Not letting the players know how much experience they have

[Aristotle]

I don't...

I use the rules in the DMG for adventure design; dividing the XP needed to level into encounters, quests, and skill challenges of various difficulty. I fill out those encounters with the intended monsters for the level, and then I stop worrying about XP values and look at the encounter schedule.

If a low difficulty encounter could use another monster, or some minions, I throw them in. If a high difficulty encounter looks like a meat grinder, I look at removing or swapping out monsters. If there are just way to many encounters for the pace I intend for the adventure I remove some or mark them as optional and use them as "random" encounters if the need arises. If there aren't enough encounters to convey the scope of the adventure, I add as many additional encounters as necessary. I do all of this without adjusting the XP values of the adventure. When the party wins the day, they get a level.

 

[xechnao]

I've moved away from XP completely when I DM. The group advances based on a combination of their accomplishments and the needs of the campaign/adventure. It keeps us advancing at about the same speed as "normal" campaigns, but without the bookkeeping, and without even the tiniest risk of "We need more XP, let's go kill something."

Yes, I have to agree this sounds like the best thing to do.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

In my groups XP is just as real as GP or +1. I wouldn't dream of taking any rewards from my players for the hell I put them through to get it.

 

[Verys Arkon]

With a new group (3 new to RPGs, 2 veterans) starting 4e I've been keeping track of XP in my campaign notes, but tell the players when there character levels.

This gives me the 'hard numbers' to work with as a base. I know how many encounters they've overcome and what they are worth. I know the minor and major quest XP they've earned.

Given the numbers, I then let them level when it makes sense in the campaign. If they are a little under the magic number at the the time they complete an adventure, I let them level a little early. If they have enough XP but are in the middle of a series of encounters, I'll wait until a natural break occurs.

I'll let them know if they level at the end of a session so they can level up during the week rather than waste time at the table with levelling. The exception is if I'm running an unusually long session, where levelling up can be part of a break.

I haven't had any complaints about doing it this way from my players.

 

[Voadam]

I haven't used xp in a long while in the games I DM.

I use natural breaks in the ongoing plots as points to level up, usually after completing a module I run.

I liked the guidelines in the 4e DMG on ignoring xp awards, level up after about 8 challenging enough encounters.

 

[Arnwyn]

I've done it- I just tracked all the xp for the pcs. It worked pretty well.

This is what we do to this very day.

Works great for our particular group.

 

[Umbran]

I
Is this a stupid idea? Has anyone else ever done it?

I've run games where the players didn't even have their own character sheets - they didn't know any of their stats, much less their XP. So, certainly it can be done.

Whether or not it is a stupid idea depends on the particular group.

 

[Delta]

I was pondering the whole notion of players going into battle just to get the precious XP bestowed by slaughtering hordes of monsters, and as I was thinking about it, I was wondering if there was a way to get around the whole concept of going into the dungeon for the purpose of amassing tons of XP to level and get sweet powers. I've heard about people just arbitrarily leveling the party when they felt they deserved it, but I don't know if I like that. I want something more defined than that.

What I've been thinking about lately (in 3E/d20) is to switch back to a 1E award stance where most of your XP comes from securing treasure. Call it a "Story Award" where the award kicks in (the monster or trap's XP) when you get the monster's treasure.

So on the one hand you get no XP for random wandering monsters (or maybe 1/5 value to be nice). And you also get the full monster XP if you steal their treasure through trickery or subterfuge, without actually fighting.

 

[Masquerade]

If you show up for the entire session, you gain 4 experience. If you show up late or leave early (and let me know of this in advance), you gain 3 experience. If you can't make it to the session (and let me know of this in advance), you still gain 2 experience. Between any two sessions, 10 experience can be traded to gain a level.

For any level-based RPG I run, including D&D 3.5 and 4e, these are the rules I use.

 

[mattdm]

I like XP

When I play, I want to kill monsters and take their gold, magic items, and precious, precious XP. I want to have a nice role-playing-filled story to go along with it, but if I wanted to get away from XP, I'd get away from D&D.