D&D 5E XP is a major weapon in the DM arsenal

[googleUser]

I don't think the OP's idea is intended to strong arm players into playing a style of game that they won't enjoy, but rather to establish parameters for the style of a given campaign, in order to promote and reward the game play desired by the group

It's so right on the money I should quote you in my initial post !


Perfidius

 

[googleUser]

Xp is an illusion.

So skip xp, use milestone levelling instead, and save yourself a ton of work

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Actually, I'm currently using a tweaked Milestone system, in order to fit the tone of the campaign: a Magic University where PCs get a level at the end of the school year, only if they didn't fail too many important subjects, like Arcana 101. The tricky part here is to lure the players into slacking, so they could really feel the dilemma of their character. Should I study (which is minimal to no pain in a game) or enjoy the good stuff going to the Conjuration Party offers me ?

 

[googleUser]

Original post edited for clarity and aditional content: 2 examples on how to mess with the Milestone system.

 

[S'mon]

You don't get xp in a romantic Knights of the Round Table for burning down an orphanage because that's not what such a campaign is about.

To me this looks like classic Villain activity, and I'd definitely want upright PCs and other good knights hunting down the villain, who could become an interesting NPC. Obviously our approaches vary and that's ok but I really don't like the idea of a PC in the romantic knights game getting to do acts of despicable villainy without in-game consequences.

 

[S'mon]

Yes, xp, like every other piece of the game, is an illusion. But getting xp is fun. And as a DM I've always found the effort required to compute it trivial.

I found running Classic D&D I could just hand out an amount of XP at the end of the session that felt right and that fitted roughly with the game's guidance of ca 5 sessions to level. I didn't need to do any calculating, just decide "This was a small/medium/big session" - and it seems to have all the positive benefits that use of XP gives over milestone/ad hoc levelling. Players get to write it down. They see how close they are to next level. They see a connection between achievement & reward.

This works equally well in 5e; the DMG even provides a handy table. Just hand out eg 1/5 or 2/5 the XP-to-Level for a typical session, then adjust up and down. Or go to a flat 20 XP to level and then give out 3, 5, 7 etc XP per typical session. 20 is a good number because you can give 1 XP per minor achievement & 2 XP per major achievement across the session, 1 XP per hour played, that sort of metric.

 

[Fanaelialae]

To me this looks like classic Villain activity, and I'd definitely want upright PCs and other good knights hunting down the villain, who could become an interesting NPC. Obviously our approaches vary and that's ok but I really don't like the idea of a PC in the romantic knights game getting to do acts of despicable villainy without in-game consequences.

It's not about "no consequences".

It is about using the carrot rather than the stick. As with most carrot/stick approaches, different folks will often respond better to one or the other, but a combined approach is best.

It is about saying "These are the things that you will be rewarded with xp for". Carrot.

As opposed to, "If you do this, your character will be taken away from you". Stick.

IMC you would not get xp for burning down an orphanage (unless perhaps it was an evil campaign), and moreover there would be consequences (unless the PC did it in such a way that it couldn't be traced back to them). Even if the PCs grudgingly accepted it, it's unlikely that NPCs would.

But with a good enough carrot, you rarely if ever need the stick.