D&D General Experience Matters - The benefits of XP

[Lanefan]

I always use XP in my 5e D&D games, usually individual XP - I mostly GM sandbox games, where it just works better IMO. For a quest-based game I use group XP. I also like the 'skill ticks' in Dragonbane, which derive from BRP. I very much dislike levels handed out arbitrarily by the GM, and I don't hand out XP with any particular progression in mind. Unlike Lanefan however I almost always give the same XP to every PC present at the session.

This is one thing I'm pretty hard-line on: xp are a reward for what the character does in the fiction and NEVER a reward for what the player does at the table. Which means, if a player misses a session but that player's character is active, it'll get xp as normal. Flip side: if a player is present but for some reason that player's character does nothing all night (maybe it's dead or captured and revival or rescue took longer than expected) then no xp for that one.

 

[Lanefan]

Na, the solution is not to pile on more book keeping and downtime. I want to actually play the game during the session.

Part of the game is and always has been character bookkeeping.

 

[payn]

Part of the game is and always has been character bookkeeping.

Out of session is when it happens at my table. .

 

[Vaalingrade]

Why? Players in my games seem to really like it.

I'm torn.

I've been in games with Character points/ Karma where you can buy a new power or ability and leveling mid-session is a cool move that's fun to do. Like the hero getting a power-up mid-battle. I remember a Hero game where my metal controller gained the ability to alchemize one metal into another after being seeing a friend pinned down by a Sentinel made of Secondary Adamantium and it was awesome.

But... I've been in D&D games where we were expected to level in midsession and it was pretty clunky and didn't allow time to really consider your choices because you're doing a lot of things at the same time. A lot of the time midsession leveling was retrained to something else next session.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Part of the game is and always has been character bookkeeping.

Lack of bookkeeping was so powerful and preferable that the 3e designers thought it was worth a level's worth of slot advancement, five feats and full-round metamagic.

 

[Lanefan]

Out of session is when it happens at my table. .

This assumes numerous things:

1. That the players have their character sheets between sessions (they usually don't, here)
2. That the players are willing to put in that time between sessions (they often aren't, here)
3. For level-up, that nothing in the level-up process requires DM input or supervision (it often if not always does, here)
4. For treasury division, that there's no inter-character (and thus inter-player) discussion or interaction required e.g. conflicting claims to a certain item (happens almost every treasury, here)

 

[Lanefan]

Lack of bookkeeping was so powerful and preferable that the 3e designers thought it was worth a level's worth of slot advancement, five feats and full-round metamagic.

I suppose a factor to consider is how often the characters bump. In 3e-4e-5e as designed they bump pretty much every time they sneeze, meaning you could be dealing with level-up bookkeeping every session or two; and I can see how that could become annoying. Even more so given that levelling up in the WotC editions is generally more of a production than in the TSR versions.

In my game they don't bump anywhere nearly that often. Even with staggered advancement rates, after very low level a half dozen sessions or more can go by without anyone bumping and even longer between opportunities to train up. Thus, it's not as big an issue.

 

[Li Shenron]

If the group's method for character advancement is "level up whenever the DM feels like it," which is what many people call "milestone XP" (even though it's not defined that way in the rules), what is being incentivized here? Nothing, really. Except pestering the DM periodically to level up, I suppose.

Nope, not in my experience. What is being incentivized is to stop worrying about levelling up as a primary purpose and focus on the rest of the game.

 

[payn]

This assumes numerous things:

1. That the players have their character sheets between sessions (they usually don't, here)

Of course they do. Also, its stored online. Thats very very odd for 2023.

2. That the players are willing to put in that time between sessions (they often aren't, here)

That sucks, my players love spending time between sessions on this stuff.

3. For level-up, that nothing in the level-up process requires DM input or supervision (it often if not always does, here)

Outside of initial requests at session zero, this hasnt come up in over 20 years for me.

4. For treasury division, that there's no inter-character (and thus inter-player) discussion or interaction required e.g. conflicting claims to a certain item (happens almost every treasury, here)

We use discord to communicate between sessions so this simply isnt an issue.

 

[Lanefan]

Of course they do. Also, its stored online. Thats very very odd for 2023.

I don't run online. The reason we leave character sheets with the DM is so that if you don't make the next session your character can still be played, as it's still in the field with the party. Playing online, we have to have our sheets (most of us still use paper sheets), but it means that if someone can't make a session the best the DM will have is an out of date copy.

That sucks, my players love spending time between sessions on this stuff.

A few of us do also, but enough don't that it's not something to rely on.

Outside of initial requests at session zero, this hasnt come up in over 20 years for me.

Does for me every time. We roll for hit points, and table convention is that all rolls are watched by someone (usually the DM). For arcane casters, their new spell(s) are randomly determined (they don't get to choose a la the WotC editions). Characters who gain new languages by level (Bards and Nature Clerics) need to roll for what the new language is. I-as-DM also need to determine training costs and timing.

We use discord to communicate between sessions so this simply isnt an issue.

We use it for the online game I play in; but otherwise the sooner I can get Discord off all my devices the happier I'll be, as I find it has a nasty habit of inserting itself into other things e.g. it keeps taking over and resetting the sound settings on my desktop.