D&D General Interesting New DM Trick

[Zardnaar]

Last night's Castles and Crusades game had 0 combat in it. I have been experimenting with awarding live xp. Basically lots of snall xp rewards in "live action". By that I mean you more or less get it whenever you complete the trigger. I reward xp for the following things.

1. Combat. Kill monsters get xp.
2. Gold. 1 gp equals 1 xp.
3. Role-playing.
4. Story/mission rewards.
5. Exploration. Explore hex, find landmarks and locations
6. Finding magic items.

So last night's session xp rewards. Ancient Greece theme 432 BC

1. Role-playing. Local Thieves guild, safehouse

2.. 200xp each for 1 hex explored.

3. Sneaking into BBEGs house while he is at Delphi with most of his guards.

4. Retrieving correspondence and translating an ancient language (Mycenean).

5. Stealing several magic items (cloak of protection +1, Atlantean blade)

6. Completing a sidequest Retrieving a Spartans lost shield. Xp for sidequest and shield awarded. Shield was in BBEG house. NPC very favorable rolls for henchman recruitment possible romance option.

7. Traveling to Delphi infiltrating a location and listening in to NPCs talking about a conspiracy and learning the BBEGs location.

8. Interacting with a side character. She was accused of stealing said shield she denied. Two PCs were taken in by he pleas of innocence.

So very broadly that was last night's 0 combat session. Xp was flying out probably every 15-20 minutes for something.

3/4 leveled up (4 for tge Druid/Bard, 3 for the Barbarian/Rogue). Couple of new players started to get quite into it and going out of their way to aquire it.

The level 2 Ranger/Cleric is around 500xp short of level 3. Her skills will be useful next week so she should level up early session.

Most of the session was also ad hoc. I planned out the overall Arc (get to Delphi, save the Pitha (Oracle at Delphi), talk to Atlantean spirit, confront BBEG).

How they did that was up to them

Alot of influence from There is No Honor (Savage tide), Kingmaker, BG3, and this part the plot line has been ripped off from Assassins Creed Odyssey.

Extra laughs were had when one of the players after discovering the conspiracy to trigger Peloponnesian War said something like "we could prevent that war. I forget it's name the Peloponnesian one between Athens and Sparta".

Also sets up next session fairly well.

 

[bulletmeat]

Was this XP per person or XP to the group for each item?

 

[Zardnaar]

Was this XP per person or XP to the group for each item?

Depends on the item but I usually add hoc it 100-500xp each player level 3ish.

500 xp was a quest item that took 4 sessions to find (Spartans shield only a +1 shield).

 

[bulletmeat]

Interesting. I've done a C&C one-shot from my 1e/2e group and may be running a longer game. Your set up gave me an idea for XP.
Base XP:
-XP per monster combat (physical or social).
-XP per gold spent (training, new weapon/armor, spell research, fort building, etc).
Bonus XP (inspired by Modiphius Conan):
Every PC crit, target save fail by PC spell, funny quip or good player RP moment gets a gold coin flipped in a bucket. At the end of the session all golden coins are counted and multiplied by 100 as well as the lowest level PC in the party. This is the bonus XP split for the party.
I like the hex explored XP. May add a coin per dungeon room explored as well.

 

[Zardnaar]

Interesting. I've done a C&C one-shot from my 1e/2e group and may be running a longer game. Your set up gave me an idea for XP.
Base XP:
-XP per monster combat (physical or social).
-XP per gold spent (training, new weapon/armor, spell research, fort building, etc).
Bonus XP (inspired by Modiphius Conan):
Every PC crit, target save fail by PC spell, funny quip or good player RP moment gets a gold coin flipped in a bucket. At the end of the session all golden coins are counted and multiplied by 100 as well as the lowest level PC in the party. This is the bonus XP split for the party.
I like the hex explored XP. May add a coin per dungeon room explored as we

How familiar with X1 are you?

 

[bulletmeat]

I never actually played isle but my first foray into the hobby was known world back in the late 80s, early 90s.

 

[Zardnaar]

I never actually played isle but my first foray into the hobby was known world back in the late 80s, early 90s.

Ah if one redid it you could give xp per hex and discovering locations.

 

[bulletmeat]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to steal that from you as well. I was fighting back and forth on basic fantasy rpg or C&C for an alt-Known World but settled on C&C since it closer to AD&D for the group.
And the nice/stupid part of it is I had an 8' x 8' vinyl map printed from Ignacio Ramos.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I like this system. I also like milestone.

One suggestion I'd seen here years back was that for the gold to count as XP, it has to be spent, usually frivolously. The entire reason being that that's what kept the Conan/Grey Mouser etc 'feel' - yes, they'd get rich, but they'd piss it all away, meaning they'd have to go back to work.

 

[bulletmeat]

I like this system. I also like milestone.

One suggestion I'd seen here years back was that for the gold to count as XP, it has to be spent, usually frivolously. The entire reason being that that's what kept the Conan/Grey Mouser etc 'feel' - yes, they'd get rich, but they'd piss it all away, meaning they'd have to go back to work.

I told players that gold spent had to be class related. That narrowed the frivolous use.
But I could just as easily use monster base xp + 1 xp per treasure found (I did more art, gems, furs, jewelry).

Since the xp levels vary in XP cost, will you give a block of xp per adventure?