D&D General The Old "Boil an Ant Hill" Problem

[Fauchard1520]

For those of you that use XP rather than milestone leveling: How do you deal with the issue of players wanting to earn the final few XP to level up?

I have a standing policy to allow "extra credit" projects for bonus XP. Stuff like in-character journaling, painting your mini, and for-the-good-of-the-order options like buying a new set of wet-erase markers or building a new initiative tracker all count. I find that preferable to going out and murdering the nearest wolf just to ding, but I suspect there are simpler ways to address the issue.

How do you guys handle it at your table?

(Comic Related. Also, Munchkin card related.)

 

[pogre]

If they are close I let them level on credit. Go ahead and level is you want, but just remember you "owe" a few XP for the next level. Saves me from the old, 'Can I go on a quick orc hunt?"

Most of my players don't care that much about it, but my sons are always anxious to level.

 

[commandercrud]

They wait.

 

[Oofta]

Back when I used XP I had a simple rule. If it's not a threat it's not worth XP.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If they are close I let them level on credit. Go ahead and level is you want, but just remember you "owe" a few XP for the next level. Saves me from the old, 'Can I go on a quick orc hunt?"

How did I never come up with this in the decades where I actually used XP? That's genius.

I have a standing policy to allow "extra credit" projects for bonus XP. Stuff like in-character journaling, painting your mini, and for-the-good-of-the-order options like buying a new set of wet-erase markers or building a new initiative tracker all count. I find that preferable to going out and murdering the nearest wolf just to ding, but I suspect there are simpler ways to address the issue.

This is closer to what we used to do, back when we used XP. Not buying stuff etc., because that felt too much like that dumb movie with Tom Hanks and the steam tunnels ("You get XP for buying us beer!!!"), but for directly character-related stuff, like bluebooking, in character journaling (if you even regard them as different things), describing stuff about your character, drawing a map of their stronghold, and so on. It was particularly relevant in 2E, where due to different XP tables, one PC might be halfway through a level where another was 1% away from the next.

I gradually moved away from this in 3E, first we stopped using individual XP bonuses, and used different systems to encourage RP etc. (because I saw that they largely rewarded players who demanded the spotlight or were just more outgoing/louder), and then when we realized everyone leveled at the same time, we moved to a "DM sez"-type system for level ups (which similar to milestone but not necessarily connected to concrete in-game events).

But if I went back to XP, I'd think Pogre's system was probably the best. It's very simple and very functional.

 

[Fenris-77]

I don't do XP until everyone's put the dice away, so there's nothing to be done. If it were the whole party and we had time I might just level them anyway to save people wanting to do it mid-session next time, which I generally don't allow. If I had been aware of the numbers, which I probably should be, I also might have just bumped that's sessions XP award by enough to hit the level. I'm talking single or low double digits at most though. I don't mind putting my thumb on the scales for 13 XP or whatever, but not for 113.

 

[DEFCON 1]

When I do XP (which is not always, some games I do milestone leveling) players get XP for the actual killing of monsters as well as Quest XP. Since Quest XP is always fungible (as in, I decide for a particular quest how much Quest XP to give)... if I do the calculations and find that the total XP folks got for the session made someone a little short for a level... I usually just bumped up the Quest XP.

I mean if I just arbitrarily decided that returning the locket that was found to its owner was worth 500 Quest XP and that plus the monsters resulted in a PC being 75 XP short of hitting next level... it was no skin off my nose to say the Quest XP was 575 instead.

 

[GMMichael]

I let them go on a quick goblin hunt. Then I penalize them the exact same amount for metagaming.

"You get XP for buying us beer!!!"

How did I never come up with this in the decades where I actually used XP? That's genius. . .

Fixed it.

 

[noko]

For those of you that use XP rather than milestone leveling: How do you deal with the issue of players wanting to earn the final few XP to level up?

I have a standing policy to allow "extra credit" projects for bonus XP. Stuff like in-character journaling, painting your mini, and for-the-good-of-the-order options like buying a new set of wet-erase markers or building a new initiative tracker all count. I find that preferable to going out and murdering the nearest wolf just to ding, but I suspect there are simpler ways to address the issue.

How do you guys handle it at your table?

(Comic Related. Also, Munchkin card related.)

I have attempted to hand out bonuses to pop the group over the edge but, no, they want to scrabble for their XP at the table. The group is large and they share XP so every level takes time.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

For those of you that use XP rather than milestone leveling: How do you deal with the issue of players wanting to earn the final few XP to level up?

I have a standing policy to allow "extra credit" projects for bonus XP. Stuff like in-character journaling, painting your mini, and for-the-good-of-the-order options like buying a new set of wet-erase markers or building a new initiative tracker all count. I find that preferable to going out and murdering the nearest wolf just to ding, but I suspect there are simpler ways to address the issue.

How do you guys handle it at your table?

(Comic Related. Also, Munchkin card related.)

Simple.

Offer ways other than combat to get EXP.