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<blockquote data-quote="toucanbuzz" data-source="post: 7554368" data-attributes="member: 19270"><p>XP is always a complicated point. I vaguely recall something Dave Arneson once wrote about it being an incentive for players to return to the table over and over. After 20+ years of DMing, I've concluded XP doesn't matter. If people are coming back to the table, it's because they're having a good time. And, in more story-based campaigns (we're playing <strong>Curse of Strahd</strong>), XP doesn't work. It's not about wandering the wilderness and killing stuff. In AD&D, tracking XP mattered because the classes had their own XP tables, you got XP for doing things specific to your class, and you could adventure with people at different levels and be fine. </p><p></p><p>I began to notice at some point in 3rd edition some of my players weren't even tracking their XP. Unless you missed a session, you're probably going up at the same level. </p><p></p><p>In <em>Out of the Abyss,</em> I did XP. This worked fine in the 1st half (to around 7th level), but in the 2nd half, there simply wasn't enough XP for the written stuff, not even close, to bring the party in line for the finale. And trying to fill that void with random encounters wasn't helpful because it would have taken dozens, and that's boring. There's nothing less heroic than trying to save the world against the demon lords but saying "hey, I know we've got to get this component back so we can save the day, but do you mind if we aimlessly wander the Underdark so we can grind some XP?" I suppose the designers left it open for random side-treks, but even when I inserted 2 converted modules, full length, this didn't get us close.</p><p></p><p>In summary, my experience is the modules don't provide enough traditional hack n slash XP, and if you're arbitrarily assigning a number to story XP to ensure the party is at a particular level, just use milestones. It frees up players to do more than look for battle and puzzles.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="toucanbuzz, post: 7554368, member: 19270"] XP is always a complicated point. I vaguely recall something Dave Arneson once wrote about it being an incentive for players to return to the table over and over. After 20+ years of DMing, I've concluded XP doesn't matter. If people are coming back to the table, it's because they're having a good time. And, in more story-based campaigns (we're playing [B]Curse of Strahd[/B]), XP doesn't work. It's not about wandering the wilderness and killing stuff. In AD&D, tracking XP mattered because the classes had their own XP tables, you got XP for doing things specific to your class, and you could adventure with people at different levels and be fine. I began to notice at some point in 3rd edition some of my players weren't even tracking their XP. Unless you missed a session, you're probably going up at the same level. In [I]Out of the Abyss,[/I] I did XP. This worked fine in the 1st half (to around 7th level), but in the 2nd half, there simply wasn't enough XP for the written stuff, not even close, to bring the party in line for the finale. And trying to fill that void with random encounters wasn't helpful because it would have taken dozens, and that's boring. There's nothing less heroic than trying to save the world against the demon lords but saying "hey, I know we've got to get this component back so we can save the day, but do you mind if we aimlessly wander the Underdark so we can grind some XP?" I suppose the designers left it open for random side-treks, but even when I inserted 2 converted modules, full length, this didn't get us close. In summary, my experience is the modules don't provide enough traditional hack n slash XP, and if you're arbitrarily assigning a number to story XP to ensure the party is at a particular level, just use milestones. It frees up players to do more than look for battle and puzzles. [/QUOTE]
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