Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Handing out XP in your campaigns
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 1477808" data-attributes="member: 7464"><p>I give encounter XP, and in-character XP, but rarely <em>story</em> XP. I don't have a story beyond that which the players end up making for themselves. I don't have a plot figured out ahead of time, so I'm not able to hand out breadcrumbs when they follow it.</p><p> </p><p>On the other hand, when a player has their character do something strikingly in-character (or clever), they get a little bonus - usually 10xp per character level. I bump it up to 20 per character level for truly incredible in-character behavior. I just handed out the first XP for my new campaign. This is the XP I handed out:</p><p> </p><p>The cleric of the God of Mercy:</p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Attemting to assist dying man in ally and taking his body to the guards: 10xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Investigating the ship (Detect spells, talking to sailers): 10xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Binding the wounds of a dying enemy: 20xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Participating in the Cultist fight: 150xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Total: 190xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span> </p><p>The ranger/trapper dudette:</p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Attempting to track the dead man back to his starting point: 10xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Suggesting staking out the ship: 10xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Tailing the sailers into town: 10xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Participating in the Cultist fight: 150xp</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Total: 180xp</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">The Sorceress/Barmaid Dudette:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px">Gathering Information: 10xp</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px">Charming the Dockmaster: 10xp</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px">Tailing the cultist: 10xp</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px">Participating in the Cultist Fight: 150xp</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px">Total: 180xp</span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px">By increasing the number of XP gained for the bonus activities as the characters increase in level, I'm actively encouraging them to act in-character in such a way that it will still mean something at 8th or 17th level. This was their first little adventure, so I'm hoping to wean them off of the more mundane bonus-XP items (gathering information, for instance) and get some real role-playing stuff going on (with the plot they're coming up with, it shouldn't be hard). </span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px">Without bonus XP, it's hard for a character to justify doing things in-character that could potentially be bad strategic ideas (binding the enemy's wounds, for instance). I don't want the characters to behave like they're in some sort of game; I want them to behave like actual people.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerakSpielman, post: 1477808, member: 7464"] I give encounter XP, and in-character XP, but rarely [i]story[/i] XP. I don't have a story beyond that which the players end up making for themselves. I don't have a plot figured out ahead of time, so I'm not able to hand out breadcrumbs when they follow it. On the other hand, when a player has their character do something strikingly in-character (or clever), they get a little bonus - usually 10xp per character level. I bump it up to 20 per character level for truly incredible in-character behavior. I just handed out the first XP for my new campaign. This is the XP I handed out: The cleric of the God of Mercy: [size=2]Attemting to assist dying man in ally and taking his body to the guards: 10xp[/size] [size=2]Investigating the ship (Detect spells, talking to sailers): 10xp[/size] [size=2]Binding the wounds of a dying enemy: 20xp[/size] [size=2]Participating in the Cultist fight: 150xp[/size] [size=2]Total: 190xp [/size] The ranger/trapper dudette: [size=2]Attempting to track the dead man back to his starting point: 10xp[/size] [size=2]Suggesting staking out the ship: 10xp[/size] [size=2]Tailing the sailers into town: 10xp[/size] [size=2]Participating in the Cultist fight: 150xp[/size] [size=2]Total: 180xp[/size] [size=2]The Sorceress/Barmaid Dudette:[/size] [size=2][size=2]Gathering Information: 10xp[/size][/size] [size=2][size=2]Charming the Dockmaster: 10xp[/size][/size] [size=2][size=2]Tailing the cultist: 10xp[/size][/size] [size=2][size=2]Participating in the Cultist Fight: 150xp[/size][/size] [size=2][size=2]Total: 180xp[/size][/size] [size=2][size=2]By increasing the number of XP gained for the bonus activities as the characters increase in level, I'm actively encouraging them to act in-character in such a way that it will still mean something at 8th or 17th level. This was their first little adventure, so I'm hoping to wean them off of the more mundane bonus-XP items (gathering information, for instance) and get some real role-playing stuff going on (with the plot they're coming up with, it shouldn't be hard). [/size][/size] [size=2][size=2]Without bonus XP, it's hard for a character to justify doing things in-character that could potentially be bad strategic ideas (binding the enemy's wounds, for instance). I don't want the characters to behave like they're in some sort of game; I want them to behave like actual people. [/size][/size] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Handing out XP in your campaigns
Top
