D&D 5E XP Tokens: An Alternate Leveling System

[Maestrino]

You mention wanting to avoid a "kill everything" mentality of XP grinding with this system. To me, it seems like the "kill everything" approach isn't so much a result of wanting all the XP as it is the players realizing killing everything is the fastest way to the XP, and there's no in-game benefits to earning the XP another way.

Scenario 1: kill the bugbear. Get the xp.

Scenario 2: spend a lot of time figuring out how to stage an intervention, ask the bugbear if he feels fulfilled by his guard duties. Is he getting paid enough? How are the benefits and advancement prospects. Maybe he would feel more fulfilled by another line of work? Talk him around with some good persuasion rolls and get him to quit his job and go open a bakery. Get the xp. Never see the bugbear again. Realize you just wasted all that time and effort. Resort to killing everything.

Scenario 3: same as scenario 2, but now you have a recurring NPC bugbear baker who might be a good source of information for the players down the road. Also pastries. Payoff - incentive to pursue noncombat options in the future.

 

[S'mon]

I've been using a house ruled system where the PCs need 5, 10, 20 etc points to level up, and the amount typically increases by tier breaks. I think it's important to be able to award more than one point per session - I usually award from 6 to 12 points for a session of 3-6 hours, or averaging about 2 points per hour (so 20 XP is typical for 10 hours play). I tweak the system depending on the campaign, but a typical spread for XP/level assuming weekly play is:

Tier I: 10 XP
Tier 2: 20 XP
Tier 3: 40 XP
Tier 4: 60 XP

For a game that runs 1/month I use half those numbers.

XP is gained for combat (1 XP per moderate encounter, up to 5 XP for massive battles) and for achievements (again, 1-5 XP per significant achievement).

It sounds like something like this would work well for your goals.

 

[Reynard]

You mention wanting to avoid a "kill everything" mentality of XP grinding with this system. To me, it seems like the "kill everything" approach isn't so much a result of wanting all the XP as it is the players realizing killing everything is the fastest way to the XP, and there's no in-game benefits to earning the XP another way.

Scenario 1: kill the bugbear. Get the xp.

Scenario 2: spend a lot of time figuring out how to stage an intervention, ask the bugbear if he feels fulfilled by his guard duties. Is he getting paid enough? How are the benefits and advancement prospects. Maybe he would feel more fulfilled by another line of work? Talk him around with some good persuasion rolls and get him to quit his job and go open a bakery. Get the xp. Never see the bugbear again. Realize you just wasted all that time and effort. Resort to killing everything.

Scenario 3: same as scenario 2, but now you have a recurring NPC bugbear baker who might be a good source of information for the players down the road. Also pastries. Payoff - incentive to pursue noncombat options in the future.

I'm more concerned about not penalizing characters for scenario 4: there's a bugbear guarding the hallway we need to get through. if we kill him we risk warning the whole clan they have intruders and then we're in for a BIG fight. Let's figure out a way past him (and the rest of them) without violence so we can find that treasure!

I am not sold on the tokens idea. What I am really looking for is a system that rewards PCs for engaging in the act of exploring the megadungeon, regardless of how much or how little actual combat any given foray into the Hellstair results in.

Way back when, I ran Monte Cook's Dragon's Delve as a weekly FLGS game so it was very episodic. In that one they were paid to map the place so they got both gold and XP per room they encountered. This time I am not using a traditional meticulously mapped megadungeon, so that exact approach won't work, but that's kind of where I'm trying to get to: the exploration is the main thing, traps and treasure and monsters and such are all potential results of that exploration.

 

[clearstream]

Second, I would strongly recommend basing token per level cost on tiers or a multiple of tiers or tier squared, instead of level. It sets a series of common blocks of length instead of an ever escalating state with the play itself being "longer" to resolve as the levels progress through say the long tier 2.

I think it could be correct to make the cost to level = tier, rather than level. Otherwise the scaling concerns me. Such as I need 10 tokens - worth 30 inspiration - to go from L9 to L10... that seems problematic. The cost of death also seems better scaled against tier.

I am working up a new system for characters gaining XP and leveling for an upcoming megadungeon adventure and I was hoping to have some eyes on it from the community. Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Generally, I like the idea. I'd really suggest not over-thinking it, but implementing it and learning from having it in play. Maybe make it some kind of magical curse that you can tweak or turn off as you gain better insight.

 

[BigBadDM]

This is basically what Adventurer's League Season 8 does; "XP token" advancement. You should look into the leveling system there, you might like it (it does a similar thing with Magic Items, Treasure).

Most people didn't care for it hence why they are changing it again for season 9.