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

[Li Shenron]

I am not generally a huge fan of XP, and often I just make them up, just because I don't think it's worth the effort to make precise calculations.

But if my players were to ask for more regulated XP rewards, I would base them on overcoming any in-game challenge in any pillar, as a group (no individual XP, same amount to all participants in a session). Not for stuff outside the game, not for roleplay, not mirroring other rewards like GP.

 

[Stormonu]

defeating monsters (killing, avoiding, tricking, befriending, etc.), traps (circumventing, tripping & surviving, disarming) and story awards (discovering the murderer, finishing the dungeon, completing a long journey, finding/reading the BBEG's journal, solving puzzles, etc.)

I do find myself more leaning towards milestone as I tend to run more story adventures than sandboxes these days. Sandboxes are good place to dole out specific awards to encourage exploration at the party's own pace, story-based adventures (which most of the published adventures for 5E are) it's just easier to hand out hunks because "they were going to have to go through that section anyways", and usually on a specific timeline.

 

[Shiroiken]

I generally go with "overcoming challenges," but those can also be individual tasks. For things like tricks and traps, I give each a CR and character multiplier based on the number of characters it is likely to affect. I also give xp for planned social encounters, also with a CR, where the party has the opportunity to convince one or more NPCs to their side. The reason why it's only planned encounters, is to avoid the players being motivated to talk to everyone in hopes of pulling off some extra xp.

For a trap example, a covered pit trap might be a CR 2 that should affect up to 4 characters, it would be worth 1300 XP (450 x4). If a character disarms the trigger, the party gets the xp. If a player figures out a way to bypass the pit by placing a long plank across it, the party gets xp. If the party stumbles into it, the party gets the xp... along with some lost HP. It doesn't matter how many characters solve or are affected by it, the entire group divides the xp.

 

[Xamnam]

From the last time a similar question was asked:

At the end of each session, broken out by event. Rewarded for defeating foes, getting past obstacles, resolving problems, and completing goals. It's feels great to to rattle off a list of the party's successes after we're done playing, and reinforce the variety of actions, tactics, and techniques that they are growing from.

The number one on this list that I don't currently use much, but want to prioritize more/run a game that incentivizes is "Exploration and Discovery"

 

[cbwjm]

I grant xp for defeating monsters.

I also have major and minor story rewards. These rewards are 10% (major) or 5% (minor) of the xp needed to level. I keep the party at the same level which makes things easier for this.

Often a story reward is bonus xp on top of defeated monster xp since the story might entail something like saving the princess from the dragon.

 

[Vael]

I can't recall where I heard/read this, but it's something that has stuck in my brain, an XP system should also take inspiration from video game Achievements. IE, doing something wacky or out of the box could warrant XP. Obviously, not completely, achievements are more to encourage multiple playthroughs, something we don't do really in TTRPGs, but it's something I'm mulling over.

 

[Velderan]

Whatever XP is rewarded for, I prefer that it is player facing in the game rules.

I can tell you what I don't like giving it for:

• "good roleplay"
• DM-says-so milestones

I don't like XP being at the whims of the GM.

Same and not because I think most GMs are jerks or anything. We used milestone leveling for the last 5e campaign I ran and I was really bad about remembering to award inspiration because it was so subjective. In my current PF2e game, we’re using experience points which are awarded for things like completing quests and either defeating enemies or essentially befriending their faction. The PF2e equivalent of inspiration (hero points) can be awarded for completing a quest objective so that’s easier for me to remember to award because it’s far less subjective than “good role playing”.

 

[Velderan]

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.

When we initially switched to PF2e, using exp again initially brought out the murder hobos in my group until I explained I would award the same experience reward for a diplomatic solution and that got them to try working on the social pillar more. I feel like games leaning too heavily on combat can sometimes be the fault of the GM not providing incentives to try the other pillars. Emphasis on the “can sometimes” part of that.

 

[payn]

When we initially switched to PF2e, using exp again initially brought out the murder hobos in my group until I explained I would award the same experience reward for a diplomatic solution and that got them to try working on the social pillar more. I feel like games leaning too heavily on combat can sometimes be the fault of the GM not providing incentives to try the other pillars. Emphasis on the “can sometimes” part of that.

Yeah, I just cut all that off by not using XP at all. If the players want to just kill everything (I hope they dont) then its up to them. Im not going to lead them around with XP systems though. That is specifically what I want to avoid.

 

[jayoungr]

With most groups I use milestone leveling, but I have one group who really love the nightly ritual of totalling up and dividing the XP, so I do it for them. The things I typically award XP for are monsters, overcoming obstacles, and achieving story goals. This may include some of the items on your list, such as exploration, collecting treasure, making relationships with NPCs/factions, or building things; however, I didn't select those because I don't award XP for them unless they advance the story.