XP: When and how do you decide the value of an encounter?

[Grymar]

For years I've done XP after the fact since I'll change the encounter design on the fly to account for missing players or circumstances. Then I'd punch the numbers into the encounter calculator on d20srd.org and then make any adjustments necessary.

These days I'm trying to build encounters based on the XP/builder charts in Pathfinder. Thus now I know from the beginning what the XP total is, then post game I still look at how things went and if I had to make any changes to the encounter.

Not much different, I guess, but it sure feels different for me.

 

[MrMyth]

In 4E, I determine XP beforehand, based on how hard the encounter is on paper. I determine Milestones (and thus give out Action Points, etc) based on how hard the encounters actually ends up being. I tend to go with similar outlooks in other systems - the PCs might not get any extra XP for surviving an unexpectedly difficult fight, but might earn other sorts of rewards instead.

 

[karlindel]

In D&D, I determine the XP before the encounter. If the party has a harder or easier time because they played better or worse, or had good or bad luck, that doesn't affect the XP. If the encounter ends only partially successful, I award less than the full XP. Whether the bad guys live or die is usually not important to the XP, as being defeated is enough for the XP. If the goal is to just hold the bad guys off for awhile, then running away with all the bad guys at full hit points will still get the XP (assuming they held them off long enough).

Other games, of course, have different systems for awarding XP, most of which do not involve XP based on encounters.

 

[Stormonu]

But to answer your question: if the PCs don't "overcome" a challenge (whatever that means), I don't give them any XP.

Hmm ... that's actually an issue I'm somewhat torn about. I'm often tempted to give PCs XP even if they should abandon an encounter. Learning to flee and/or that a challenge is over their head (or was better avoided) is still experience in my mind, and learning to live to fight another day seems as though it should grant some sort of XP, even if only a fraction.

 

[howandwhy99]

It's randomly determined during scenario prep based upon the level of the region the encounter occupies.

A use a 10-step ladder of difficulty corresponding to the PC's potential levels of advancement. Everything lies on that scale, but each step isn't discreet. Instead they are the mean average of a bell curve roll (a la AD&D). I find this gives a predictable and suitable set of challenges and rewards for the region, while still offering quantifiable variation.

 

[TarionzCousin]

One thing I used to do was have every player write down what they thought every player did that was cool during the session. Then we would go around the room and share with each other while I kept track. If something was duplicated, I made a note.

It encouraged players to do cool things that would impress the other players, and it made a nice ending to each day's session.

Now I simply tell the players to level up after every few sessions/major accomplishments.

--actually, while writing this, I have decided that I think I'll need to devise some way to incorporate the old system with some sort of reward. It was great to have the players always eager to do cool stuff. Note that I awarded more XP to stuff like impressive roleplaying or creative ideas.

 

[Janx]

at the end of the session, assuming the party is at an actual 'rest" point, I hand out XP.

I give 300XP per CR in an encounter, divided by the number of PCs involved.

I do similar for other encounters, using "party level" for CR where CR isn't applicable (like achieving a goal)

---

the point about how "advancement" works in fiction is apt. In the New Mutants case, that was specifically a series about characters learning their abilities, thus learning had to involve change of abilities.

For most other fiction, characters abilities tends to remain staticly awesome for the story (as they say, the Enterprise travels at the speed of plot). Perhaps a character will gain a new ability per book/season.

The other aspect of good writing, is that your protagonists change, the supporting characters don't. But that change seldom has to do with abilities, and more to do with their social circumstance and more commonly, their personal growth. PCs change their minds. NPCs don't.

I think an RPG that has ZERO ability change, no XP, while modelling fiction fairly well, wouldn't map to the American mindset of "I gotta have advancement".

Consider that in traditional martial arts, there is really only 1 belt. A new one that is white, and gets dirtier over time until it is black. In America, martial arts had to add a ton belt colors and ranks, so students would SEE their advancement.

 

[Lanefan]

I work out ExP after the fact, based on what the party actually defeated (killed, captured, etc.) using either the DMG table or the build-yer-own chart on page 85. During the session, I keep track of who got involved with what. Every few sessions I add 'em up and give 'em out, more often if someone is close to bumping.

The difficulty of the encounter *going in* sometimes makes a difference in the ExP I give out...for example, having 6 Ogres attack the party's camp in the middle of the night when most people are out of armour is inherently going to be a tougher battle than meeting those same 6 Ogres at mid-day when the party's all geared up and ready to go...and (when I remember to do so) the ExP reflect this. But if random chance or party stupidity/brilliance ends up making an encounter tougher or easier than it otherwise should be, nothing changes.

If foes flee I don't usually give full ExP and sometimes don't give any at the time, mostly to avoid them getting ExP twice (or more) for the same opponents should they meet again. I do have a thing I call a "dungeon bonus" given out at the end of each adventure, in part intended to cover all these little corner cases and minor stuff (tracking, searching, etc.) that I can't be bothered noting on a case-by-case basis and in part as a mission reward.

Lanefan

 

[Mesh Hong]

When designing encounters I keep an eye on its XP value in order to see its expected difficulty level, I also have a quick look how much XP the PCs would get in an adventure or string of encounters to judge roughly where they should level.

But I don't bother handing out XP, instead I try to tie levelling to the end of an adventure, or at an appropriate moment in an adventure. This way the PCs improve in a logical story based way. In reality this levelling is not that far from the norm, falling somewhere between 6 and 12 encounters which seems to be about the right pace.

The main advantage of this approach is that I can stall a level up until just after the big boss fight, instead of just before it. So I can design the fight without having to worry about any crazy new powers they might pick up which change the game in a significant way.