So how do you level? Why?

[delericho]

For any d20 game other than D&D 3e, I would just have the party level up whenever seemed appropriate.

For D&D 3e, I give a number of XPs to the characters at the end of the session. (I stick with XP because these can be spent for magic items and/or spells.) Characters may level up as soon as they gain enough XP - no need to delay for training, downtime, or anything else.

For other games, I'll likewise give out some sort of fixed award, generally being the same for all characters.

I should note that I don't penalise characters due to player absence - all characters gain XP regardless. My group is made up of busy adults; it is accepted that people will occasionally miss a session, and I don't see any benefit in "holding them back" because of it.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Have to admit I am really enjoying not having to track XP.

Same here.

 

[delericho]

I have, however, toyed with a variant system that sees characters gaining XP for different reasons in the campaign:

At the Heroic tier (okay, actually "low levels"), characters would literally buy XP. Whether it's by buying training, or paying bards to sing your praises, or whatever, the PCs would gain XP purely by squandering treasure.

At the Paragon tier ("medium levels"), characters would gain XP by first setting themselves quests, and then completing those quests. At this level, they're beyond the mundanities of just acquiring gold (they probably have more than they can ever spend), but they are now the stuff of song and tale. Thus, their further advancement comes about through questing.

At the Epic tier ("high levels"), characters gain XP by working out their fate. At this point, their every deed is of world-shaking import, their character flaws will shape the centuries to come, and they are demi-gods in all but name. Thus, they gain XP by...

well, I haven't quite figured out the exact details of the last element. I think the player would have to define half a dozen or so character touchstones representing his personality, destiny, and place in the world, and then gain XP by working towards those attributes. But it's really hazy at that point.

 

[garrowolf]

My Nexus system doesn't use XP at all. You can gain Hero points and Social points depending on what you did during the game but no XP. Characters level every 4 sessions that they participated in. If you want a faster progression then make it 3 sessions or a slower you could make it 5 or 6.

Most GMs or systems are trying to cause players to level in about this number of sessions anyway. They do a lot of math to make it come out but I think that writing down the XP, while nice at first, takes the players out of the game too much and makes them focus on actions that gain XP instead of just playing their character. It stars to be too much like a video game for me.

My players haven't missed it at all.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

As a GM, I prefer to just level the PCs when they've accomplished "enough" and have a little downtime (roughly that happens after every "adventure"). Most players I've had, though, seem to prefer getting explicit XP rewards.

 

[Balesir]

I have tinkered with myriad "advancement" systems over time, but these days I do D&D (4E) roughly by the book (players get the XP budget for the encounter divided between them for overcoming the encounter however it's done) and no "advancement" at all for most other games (Traveller, Hârn, Universalis - although the last is somewhat unique, anyway...).

 

[Gilladian]

In previous campaigns, I gave out XP by the book. It was time consuming and annoying, but the players liked it. Then I sort of got lazy and started just saying "eh, level up now". The players didn't dislike it, but they said it felt weird not tracking anything.

So this campaign (E6 - where after reaching level 6, each 5,000 xp gains the pc another feat), I'm "giving" xp, but I'm doing it by feel. I dish out a few hundred xp after each adventure, depending on how dangerous and demanding the game felt to me. Sometimes it is as little as 100, sometimes it is as much as 250. We play short (3 hr) sessions. As they level up, I'll increase rewards. I'm thinking by the time they're into the 6+ level range, they'll be earning 800-1500 per session, so a feat will be roughly a 3-5 session reward. Since my campaigns tend to last about 2 years, I'm happy with this rate.

 

[malkav666]

How I level my groups really depends on the game. For some games that aren't scheduled to run for a long time its nice to see some progression after every session. For games that are intended to have a longer run, then the leveling really depends on the pacing needs of the game.

For instance if it is a sandbox and everything is random I tend to use by the book EXP. If it is a goal based game where the players are striving to accomplish certain tasks (by their design or mine) then I am comfortable with milestone leveling. And of course if I am not running the game I'm good with whatever the GM has in mind for leveling.

Although sometimes, my group adopts non-standard practices in regards to leveling. For instance we have had an off and on mega-dungeon campaign going on for about 4 years that the criteria for gaining a level is successfully clearing a floor (as in defeating all of the evil ringleaders currently living on that level) and gaining entry to the next lower floor. The game has had some 30-40 sessions and the group is on the 5th floor of the place (meaning the group is level 4). Although the group has probably killed and looted enough stuff to be 10-12th level, it is not important in that scenario. And the game is a popular one in our group even though it has a glacial leveling progression.

One of our other DMs is currently doing an alt leveling scenario for her Kingmaker inspired homebrew. She gives out the group exp for everything they kill and for certain milestones in her story. But as opposed to using BP per the Kingmaker rules for kingdom creation she lets the party spend exp to make their kingdom better I have yet to see the long term of this method, but we have played about 5 sessions and it seems to be going well. The group is about 1/3 of the way from 2nd to 3rd level and controls a small keep and are trying to hunt down and kill the goblins that massacred and ate the farmers that they lured to their budding kingdom.

I guess all in all I really don't care how or really even if levels are gained as long as all the hows and whys are spelled out from the beginning so I don't have issues with expectations, and it is fun of course.

love,

malkav