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General Tabletop Discussion
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Worlds of Design: The Benefit of Experience
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8130085" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>Fundamentally this goes back to what do XP and leveling accomplish? What's the goal and what role do they play in the game.</p><p></p><p>For me, the reason to have levels is so that as a DM I can tell different aspects of the story. Low level they're fighting giant spiders and street thugs, high levels they're still fighting giant spiders (because who doesn't like spiders?) but they're demonic spiders the size of a house. Oh, and they may be fighting ancient dragons and the like. It also gives a lot of people a sense of accomplishment and growth. How awesome is it when you can finally cast fireball or blade barrier?</p><p></p><p>Granting XP? I guess you can use it to reward and encourage specific behavior. But for me? I don't want to do that - I want people to do what they think their PC would do. The options and the challenges I put out for them should be their own reward. I run a very sandbox-style game, I don't need nor do I want to have some meta-game influence to tell my players what they "should" do. If they storm the castle, it should be because storming the castle makes sense, not because the castle has a lot of bad guys to kill and loads loot.</p><p></p><p>Another thing I hear is a sense of accomplishment. But again, I want that sense of accomplishment to come from achieving goals in the game. Saving the hamlet from the invading horde should be it's own reward.</p><p></p><p>Of course, the beauty of D&D is that it can morph to fit many different styles of play, everything from heavy RP with combat as a last option to dungeon crawl murder hobos gaining XP from loot is all good.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 8130085, member: 6801845"] Fundamentally this goes back to what do XP and leveling accomplish? What's the goal and what role do they play in the game. For me, the reason to have levels is so that as a DM I can tell different aspects of the story. Low level they're fighting giant spiders and street thugs, high levels they're still fighting giant spiders (because who doesn't like spiders?) but they're demonic spiders the size of a house. Oh, and they may be fighting ancient dragons and the like. It also gives a lot of people a sense of accomplishment and growth. How awesome is it when you can finally cast fireball or blade barrier? Granting XP? I guess you can use it to reward and encourage specific behavior. But for me? I don't want to do that - I want people to do what they think their PC would do. The options and the challenges I put out for them should be their own reward. I run a very sandbox-style game, I don't need nor do I want to have some meta-game influence to tell my players what they "should" do. If they storm the castle, it should be because storming the castle makes sense, not because the castle has a lot of bad guys to kill and loads loot. Another thing I hear is a sense of accomplishment. But again, I want that sense of accomplishment to come from achieving goals in the game. Saving the hamlet from the invading horde should be it's own reward. Of course, the beauty of D&D is that it can morph to fit many different styles of play, everything from heavy RP with combat as a last option to dungeon crawl murder hobos gaining XP from loot is all good. [/QUOTE]
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