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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 5144202" data-attributes="member: 40522">This is exactly what I have started doing as of last week. My regular game was on hiatus since a few of my players were out of town for Easter, so I ran a one-shot at the FLGS. My big incentive (besides meeting some new players) was to try out my quest-based XP only idea.I printed out the major objectives of the quest (i.e., what the characters could reasonably get accomplished during the session). This was very easy, since I already do this as part of my session prep anyway.It was a rousing success. The players remarked constantly throughout the session and afterward how simple and intuitive getting an actual written summary of their objectives helped them to focus and think about how they could interact with the environment and NPCs. When I made it clear that the characters would not get a single point of experience from murdering monsters, they actually started sneaking around and scouting, formulating plans for distracting monsters in separate areas, and otherwise treating the adventure as an environment to interact with as opposed to a gallery of monsters and loot.Furthermore, the players were eager to talk to NPCs in town before they struck out, since they hoped to discover more quest objectives and thus get more XP. For example... The head of the town guard was a dwarf, and he offered a bounty on any dwarven-crafted items they recovered. That was the first time in almost 20 years of DMing that I've had a table clamoring to explore the town and talk to NPCs.Your mileage may vary, of course. But for most of my regular group, it was the right combination of carrot and stick to get the sort of game and interaction that I like. I'm excited about DMing and it's a good thing.</blockquote>

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