "major goals" etc but so far my players have been ok with me just winging it rather than having a set formula.

 

[Thanee]

For combat experience I actually use the tables from the DMG, just only give out half as much.

I try to give similar experience as what is given out for combat for non-combat situations (story goals, clever ideas, etc.).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I use the system from Unearthed Arcana, which is fast and easy. Then I add in an award for roleplaying.

See? I'm a simple man!

 

[Zappo]

When I feel like it, I roll 1d10x100 for each player and say that the differences are due to roleplaying rewards.

Not really, but I certainly don't use the DMG method. I figure how fast I want the characters to level, and assign XP accordingly. Awards are modified according to good roleplaying, participation, good ideas, and for especially difficult challenges.

 

[DragonLancer]

Currently I am using the 3.5 XP rules combined with the RP reward system from the DLCS.

Third edition XP allows levelling far too quickly. I believe that characters should level every 4 adventures (not sessions), so I am thinking of giving each character a quarter of the XP they need for the next level, with a +/- 10% based on how well they got into character, roleplayed and did solving the plot or furthered the campaign story.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm basically using the codified story awards system from Call of Cthulhu d20 (see, they *could* do it if they really wanted to!) but modified to take account of varying levels - those above the party average get less, those below the party average get more.

Cheers

 

[Rel]

I've posted the method that we've developed several times in the past but I'll just give a brief description here. If anybody wants more details, I'll be happy to post them or send them via e-mail.

Basically each player has a chart with several categories on it and a blank line next to each one. The categories are things like Combat, Magic, Character, Goal, Sacrifice, Social, Skills, etc. (there are about 10 categories total). As the session progresses, the players will jot down very brief notes in the various categories when their character does something related to that category.

At the end of the session, they hand the sheets to the GM and he runs down the list, placing a (or sometimes more than one) "tic mark" next to each category the character has fulfilled. He then adds up the tic marks and multiplies them by a multiplier based on the character's level (I usually use 50+(current character level x 15)).

The benefits we've realized from this system are several:

First, we never have to calculate XP based on the tables in the DMG. Even more importantly, the game is not driven by combat. If a session goes by that was focused exclusively on political maneuvering or information gathering and contained no combat, we can still easily calculate XP using the same system.

It also has the added benefit of focusing the players on the game, their goals within the game and the roleplaying of their character. If they look at their XP sheet halfway through the session and see they've written nothing under Character or Goal, then they try to focus more on bringing their character's personality into the game and pursuing the personal and party goals of the character.

We've used this system for years (including back when we played Rolemaster, whose XP system is FAR more complicated and cumbersome than D&D's ever was) and it works great for our group.

 

[Narfellus]

charlotte gamer

my brother is a DM/player and lives in Charlotte. He might be interested at zachary_hauser@med.unc.edu, if you want to email him. As for our XP rewards, i've never liked using ECL's and detailed CR's and all that crap. It bogs the game down in too many numbers for me. We actually use a system a player came up with that allows me to divvy out 1-10 XP per game session, and the players use these to buy skills/feats/abilities/hp/BAB as they see fit. It's a little more complicated, but we like it.

I'm curious how many people pay close attention to ELs of opponents, average
party level, and number of characters when it's time to give experience.
Our group never has, and it seems like it would be a pain - further, it
would seem to undervalue the sessions where there is little or no combat. I
certainly don't want my players to think, "Gosh, that was fun, but I want to
kill something or my character will never get better!" Obviously you can
get around this with storyline or individual EXP bonuses for good
roleplaying, but our group does it a little bit differently.

Here's our system:

On average, I have arbitrarily determined that the average party member will
go up a level *on average*, *over time*, approximately once per three game
sessions. Every session gets marked with either a "1," a "2," or a "3,"
with me (the DM) trying to keep an average close to 2. A great combat,
great role-playing initiatives from the party, crucial campaign moments,
etc., merit a 3. The sessions where it takes longer to get started, players
are less involved or distracted, and little significant combat occurs are
granted a 1. 'Normal' nights get a 2.

Then, each character present gets an amount of EXP equal to: average
character level * 1000 * X/6, where X is the quality and excitement of that
night's play. As long as X averages close to 2 over time, then they'll
advance roughly one level every three sessions. Note that we might have
five consecutive '1's and have no advancement, or two consecutive '3's for a
quicker level.

This gets us to a pace I like, and allows me to make a more holistic,
top-level judgement regarding not just combat results, but also player
involvement and role-playing quality. And, to my players, they know that
their EXP will be (to some extent!) by the *nature* of the session, and more
by things under their own control. And yes, I do give individual awards for
preparation of background material, quality role-playing, etc., so that
quality individual accomplishments are also rewarded, though I don't do as
good a job of this as I would like.

One might argue that this method kind of hurts the party's ability to
advance super-quickly through great action over time, since they'll never
exceed or fall behind +1 level / 3 sessions over the long term. To some
extent this is true regarding level advancement, but I should note that I do
give significant in-game rewards (such as treasure, reputation, followers)
from which they do benefit should they consistently outperform, so it's not
like they're shackled and their performance becomes meaningless.

Anyway, just curious as to other people's thoughts, both on this system and
regarding what they do. I'm pretty good at intuitively balancing foes for
our party, so for me CL is almost a non-factor entirely.

PS - If anybody in Charlotte, NC is looking to join a game, let me know - we
currently have four players plus me, but one of those players is moving away
this summer and we really like having a group of five.

 

[Exquisite Dead Guy]

I'm just starting up a new campaign and thought I'd try giving out between 50-75% of the suggested XP.

For those of you that already award XP like this, do you give out full amounts of suggested treasure or do you cut it by a similar amount? Seems to me that if you don't the PCs would have more treasure per level than they should.

Thanks for your input!