How do you award XP?

[JoeGKushner]

Do you use the 3.0 method of CR vs. average character level/number of players?

The 3.5 CR vs specific level/number of players?

Award it at the end of the game?

At the start of the next game?

Just wing it and guestimate the amount?

Don't use xp just level up players as needed?

 

[ThirdWizard]

I use the 3.5 method of awarding XP.

I keep track of PC XP totals myself, and add the numbers up between sessions. I keep good enough records that I could go back and total up XP totals for an entire campaign if I cared to, which I don't. By the next session I usually have XP totals worked out for all the PCs if they care enough to ask. I don't keep track of NPC XP ever, and just level them when I feel like it (even those that travel with the party).

 

[Aluvial]

I use the FR system, where each player is awarded a share of the CR based on his individual level. I have a very heavily modified spreadsheet for this! (it works great! for up to 12 PC's or henchmen.)

I give awards out for the previous session at the start of the current session (again, the spreadsheet makes a nice report of the previous session). Characters who are able, can level immediately, even if in the middle of a battle.

Aluvial

 

[Oryan77]

Total up xp party level vs CR and divide the xp by 4 and hand it out evenly. Although I also divide the total in half and actually give that out because I like the slower level progression. I keep track of the xp earned every session and give out the xp at the beginning of the next session.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I use the Unearthed Arcana variant.

 

[el-remmen]

I decide how much I want the party to get based on how fast I would like them to advance and then I divide it by the number of sessions since the last time I gave out XP, and then for each character multiply by the number of sessions they were actually there.

I give out XP at the end of every adventure or arc, which comes to once every 8 to 12 sessions. In five years of my current campaign, I have give out XP 12 times and everybody went up a level all but two times.

 

[el-remmen]

I use the Unearthed Arcana variant.

Care to run that down for those of us that don't own the book?

 

[Yair]

Right now I don't, as I don't play.
On my last campaign I just leveled the party when we felt like it, and it worked excellently. This can get tricky if you've got magic item making or xp-component-casting going on, though.
In my previous campaign, I awarded 300* x average character level for each participating PC, modified by how important I felt the session was. That went fairly well, and was very simple to calculate.
I've long since abandoned the CR method, maintaining it only when I want to stick to the core rules. I like to control the rate of character advancement myself, not let the system control it for me.

* I lie. It wasn't quite 300, it was more really like: hmm, how much do I want them to advance by? This was a big session, let's say 1/2 a level... so that's 500 x average party level, which comes out to .... "OK, guys, you earned 3000 XP each. Yeah, rejoice."
And I gave it at the end of each session.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Care to run that down for those of us that don't own the book?

It's a lot more like 1e or 2e was. The XP per an encounter's CR doesn't slide up or down vs. party level. After about 6th level or so, the XP for a character to advance in level begins to differ from what is listed in the PHB (it takes more XP), but the XP listed for a given CR is a little higher, as well...so it seems to balance out.

Hope that was relatively clear.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Wing it, based on a combination of how fast I want the campaign to advance, how well the party met the various challenges, cool ideas, role-playing, and the like.

Been doing it that way since late 1E, in fact.