Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7798156" data-attributes="member: 97077">As my Eberron campaign enters the final stretch, I've been working on my next campaign which is going to be a megadungeon so certain aspects of what you're doing is what I'm currently fleshing out.You might look at resting variants to combat the specific issue of nova'ing and retreating. My current thinking is 8-hour short rests and one-week long rests (can do downtime activities during long rest period), but I have not made a final decision. The idea here is that the dungeon restocks/respawns if you leave it sit for more than a day, so you end up giving up ground if you rest too much. Then I'll put time pressure on via specific events that happen after a set number of weeks. And, of course, the dungeon has wandering monsters.You could specifically tie the XP reward to resting by giving out a set amount of XP minus number of short and/or long rests taken. You might find that this causes the players to favor one class or another. Whether that's an actual problem for you is a matter of taste. In similar threads in the past, I've recommended bonus XP past a certain threshold of challenges e.g. +10% bonus XP for every challenge overcome after the 5th this adventuring day. Whatever you choose, I recommend giving the mechanic a pithy name that encapsulates its purpose and frames it as boldness, heroism, or whatever best fits the campaign theme. Bonuses sell better than penalties, so I'd suggest designing it that way.I don't know how much you use standard XP now, but it's really not fiddly at all in my view. It's simple math and, if you just award it after each challenge rather than wait till end of session, it's really not a problem in my experience.Milestone XP could be okay as long as you're very specific about the things that are milestones. When many people say "milestone leveling" or the like, they mean just giving out levels by DM fiat or by story-based advancement (see DMG). But actually, milestone does use XP (again, see DMG) and is pegged to specific goals and challenges. So you could give a set amount of XP to, say, "Clear Level 7 of the Hellstair" or "Find the heart of the ruined city before the wraith-bell tolls." Then you could play around with objective-based stuff. Completing objectives that aren't "kill all monsters" could see your players trying to solve problems without cutting their way through them if they can imagine a path to that XP without fighting. Which is not to say combat is bad. We're just talking about what behavior will be incentivized.This might be somewhat controversial, but I think the DM should care, especially as it relates to the campaign theme. My personal philosophy is to strongly define my central theme/concept and then drive play toward that via content and mechanics and what is awarded XP and gold is a huge factor in that design. This creates a sense of what this campaign is centrally about for everyone at the table.Generally speaking, I award XP for defeating creatures in combat and for turning hostile creatures friendly. If the players want to get some treasure, they have to engage in exploration challenges (i.e. treasure hunt). This encourages everyone to engage in all three pillars depending on their priorities. Sometimes, when they want to level up this session, they'll eschew treasure hunting in favor of efficient mass slaughter. Other times they'll want to pacify an area with diplomacy so they can get XP for it, plus use the area as an area of safe passage or rest. When they're broke though, it time to seek treasure.If you'd like to see them doing stuff like creating maps, then you can just offer a standard gold piece bounty for source maps back in town. If the characters want to sell maps for gold, they have to stop being alert to danger while in the dungeon and not hold anything other than their cartographer's tools in their hands. If a lurking monster turns up, they're automatically surprised, unarmed, and possibly have a lower AC. That makes it a meaningful trade-off.As to the matter of Inspiration and XP tokens, as a player, I'd probably not buy Inspiration with XP tokens. Leveling is almost always going to be the better choice to me, especially if I can earn Inspiration by playing to my traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws.</blockquote>

Verification