D&D 5E What kind of XP awards does your group currently use in 5E?

[el-remmen]

Yep. You ain't getting XP for shopping in my game. Which is why we don't see much of that at all.

I never have either (unless it was a required part of some adventure to haggle for the MacGuffin or something) but in my experience many players love shopping in-game for its own sake. And I am fine with that and can even enjoy it - as long as it does not go on TOO long (just like shopping in real life before the pandemic!)

 

[Charlaquin]

TBH XP feels artificial to me nowadays, the reason I want PCs to level is so we can tell different parts of the story.

But while there are concrete rules for XP for defeating monsters, how do you decide to reward XP for non-combat? That always felt artificial to me.

The DMG recommends assigning non-combat encounters a difficulty appropriate to the challenge, and awarding XP as you would for a combat encounter of the same difficulty. This is necessarily somewhat subjective, but ultimately so is the difficulty rating of combat encounters.

Personally, I assign XP based on encounter complexity rather than difficulty. A simple encounter that requires little to no setup and can be resolved with a few actions is worth an Easy encounter worth of XP. A moderately complex encounter that requires set-up, such as a battle grid or involves tracking multiple success and failures like a skill challenge is worth a Medium encounter worth of XP. A climactic encounter such as a boss fight or a particularly intense skill challenge is worth a Hard encounter worth of XP.

For quests/goals, I give an Easy encounter worth of XP for a side-quest or minor objective, and a Medium encounter worth of XP for a main-quest or primary objective.

 

[iserith]

I never have either (unless it was a required part of some adventure to haggle for the MacGuffin or something) but in my experience many players love shopping in-game for its own sake. And I am fine with that and can even enjoy it - as long as it does not go on TOO long (just like shopping in real life before the pandemic!)

In most of my games it's a "town task" which is effectively a downtime activity we call Resupply. Make your list, check it twice, usually make a Charisma (Persuasion) check to resolve haggling (advantage if you're a guild artisan), then the price is increased or decreased from list prices depending on the result. Add the items to your sheet, deduct the gold, the end. No quirky, cagey shopkeeps to deal with. A minute of session time, tops, to resolve.

I did write a one-shot called "6 to 8 Hours of Shopping" that is a scenario entirely about shopping. I wrote it because I watched one too many streams where they were shopping for a good chunk of the session and I was like, okay, how can this be written to actually be engaging (and also make fun of this behavior). It's pretty funny. But since it's a one-shot, XP was irrelevant.

 

[el-remmen]

I play "shopping" at both those registers (just subtract the money from your sheet / NPC shopkeeper with detailed personality) depending on my mood and the desires of the players.

 

[Burnside]

While I think the instant gratification of immediate XP awards AND the ability to anticipate exactly how close their characters are to levelling up makes XP the preferable system for the vast majority of players, the truth is that as DM I'm already working WAY harder than anybody else at the table and I just flat out can't be bothered with XP.

In most campaigns, I do leveling like this:

• Character reaches level 2 after 4 hours of play
• Character reaches level 3 after an additional 8 hours of play
• Character gains an additional level roughly every 16 hours of play thereafter

My sessions tend to be 2,3, or 4 hours in length.

In some adventures, I find it more appropriate to award levels based on storyline achievements, so I do it that way.

I think the only time I've used XP in 5E was the first time I ran Lost Mine of Phandelver, and the first time I ran an AL season. In both cases, I did it because the adventure did most of the work for me in indicating how and when to award XP.

 

[Oofta]

My current group for reasons I don't really comprehend love shopping. They complain if I hand wave it too often.

But they all really have fun with it so I just lean into it and play it up. Of course that just means other players asking if they can go shopping too.

But we're all having fun, so that's all that matters.

 

[Shiroiken]

I use a completely different system than mentioned here. I only give out half the normal experience for killing/defeating monsters (called MXP). The other half of the potential experience is given out for exploration encounters (EXP) and social encounters (SXP). In addition I'll sometimes add experience for completing milestones/quests (QXP) to encourage the player to follow through on their actions. The average amount of experience is about the same, but the players are encouraged to find alternatives to straight up combat, since it doesn't provide a much experience.

 

[Charlaquin]

While I think the instant gratification of immediate XP awards AND the ability to anticipate exactly how close their characters are to levelling up makes XP the preferable system for the vast majority of players, the truth is that as DM I'm already working WAY harder than anybody else at the table and I just flat out can't be bothered with XP.

In most campaigns, I do leveling like this:

• Character reaches level 2 after 4 hours of play
• Character reaches level 3 after an additional 8 hours of play
• Character gains an additional level roughly every 16 hours of play thereafter

My sessions tend to be 2,3, or 4 hours in length.

In some adventures, I find it more appropriate to award levels based on storyline achievements, so I do it that way.

I think the only time I've used XP in 5E was the first time I ran Lost Mine of Phandelver, and the first time I ran an AL season. In both cases, I did it because the adventure did most of the work for me in indicating how and when to award XP.

Well, at least you’re honest about the fact that you do it for your own benefit even though XP would probably be preferable to the players.

 

[Charlaquin]

My current group for reasons I don't really comprehend love shopping. They complain if I hand wave it too often.

But they all really have fun with it so I just lean into it and play it up. Of course that just means other players asking if they can go shopping too.

But we're all having fun, so that's all that matters.

As a player, I enjoy a good shopping session or lengthy chat with a quirky NPC. As a DM, I do my best to make the adventures more interesting than talking to NPCs, but I also recognize that such scenes are fun for some players (including me!) but boring for others. So, I try to provide opportunities for such interactions, but don’t let them go on long enough to dominate the session.

I think the main appeal is that it’s basically spotlight time. You get to show off how quirky your character is, by bouncing off a quirky NPC.

 

[Puddles]

I give out XP for killing monsters as soon as the encounter ends. I also give half XP for monsters that rout. They get XP for completing puzzles and circumventing traps (given as soon as they clear the room/area), and get XP for completing quests.

It’s important for me that the players get some experience every session, so I design the sessions accordingly.

All players have the same XP, so they level up together. Inspiration is given if I want to reward just 1 player for something exceptional.

I’m really not a fan of milestone levelling so I will be sad if XP goes and will probably cook up my own XP system if I play an RPG that has milestone levelling instead.