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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MarkB" data-source="post: 2953530" data-attributes="member: 40176">Actually, strictly by the DMG (page 49), the party should be running into a variety of encounters ranging from Easy to Overpowering.Sure, if all your encounters happen to be 'typical'. But in a more varied game, where 'typical' is just a rough midpoint amidst challenges of widely varying nature and difficulty, it might be nice to make your awards a little more individual too.Again you're assuming "succeed or die". I've seen campaigns where the party were driven back from the objective of their quest multiple times before finally winning through, and others where they were competing against villainous NPCs who would get to a particular goal before them on several occasions. Even in campaigns where the party has generally been successful there have been some things they didn't do as well as they could have done, which cost them XP. A campaign can easily survive over the long term without consisting of a long series of unmitigated successes.This just seems to be a matter of differing playing styles. If you're used to games in which the PCs never actually fail, I can see how you'd start seeing XP as automatic. But in campaigns which hold the possibility of characters trying, failing, and still living to try again, that failure will reduce the XP earned, which will in turn highlight the fact that it is a reward.</blockquote>