delericho
Legend
Just be sure to actually tell them what they'll get XP for!
D&D General XP Awards for -- what????
Rya.Reisender
Explorer
I award XP for combat mostly, but I'd call it "encounters". Because even if my group gets around a threat by talking it out, I'd give them the XP of the creatures they avoided combat with.
I sometimes give XP bonus for accomplishing milestones. Usually it's just the doubled XP from the main encounter required to accomplish the task.
I sometimes give XP bonus for accomplishing milestones. Usually it's just the doubled XP from the main encounter required to accomplish the task.
I use most of the first six but the lions share tends to come from what largely amounts to combat & sometimes accomplishing things(ie quests, goals that make a mark on the world, etc)tge rest including other tends to be anything that I appreciate a player doing at the table or find beneficial to the game ( ie player management like scolding obnoxious behavior towards other pcs so I don't need to, notable note taking, whatever).
Someone else mentioned exp as milestones or similar & I've done that too. That especially gets used when I noticed that one player seems to abuse milestones to make progress the same as every other player despite pointless* chronic lateness.
*one example is a player who would constantly get off work late (a reasonable thing) then tell us how they were off shift but going to be more late because they wanted to order (and sometimes eat) food first even though we always had food during the game (sandwiches burgers pizza wings whatever it was that week). The player would regularly extend what would have been ten or fifteen minutes of things happen to an hour or more of rolling "I'm ordering food, my food is taking forever, my order got messed up, ok I'm calling my spouse to pick me up, etc.
Someone else mentioned exp as milestones or similar & I've done that too. That especially gets used when I noticed that one player seems to abuse milestones to make progress the same as every other player despite pointless* chronic lateness.
*one example is a player who would constantly get off work late (a reasonable thing) then tell us how they were off shift but going to be more late because they wanted to order (and sometimes eat) food first even though we always had food during the game (sandwiches burgers pizza wings whatever it was that week). The player would regularly extend what would have been ten or fifteen minutes of things happen to an hour or more of rolling "I'm ordering food, my food is taking forever, my order got messed up, ok I'm calling my spouse to pick me up, etc.
wedgeski
Adventurer
I've given up on evertthing except milestone XP. I'm considering a different approach for a hex crawl my players want me to run, but that's about the only scenario I would want to use incremental XP awards.
I prefer flat awards at the table. I don't like Inspiration dice (unless group, not DM-driven) or roleplaying rewards, and I despise the "use XP as a training stick" approach favoured by posters above. Lay out the campaign goals in the first session. If the players find the fun elsewhere, then adjust your game. Don't start whacking them across the knuckles.
I want the party to level up as one. The reasons are not entirely unselfish. It makes my life a lot easier. But watching players fall behind, watching players fish for rewards, watching quiet players get punished, and not trusting my own ability to be fair to everyone at the table--despite all efforts made to be so--means I've given up on individual awards.
I prefer flat awards at the table. I don't like Inspiration dice (unless group, not DM-driven) or roleplaying rewards, and I despise the "use XP as a training stick" approach favoured by posters above. Lay out the campaign goals in the first session. If the players find the fun elsewhere, then adjust your game. Don't start whacking them across the knuckles.
I want the party to level up as one. The reasons are not entirely unselfish. It makes my life a lot easier. But watching players fall behind, watching players fish for rewards, watching quiet players get punished, and not trusting my own ability to be fair to everyone at the table--despite all efforts made to be so--means I've given up on individual awards.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
To add to my earlier bit, I did have something interestingly different. We had multiple DMs running West Marches style. For that we basically standardized on a set amount of XP for a four hour session. Charactrers were starting at 3rd level, and an adventure for 3rd level character was 900xp for the session. Each higher level was +400xp, so 1700xp for a 4 hour session geared for 5th level characters. Note that characters didn't have to go on adventures of their level, we had mixed groups at times. I think we had a modifier for more/less than 5 person parties but I don't remember it. And the DM could award extra but we had to calibrate because some DMs were more generous with that..
There was actually a lot of math behind the numbers, which I don't remember the details (and haven't retained the spreadsheet) but was aimed at quickly getting to a sweet spot and lingering there for a while.
There was actually a lot of math behind the numbers, which I don't remember the details (and haven't retained the spreadsheet) but was aimed at quickly getting to a sweet spot and lingering there for a while.
