EXP - What's Your Method?

[Macbeth]

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.

BardStephenFox uses this sytem for a game I play in, and it rocks. I plan on adopting it in my own game. I highly recommend this system.

 

[Rel]

BardStephenFox uses this sytem for a game I play in, and it rocks. I plan on adopting it in my own game. I highly recommend this system.

Well that's very nice to hear, Macbeth. Thank you. And please mention to BSF when you next see him that I enjoyed his refinements of the system that we corresponded about and I'm considering using THEM when I next GM.

 

[BSF]

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.

I was hoping Rel would post in this thread!

And as Macbeth posted, we use it in the current campaign. I am very happy with it as a DM. I have always awarded non-combat exp, but now the players have a very good idea how much non-combat exp they can gain. They all feel that any resolution to an encounter is viable. And, they can gain exp for characterization by playing a bloodthirsty mercenary, or a peacemaker. They can even have interparty disagreement and expect that nobody will be "penalized" in the exp realm.

The system wouldn't work for all players as it does work best if they are engaged in the game. But, for the players that are engaged in the game, they are able to look for opportunities to show off their character personality, or skills, or a variety of things. I also love reading the comments that they wrote down at the end of each session. It often makes me laugh and we tend to have a good time with it. I think the players like to look at it and find out where they are exp-wise, even if they know that they can't use that exp to level up immediately (as I do require some token downtime for training). When we get higher in levels, I expect that they will be more inclined to use spells that have an exp cost. They will know what their total is, and they will look at opportunities to use the spell to define their character and gain some exp back from it.

I have made very slight changes to Rel's system, but I have tried to keep true to it to see how well it works. Judging by my enthusiastic response, and Macbeth's, I think it is working pretty well for our group.

 

[Azure Trance]

I will print this out and show it to my group, it certainly has more depth then the current system.

 

[MerricB]

I normally follow the guidelines (CR) in the DMG, then adjust downwards by some factor.

Cheers!

 

[RangerWickett]

I love the idea of players having different areas to get points in, and encouraging them to do different types of things. Very groovy.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Great thread : )
My old system - use Exp from DMG - 10% add story awards for noncombat nights based on assigned cr values fror compleating them.
Then offer a +10% for good roleplaying and
another +10% or for very clever ideas/ actions.
The in the current campaign I have been slightly impatient to play through the lower levels - so generous xp. But I like the idea of better control over levels, I require down time to gain level benifits, mostly so that the PC's are encouraged to stay with a mentor/organization who provides easy access to training materials.

New system -
Im going to try and shoot for 2-3 games per level, but I will run some numbers on Raels system, to see what progression would be like.

One problem I have with giving mostly noncombat xp is that ordinary people would be getting xp all the time just for dealing with everyday problems. This means that most geazers would be 5th+ lvl and long lived elves would be silly
my world is mostly low level.
any suggestions or rationalizations?

 

[Johnnie Freedom!]

I was really getting fed up with one of my players nagging me for XP, so I switched to a "flat" model -- 150 * char level XP each session. Sadly, the nagging has continued, so now I'm moving to a "big lump sum after each adventure" model.

The nagging will probably never stop, so I'll try to concentrate it such that it doesn't take up time every session.

-- N

That's a player problem, not an XP problem, as you seem to be sensing.

Stupid XP whoring players...

 

[reveal]

Personally, I got tired of 2 things:

1) Having to figure out how much XP an encounter is worth and figuring out who gets what

2) What the heck to do if a party member died and was resurrected in relation to how much XP should he/she get since they are a level less than everyone else

So.... I do what others on here have stated and simply "Ok guys, you're now level X." I determine when I want them to level. I had one player who really didn't like this and complained. He always played Barbarian or Fighter types, so I asked him why he didn't like it. He honestly couldn't come up with a reason, he "just didn't like it."

So I told him that was his prerogative. Next time he DMed, he got into a habit of not giving out XP (RL kept him busy and he couldn't always e-mail us the info before the next session).

After the campaign ended, I reminded him of his previous objections and he just grinned and said he had changed his mind.

Anyway, beyond keeping track of XP for item creation, spell cost purposes or simply self-gratification, I can't think of a single reason why a person would actually NEED to know how much XP they had.

Everyone in our group is fine with it now.

 

[Rel]

Great thread : )
New system -
Im going to try and shoot for 2-3 games per level, but I will run some numbers on Raels system, to see what progression would be like.

One problem I have with giving mostly noncombat xp is that ordinary people would be getting xp all the time just for dealing with everyday problems. This means that most geazers would be 5th+ lvl and long lived elves would be silly
my world is mostly low level.
any suggestions or rationalizations?

The system we use was never really intended to explain the XP progression for NPC, especially not "commoners". But I will note that many of the categories imply conflict, personal growth or movement toward a significant goal. These are represented on a scale that is beyond what most run of the mill NPC's will encounter on a day to day basis.

As to the matter of the rate of progression, I have a spreadsheet that was developed by a player that shows how fast the characters will gain levels given a variable average number of "tic marks" on the sheet. I typically estimate that the average player in our group will get 7 tics per session. At that rate, they can expect to go from 1st to 2nd in 2-3 sessions, 2nd to 3rd in about 3-4 sessions, about 4-5 sessions for each of 5th-8th levels and gradually increasing from there. Toward the top of the scale, the sheet indicates that 18th to 20th levels take 8 or 9 sessions to gain each one but we've never played at those levels so I'm not sure that holds true.

Anybody who wants the sheet can feel free to e-mail me and I'll send it to you. Just mention the XP spreadsheet in the subject line.