Experience Points and Leveling in an Adventure Path

[James Jacobs]

Arbitrary level-ups when the GM says at the end of (or the middle of) an adventure are a good way to go with Adventure Paths. That said, make sure that your players know you're doing that. The accumulation of XP is more than just a tool to track your progress, after all... they're points you get for playing the game. They're rewards you get, and the feeling of building these points up is actually pretty satisfying and lets the players have a concrete scale they can look at to estimate when they'll be leveling up.

One thing I've done in the Savage Tide campaign I'm running is to simply hand out XP for the monsters and traps as normal, and I just keep an eye on what level PCs are. If they're falling behind, I start making up "story awards" for significant things they've accomplished in the session. If they're running ahead, I hand out less story awards. In this way, I've been able to keep the PCs at the levels they should be for each adventure and the players don't really know what is and isn't an ad-hoc experience award (even though I generally tell them everything they did that gets them XP to encourage them to do similar things in the future). This system works pretty well for me, especially since I've added in several bonus side adventures here and there and how much XP they need is a great gauge of how many encounters I need to send the party on. If I were just handing out levels when they needed them, I wouldn't be as able to send them on side adventures that have little to do with the Adventure Path's plot without that adventure seeming pointless to the PCs... since it would run the danger of artificially extending the amount of time between XP awards.

 

[Treebore]

Good idea James. I went about it a bit blunter. I read over the AP and figured out where the PC's had to be what level. Then I found 4 points between each level and awarded roughly 1/4 of the XP needed for the next level. I say roughly because I would vary it based on how difficult the challenges were in that section. Plus I rarely had to worry about awarding too many XP's. Plus by varying when I awarded XP's, and how much XP I was awarding each time, the players never caught on that I had predetermined the XP awards like I did.

I have no idea why players seem to get upset by this, its no different than predetermining the XP's all the monsters and loot will be worth. I guess its in presentation.

 

[JVisgaitis]

If I were just handing out levels when they needed them, I wouldn't be as able to send them on side adventures that have little to do with the Adventure Path's plot without that adventure seeming pointless to the PCs.

How does handing out levels whenever make you unable to run side adventures? Is the only point in your PCs going on those side adventures meta game based and your players just wanting more experience?

To me it just sound like you are doing the same thing. The only thing you are doing differently is thinking ahead of the curve and awarding points to make it seem more like a seamless transition from level to level.

All that is fine of course. Use what works and all of that, but I don't see anything different with your approach unless I'm not understanding you.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I wouldn't be as able to send them on side adventures that have little to do with the Adventure Path's plot without that adventure seeming pointless to the PCs... since it would run the danger of artificially extending the amount of time between XP awards.

And yet in at least the Savage Tide and Shackled City, there's not a lot of... give to put those little side adventuers because the events of one follow so quickly upon each other. In some instances the adventure ends literaly with the players running into the next.