D&D General What do you prefer to give/get XP for?

[p_johnston]

I put a huge variety but the truest answer is "it depends on the campaign."

While i generally prefer milestone (generally 1 level per mini story arc) when i use xp i use it to help provide a mechanical way to reinforce the type of campaign I want. If I want a campaign focused on monster hunting I'll probably award xp per monster killed with a bonus for certain boss monsters, if its a hexcrawl/exploration campaign I'll probably give no combat xp but give xp for discovering locations and secrets, If i run an adventure path from paizo I award xp for hitting the story beats, if i run a pirate campaign I might reward 1 xp per gold piece, etc.

Xp is generally useful as a way to mechanically tell players "here are the things that are important to this campaign/story.

 

[Tonguez]

Overcoming Challenges in Character
Reaching Goals/Milestones - these are explicit goals of the game, so aren't arbitrary
Exploration and Discovery = reaching Milestones
Relations NPC/Factions - Influence should be recognized
Building Stuff - needs a better skill system

 

[payn]

I put a huge variety but the truest answer is "it depends on the campaign."

While i generally prefer milestone (generally 1 level per mini story arc) when i use xp i use it to help provide a mechanical way to reinforce the type of campaign I want. If I want a campaign focused on monster hunting I'll probably award xp per monster killed with a bonus for certain boss monsters, if its a hexcrawl/exploration campaign I'll probably give no combat xp but give xp for discovering locations and secrets, If i run an adventure path from paizo I award xp for hitting the story beats, if i run a pirate campaign I might reward 1 xp per gold piece, etc.

Xp is generally useful as a way to mechanically tell players "here are the things that are important to this campaign/story.

I like the idea of campaign based reward idea a lot. My issue is that most games break down into monster hunting types at expense of exploration and social pillar.

 

[Reynard]

It's so simplistic in do X get XP. I dont need an XP award system to tell my players to kill something, pick locks, and talk to people. The mechanics of character build inform them of their tool set. What is worse, they get into meta arguments about which things to kill, locks to pick, or people to talk to are worth doing becasue of the XP they award instead of actually doing it because its interesting in of itself.

So, in a pillar system where you award combat/exploration/social XP, you can get the players to balance out more amongst the pillars, but its the XP thats leading them there and not the interest of just playing the game itself.

That bolded part is what brought them to the table. That's enough.

XP drives choices, and choices are all the matter. Do we go for the big reward (kill the dragon and take is hoard?) but risk it all, or do we we grind a little in The Old Mines? That's a worthwhile choice in a game.

I don't, and never have, think much of immersion or making the system invisible or other things that amount to "pretend we are not playing a game." I like that XP is gamist -- it reminds the players they are playing a game, and gives them real choices in said play.

 

[Reynard]

I like the idea of campaign based reward idea a lot. My issue is that most games break down into monster hunting types at expense of exploration and social pillar.

Why doesn't monster hunting rely on exploration and social interaction? I mean, you have to find out where the monsters live, and have to talk to people to get paid for hunting it. Etc.

 

[Scribe]

Killing, Looting, Partying, as the Lord intended.

 

[payn]

That bolded part is what brought them to the table. That's enough.

XP drives choices, and choices are all the matter. Do we go for the big reward (kill the dragon and take is hoard?) but risk it all, or do we we grind a little in The Old Mines? That's a worthwhile choice in a game.

Not to me it isnt. Its actually kinda videogamey and I hate saying that.

I don't, and never have, think much of immersion or making the system invisible or other things that amount to "pretend we are not playing a game." I like that XP is gamist -- it reminds the players they are playing a game, and gives them real choices in said play.

Thing is, they still have those choices, its on their character sheet. XP doesnt grant any special agency or freedom of choice. In my experience, it actually robs them of it. Though, I think the emphasis on the "gamist" is important to note, its not that important to me to fullfill it in such a tangible meta way.

 

[Charlaquin]

Looks like my tastes are in line with the majority here, because I picked every option that’s currently sitting at 7 votes or higher (except “no XP”), and none of the others.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I award XP for:

• Defeating Foes (100 xp at 1 HD, Fibonacci progression)
• Achieving Goals (mostly party / story arc, but also personal at times. ~50% of current level xp.)
• Collecting Loot (1 xp per 1 sp)

I have a treasure type generator in Excel with the monster xp underneath it on the page. I enter the monster's HD in the row and it adds everything and divides it per the number of players.

My games tend to top out at 12th level, so once they reach 10th or so I tend to shift to 10k xp per session of story arc. That gives them a bit of a bonus, put progression is "slow but observable". It's taken the current campaign about three years to reach 12th. 13th+ level are my setting's "epic" rules.

 

[Vael]

I use milestone leveling, but I've debated going back to XP.

Now, I would probably be a lot chonkier with my XP, ie, use smaller numbers. Like, ideally it takes 20-50 XP to level up. Gain 1 for defeating a difficult encounter, Gain 1 for reaching a plot milestone, 1 for a Character milestone. I don't want hundreds and thousands of XP, I get the notion of granularity and big numbers are cool, but my preference is if I were to give out XP, it shouldn't require much math. More like just checkboxes or such.