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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5466586" data-attributes="member: 8835">I think it's reasonable to assume that for most players, if they know what XP is awarded for, they will pursue that more aggressively and be more likely to avoid activities that don't pay off.They'll also exhibit this same pattern based on  what they THINK is rewarded for XP.In games where the method is unknown, they'll probably just do whatever they think is worth it, which is usually doing stuff like killing monsters and taking their stuff.Obviously, there's exceptions like players who don't care about XP.  In statistics, exceptions don't count.An observation made about my friend's "evil and greedy" campaign, is that the XP award system would become unbalanced if pursued aggressively.  My friend ran a 3e game for an "evil" party.  The players whole strategy is find NPCs with good magic gear and take it.  Each successful hit increased their power level beyond the expected money to level ratio because they were not relying on random drops but targeting specific known hot spots.  If XP was awarded by treasure, the PCs would more rapidly than average because of the singularity in their adventures.As an side observation. They were also known for not sticking to the mission.  A good party will generally take a certain path to get to the bad guy to rescue the princess.  They'll at least drive that direction and keep trying until they can't.  An evil party, much less predictable and thus harder to write material for.  These guys were king at that.  The moment they decided the job was not worth the trouble, they would pack up. As a result, the GM had a harder time determining what would motivate them or even where they would go next.From what I can tell from the anecdote, heavy rewarding on a behavior may result in unbalanced game play.  It certainly could be abused by a group with a natural heavy focus on that area.</blockquote>

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