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How Do You Award XP?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 8121024" data-attributes="member: 7026594"><p>Hmm.</p><p></p><p>On the one hand, there's something to be said for the psychological effect of intermittent reinforcement you get from the pure old school "xp for treasure and lesser xp for killing/tricking/defeating stuff" approach. Some sessions you get a nice score and some you don't. The ones where you don't are disappointing, but sharpen the players' hunger for the next score.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, I can understand the frustration if they actually DID overcome some challenges, but didn't find any treasures or defeat any opponents, and thus aren't getting rewarded for what they did accomplish.</p><p></p><p>Given what you've expressed, and that limited two hour session timeframe you're playing in (especially since I'm guessing that you're not playing multiple times a week), I think it's probably worth coming up with some mystery/exploration xp awards. TBF, these are reasonably old-school; IIRC as early as 2nd Ed AD&D they were discussed as an official option, and certainly many non-D&D games had xp awards for other things too.</p><p></p><p>How about this? Why don't you total up the full XP in the adventure as-written for treasure and combat, and cut some chunk of the treasure out, reserving that XP for problem-solving awards. Divide that pool by as many awards as feels appropriate or likely, and then give those out when they accomplish a significant task (solving a mystery, getting an ally on their side by good roleplaying, finding a hidden back entrance into the dungeon, etc.). So, say it's a 1st level module with enough treasure and combat xp available to get 6 PCs to 2nd level, based on an xp required of 2,000 (standard Fighter in 1E or Basic). So 12,0000 total xp. Most of that will be treasure; usually 2/3 or more given AD&D or Basic having low xp awards for monsters. Say there's 2,000 xp available from monsters, 10,000 for treasure. If you cut the treasure in half, you can take the pool of 5,000 xp and make that the "other achievements" xp. Divide it by, say, 20, and on twenty occasions you can give a 250 xp prize to the group for getting something done. Some achievements might also be worth double awards.</p><p></p><p>These numbers are obviously rough estimates, but you can use whatever's there and divide appropriately. I think by taking the xp from the treasure, you largely retain the integrity of the playtest.</p><p></p><p>I remember reading an AngryGM article where he talked about doing these kind of standardized awards (he was writing in a 5th ed context and talked about making each award equal to a monster of CR equal to the PCs' level), and about a fun psychological trick of embodying them in white chips or marbles which he'd toss into a cup or chalice on the table at the time of the award. The players would get a rush of reward feelings whenever they heard that token hit the cup. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> I'm looking forward to trying that one out some time when I can play in person again.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mannahnin, post: 8121024, member: 7026594"] Hmm. On the one hand, there's something to be said for the psychological effect of intermittent reinforcement you get from the pure old school "xp for treasure and lesser xp for killing/tricking/defeating stuff" approach. Some sessions you get a nice score and some you don't. The ones where you don't are disappointing, but sharpen the players' hunger for the next score. On the other hand, I can understand the frustration if they actually DID overcome some challenges, but didn't find any treasures or defeat any opponents, and thus aren't getting rewarded for what they did accomplish. Given what you've expressed, and that limited two hour session timeframe you're playing in (especially since I'm guessing that you're not playing multiple times a week), I think it's probably worth coming up with some mystery/exploration xp awards. TBF, these are reasonably old-school; IIRC as early as 2nd Ed AD&D they were discussed as an official option, and certainly many non-D&D games had xp awards for other things too. How about this? Why don't you total up the full XP in the adventure as-written for treasure and combat, and cut some chunk of the treasure out, reserving that XP for problem-solving awards. Divide that pool by as many awards as feels appropriate or likely, and then give those out when they accomplish a significant task (solving a mystery, getting an ally on their side by good roleplaying, finding a hidden back entrance into the dungeon, etc.). So, say it's a 1st level module with enough treasure and combat xp available to get 6 PCs to 2nd level, based on an xp required of 2,000 (standard Fighter in 1E or Basic). So 12,0000 total xp. Most of that will be treasure; usually 2/3 or more given AD&D or Basic having low xp awards for monsters. Say there's 2,000 xp available from monsters, 10,000 for treasure. If you cut the treasure in half, you can take the pool of 5,000 xp and make that the "other achievements" xp. Divide it by, say, 20, and on twenty occasions you can give a 250 xp prize to the group for getting something done. Some achievements might also be worth double awards. These numbers are obviously rough estimates, but you can use whatever's there and divide appropriately. I think by taking the xp from the treasure, you largely retain the integrity of the playtest. I remember reading an AngryGM article where he talked about doing these kind of standardized awards (he was writing in a 5th ed context and talked about making each award equal to a monster of CR equal to the PCs' level), and about a fun psychological trick of embodying them in white chips or marbles which he'd toss into a cup or chalice on the table at the time of the award. The players would get a rush of reward feelings whenever they heard that token hit the cup. :) I'm looking forward to trying that one out some time when I can play in person again. [/QUOTE]
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