Xp and level spread in your campaign

[tjoneslo]

Thom's poll of the week. This question relates to fairness in gaming. The D&D and D20 system is designed around the idea that all the characters are about (or exactly) the same level. This makes it difficult for players to have character concepts like the old master and his student. But I have seen it done, the level differences are ignored, and everyone has a blast.

So, how much spread of XP is there in your campaign?

Or if you prefer to think of this in a fariness way: how much of a spread should there be, given your character will be on the short end of the scale?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

None, with the exception of some magic-using types and PCs raised from the dead. We hand out the exact same experience points to each PC. Less hassle this way.

(Magic users need to pay XP for creating magic items, or, as in the case with Midnight, to learn spells. Raised PCs get 1000 XP docked each time they return to the Lands of the Living...)

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Depends on the game... I had one going for a while with PCs at a wide spread, being 4th, 12th, and 35th (non-Epic variant), but the situation of the campaign focused on military actions and duties, so 90% of the time the three PCs were on different tasks (one a semi-experience adventurer turned soldier, one a hardened sargeant, and the other the tactical commander and leader).

For an adventuring party, I probably wouldn't ever consider such a divergence, keeping everyone within 3-4 levels of each other.

 

[reveal]

I stopped handing out XP a few campaigns ago. Everyone levels at the same time. If a person dies and is resurrected, they go back one level and go to the next level when everyone else does. It's a lot easier for me to plan out when everyone goes up. 3E makes it so easy to level it was getting to the point people were levelling every session. Now we usually play 3 or 4 sessions and I say "Everyone levels" and everyone's good with it.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

My apologies for bumping this...

The thread with the actual poll in it is here.