BookTenTiger
He / Him
I haven't used XP since Third Edition. I prefer milestones or session-based leveling. It's just less of a headache for me to keep track of.
In one campaign I ran, the characters leveled up every X sessions, X being the next level. So 2 sessions to get from 1 to 2, 3 sessions to get from 2 to 3, etc. The pacing worked pretty well! I feel like the higher you get in level, the more time you want to try out all your new spells, powers, etc. The big weakness is that leveling was arbitrary and didn't really follow story beats.
In one campaign I used a homemade Tarroka Card set to create adventure goals. The characters received a reading, and when they fulfilled the goal, the stars would bless them with power and they would level up. That was fun too, because it incentivized players to try and solve the "puzzle" aspect of the card readings and solve problems in the world. It also meant that there were big, positive consequences to the narrative choices of the characters. The downside was that it meant side quests took away from character progression (though would have their own rewards).
If I were running a new campaign, I think I'd want to try out a milestone system that is more collaborative. Something like reflecting at the end of each session on if characters accomplished Minor, Medium, or Major goals, and awarding new levels based on that.
The one thing I never want to experience again is milestone leveling with no clear guidelines. The last campaign I played in basically was "we level up when we bug the DM enough." We would survive amazing fights, hit story beats, travel the world... But only level up if we reminded the DM and if she was in an agreeable mood. It was very annoying!
In one campaign I ran, the characters leveled up every X sessions, X being the next level. So 2 sessions to get from 1 to 2, 3 sessions to get from 2 to 3, etc. The pacing worked pretty well! I feel like the higher you get in level, the more time you want to try out all your new spells, powers, etc. The big weakness is that leveling was arbitrary and didn't really follow story beats.
In one campaign I used a homemade Tarroka Card set to create adventure goals. The characters received a reading, and when they fulfilled the goal, the stars would bless them with power and they would level up. That was fun too, because it incentivized players to try and solve the "puzzle" aspect of the card readings and solve problems in the world. It also meant that there were big, positive consequences to the narrative choices of the characters. The downside was that it meant side quests took away from character progression (though would have their own rewards).
If I were running a new campaign, I think I'd want to try out a milestone system that is more collaborative. Something like reflecting at the end of each session on if characters accomplished Minor, Medium, or Major goals, and awarding new levels based on that.
The one thing I never want to experience again is milestone leveling with no clear guidelines. The last campaign I played in basically was "we level up when we bug the DM enough." We would survive amazing fights, hit story beats, travel the world... But only level up if we reminded the DM and if she was in an agreeable mood. It was very annoying!
Oofta
Legend
Which assumes that influencing players using meta game tools is a good thing. I don't assume that. I'd rather have PC motivations, goals and approaches front and center. Story matters to me, telling or even nudging players into how they approach the story is something I do my best to avoid.
I haven't used XP for a few editions now, I use a mix of milestone/session based advancement. I don't want that conversation of "Can I just go out and find some ___ to kill so I can go up a level?" at my table ever again.
payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
Yeap, we done this song and dance before. All of that had the exact opposite effect on my games. No thank you.
TheDelphian
Explorer
I give the normal assumed XP for combat/defeating an encounter, ie sneaking pass or fooling them somehow.
I give Xp while the characters are in town for social encounters of importance and when dealing with a new place, town, city. These rewards drop off so it encourages players/characters to travel and do new things. This XP is always less than "Adventuring" XP as I want them to take there time while in a town or urban area and explore talk to folk etc and not feel like they are using up game time and not getting XP awards. But in the end this is an adventuring game so go adventure.
I keep a record of XP for each encounter that is available to players if they want to see, but most of my players are not as concerned with that. it also serves as a record things happened in order, it is not horrible detailed but enough to spark memories.
I give Xp while the characters are in town for social encounters of importance and when dealing with a new place, town, city. These rewards drop off so it encourages players/characters to travel and do new things. This XP is always less than "Adventuring" XP as I want them to take there time while in a town or urban area and explore talk to folk etc and not feel like they are using up game time and not getting XP awards. But in the end this is an adventuring game so go adventure.
I keep a record of XP for each encounter that is available to players if they want to see, but most of my players are not as concerned with that. it also serves as a record things happened in order, it is not horrible detailed but enough to spark memories.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
That explains dwarven songs.
"It's noted that a lot of (that is to say, all of them except "hi-ho") dwarf drinking songs seem to comprise the single word "gold" repeated in singsong."
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