D&D General XP: How Do You Like To Earn It?

[Stormonu]

I prefer getting XP by doing things (of import). Combat, story completion, influencing, evading/surviving traps - that sort of thing.

My wife currently does milestones, which is fine by me as long as I get my level.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I don't understand mixing milestone xp and individual awards. Isn't the point of milestone XP that everyone levels simultaneously?

It's a point of milestone leveling for some people. One may also want to have a milestone simply to bring everyone up to appropriate level for the next phase of the campaign, in which case it doesn't really matter if someone got there a session or two early, or the milestone may simply be a very important story point and natural point for the characters to get a pile of XP. Obviously this last point might also be filed under "overcoming obstacles" but sometimes the big character defining moments are ones of failure.

 

[DammitVictor]

HARP does it best: the players choose group objectives together, and gain shared XP for making progress toward them, and then PC objectives individually that each PC gets XP for making progress toward.

Always best to reward the behavior you want to encourage in game. And the best behavior to encourage is the behavior everyone agrees the game is about.

 

[Reynard]

2E DMG has advice for various xp awards. Theyre not that high.

Some of those late 2E books completing the adventure is 100k xp.

Back in tbe day I wouldn't give out 100k as a mission complete award. I woukd now.

Milestone xp. 2E xp tables are different. So the reward might be "milestone" xp eg 100k plus more for the other categories.

I dont do D&D the accounting though. Cant be assed.

Players keep track of theor individual awards when ot pings ask me and I'll grant the xp.

100k mission rewards.
Gold. I'll guess have 50k.
Magic items. Guess have 50k.
Roleplaying. 25-75k.
Everyone had fun 25-100k

Etc.

If they haven't leveled for a while double the xp. Handwavium.

Gold for xp you level a little bit slower than 5E but not that far behind running old 1E adventures (absurd loot).

Killing monsters isnt worth that much and I cant be bothered keeping track. Have 20k xp.

Divide the xp bucket by number of players.

If you are hand waving it, just be honest and level them by fiat.

But this thread is about your preferences as a player.

 

[el-remmen]

I also have to say that as a player I prefer slow advancement. I want time to play my character and learn what my companions can do at each level.

I joined an in-progress game last year and started at 8th level. The character is now 11th, nearly 12th based on XP awarded. But personally, I’d prefer to still get less XP (not sure of the formula the DM uses) and still be 8th based on in-game events.

Maybe I wouldn’t mind milestone if it was as slow as I like and not as fast as I have encountered it being in the past. But I guess my point is that for me, the form of XP (despite liking numbers and spreadsheets) doesn’t matter as much as the pace.

 

[Reynard]

I also have to say that as a player I prefer slow advancement. I want time to play my character and learn what my companions can do at each level.

I joined an in-progress game last year and started at 8th level. The character is now 11th, nearly 12th based on XP awarded. But personally, I’d prefer to still get less XP (not sure of the formula the DM uses) and still be 8th based on in-game events.

Maybe I wouldn’t mind milestone if it was as slow as I like and not as fast as I have encountered it being in the past. But I guess my point is that for me, the form of XP (despite liking numbers and spreadsheets) doesn’t matter as much as the pace.

Yeah, that is definitely a thing, especially with modern D&D and similar.

 

[payn]

What do you mean by this?

I don't understand mixing milestone xp and individual awards. Isn't the point of milestone XP that everyone levels simultaneously?

Zard is often an enigma to me. Though, milestone purpose isnt all about keeping characters the same level. It is also about removing a focus (which my players were entirely obnoxious about) on XP earning activities instead of engaging the narrative organically or in a way that interested the players.

A few examples;

GM: (every time I mention there is a door anywhere)
Players: OHHHHHHHHH IS IT LOCKED AND CAN WE PICK IT FOR XP!?

GM: "Bats fly out of a cave as you peer inside of it." (simple flavor and atmosphere setting notion)
Players: OHHHHHHH CAN WE SHOOT BOWS AT THE BATS AND CAST MAGIC MISSILE ON THEM FOR XP!?

GM: There is a fork in the road. A path that winds to the left with footprints of a beast you have been chasing, and a path that winds to the right.
Players: THE RIGHT PATH IS JUST EXTRA XP BUT WE PROBABLY NEED IT TO LEVEL FOR THE BEAST WE ARE CHASING. (actual discussion at table)

I could go on and on but I dislike the things above. It felt more like the players wanted to sniff out XP then to actually engage the narrative and setting. Everything was like a carnival shooting gallery and the GM expected to be a screaming carny with cheap prizes everytime they tossed a dart into a balloon.

 

[Reynard]

Zard is often an enigma to me. Though, milestone purpose isnt all about keeping characters the same level. It is also about removing a focus (which my players were entirely obnoxious about) on XP earning activities instead of engaging the narrative organically or in a way that interested the players.

A few examples;

GM: (every time I mention there is a door anywhere)
Players: OHHHHHHHHH IS IT LOCKED AND CAN WE PICK IT FOR XP!?

GM: "Bats fly out of a cave as you peer inside of it." (simple flavor and atmosphere setting notion)
Players: OHHHHHHH CAN WE SHOOT BOWS AT THE BATS AND CAST MAGIC MISSILE ON THEM FOR XP!?

GM: There is a fork in the road. A path that winds to the left with footprints of a beast you have been chasing, and a path that winds to the right.
Players: THE RIGHT PATH IS JUST EXTRA XP BUT WE PROBABLY NEED IT TO LEVEL FOR THE BEAST WE ARE CHASING. (actual discussion at table)

I could go on and on but I dislike the things above. It felt more like the players wanted to sniff out XP then to actually engage the narrative and setting. Everything was like a carnival shooting gallery and the GM expected to be a screaming carny with cheap prizes everytime they tossed a dart into a balloon.

See, in those situations, the juice isn't (or shouldn't be) worth the squeeze. You spend all this time and energy and (most importantly) noise shooting bats and all you have done is gain 7 XP and given me multiple encounter rolls. Congrats?

 

[payn]

See, in those situations, the juice isn't (or shouldn't be) worth the squeeze. You spend all this time and energy and (most importantly) noise shooting bats and all you have done is gain 7 XP and given me multiple encounter rolls. Congrats?

They wouldnt care, its just more XP! If they couldnt take it, they would run away and then spend the next 30-60 min discussing where they went wrong on the XP trail to not be up to that task. It was so awful before I went milestone and it might seem like im joking but they turned into normal people wanting to actually RP a game for a change when I ditched XP. Like day and night.

 

[Reynard]

They wouldnt care, its just more XP! If they couldnt take it, they would run away and then spend the next 30-60 min discussing where they went wrong on the XP trail to not be up to that task. It was so awful before I went milestone and it might seem like im joking but they turned into normal people wanting to actually RP a game for a change when I ditched XP. Like day and night.

I guess that is one of the inherent benefits of xp for gold or other concrete, non-combat rewards. If it is worthwhile for players to farm random encounters for xp, they will.