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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7731616" data-attributes="member: 42582">XP work differently in different systems.In 4e D&D XP are primarily a pacing mechanism: each 60 to 90 minutes of play should earn about a tenth-of-a-level worth of XP (this becomes almost tautological once you include the XP-for-time-spent-free-roleplaying option in DMG2). It is misleading for the DMG to describe them as a reward, given that to "earn" them all you have to do is play the game (by engaging the situations the GM frames the PCs into). The actual rewards of 4e play - as in, the reasons that playing it might be worthwhile - are (a) the increase in mechanical complexity that comes about with level gain, and (b) the changes in the fiction that result from (i) moving through the tiers of play, and (ii) the details of the play of a particular game.It's interesting that, because (a) is easily seen as a burden rather than a reward by many would-be players, it is possible to recalibrate the fiction of 4e so that the fiction escalates without the mechanics becoming more complex. The Neverwinter supplement takes this approach.Conversely, if (b) is not present in a 4e campaign - ie the fiction does not change - then there is a lot of evidence that many would-be players don't find (a) very rewarding in and of itself. The evidence I'm referring to is the general disdain that is shown for the published 4e modules - especially the first run of them - which reflect the mechanical escalation but have only a veneer of development in the fiction.XP obviously play a very different role in classic D&D (OD&D, Gygaxian AD&D, Moldvay Basic, etc). You don't accrue XP just by playing - you actually have to make skilled (or perhaps lucky) choices to earn them, and when you do the reward is power-up for the PC. It's obviously much closer to arcade-game type "who's the highest scorer" gaming. The fun of the game is in making the choices; having a higher XP total for your PC shows that you're better (or luckier).Cortex+ Heroic (Marvel Heroic RP, and the Fantasy Hack variant) use individual character milestones to award XP - in other words, making particular character choices earns XP, on a sliding scale that culminates in a character-defining moment (eg Wolverine earns 1 XP every time he identifies another character as an old ally or an old enemy; and 10 XP when an old enemy becomes an ally, or vice versa). XP can be spent on PC power-ups, which are more modest than D&D level up but not negligible. So players are incentivised to explore and in some ways develop their PCs' characters in the course of play.Burning Wheel doesn't use XP at all, but players have Beliefs and earn "artha" (= fate points) by pursuing their Beliefs, or (in some circumstances) dramatically breaking from them. In BW it's also impossible to advance your character without trying stuff that is almost, or even literally, impossible to achieve by ordinary means, and in those circumstances artha spend is what can make success possible. So Beliefs work something like milestones in Cortex+ Heroic, although with more subtlety (eg players can rewrite Beliefs largely at will, and any PC has 3 Beliefs at one given time). Tthere is more dynamism and conflict in BW character development than in Cortex+, which makes sense - BW aims at dramatic intensity, whereas Cortex+ is pretty light-hearted as befits a supers-oriented system).I don't really understand the point of XP in 2nd ed AD&D, 3E D&D or 5e D&D - it's not pacing like in 4e (as it does not accrue simply via play), but nor does it seem like a measure of demonstrated skill in play as per classc D&D, given it is earned mostly by defeating monsters in encounters that the GM frames the PCs into. I'd have to leave it others to try and say what coherent role it might be playing.</blockquote>

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