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Message: <blockquote data-quote="niklinna" data-source="post: 8840248" data-attributes="member: 71235">XP is usually as much DM fiat as milestone level; after all, who decides when the PCs get  XP, and what for?Whatever happened to achieving personal goals? Way back there was this computer game called Myth: The Fallen Lords, and I decided I was going to finish the game with zero casualties. It was a personal goal, and I replayed every single level until I beat it without losing any soldiers. It was incredibly satisfying to figure that out for each level, but the game sure didn't reward me in any mechanical way for doing it.Personal goals don't require a singular stat, be that XP or levels (which are just arbitrary XP thresholds that concrete advancements are hung on; that is, the two are actually the same scale). Clearing a dungeon is a thing you can track as progress. Rooting out a cult or secret cabal, member by member, is a thing you can track as progress. Collecting the parts of the tropey broken artifact is a thing you can track as progress. Keep a list of these, if the players need a number they can see growing.Why couldn't you listen for, or ask, what your players' personal goals are? Then, when they achieve those goals, you give them XP, or a level-up. Yes, you would have to change (or ditch) your whole milestone-leveling system, but since that feels too much like DM fiat to you anyhow, maybe everybody wins.Why couldn't you listen for signs of players being bored with the level they're at, and use that as an opportunity to give them a "milestone" level-up? If your players (or you!) are not having fun, something needs to change. It might not be power level—but it might. Or, you could just make it clear that they players can explicitly state when they are ready for, or want, a level-up. This could be as a group, or individually (although it's likely that as soon as one person opts to level up, the others will follow in short order). Don't button down the details of your encounters too far in advance if you take these approaches, of course.Again, XP is just one progress bar. And points for Gryffindor is a lot like faction status; most games that do that have many factions, even if a player is focusing on one at a given time. In my current Blades in the Dark campaign, we have lots of factions, and if our status with one goes up, our status with others is likely to change, too (in either direction). Some factions are allied; some are rivals. World of Warcraft, back when I played it, had similiar friendly and rival factions. That makes progress much more interesting and dynamic than a single bar that fills up. How might you fit something else like that into a game, where progress on one axis affects progress on another axis?Again, there are plenty of ways to track progress, and again, it doesn't have to be to a next level (of power, or complexity).The game element of D&D—and any roleplaying game—is important, as is the "story" bit. But they can be important in relation to one another, and not just for their own sakes (not that there's anything wrong with that!).(Statement above revised based on private feedback.)Again, that sounds like the DM fiat/whim you expressed a problem with at the beginning of your post.If your players enjoy 1-Encounter-Days, and don't enjoy being punished for it, well, why are you making what should be an enjoyable pastime not enjoyable? Maybe find ways to incentivize rather than dis-incentivize. Maybe talk to your players and find out what playstyle they enjoy most, both before beginning and as you play (since they may not know when you begin, or their preferences may change through play), adjusting whatever measures the group uses to track the various kinds of progress. Maybe observe the incentives and disincentives baked into the system and talk about those, and tune them to fit the whole group.XP may feel fairer, but it's every bit as arbitrary as DM-fiat milestones. (But I do see you've mentioned incentivizing after all!)</blockquote>

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