You ever argue XP with a DM?

[IronWolf]

Questioning is fair game in my opinion (spoken as a DM). Sometimes the DM may have errored, forgot a particular encounter or action that did indeed merit XP. I would hope it would not lead to anything more than a brief discussion, questions getting answered (whether the answers are what one wants to hear or not) and then moving on.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

The only time we were having a discussion was regarding roleplaying XP that I got docked for something I didn't know my pally had to do... We had a loooong discussion before the next session about our POV regarding paladins and his POV. Didn't get the amount added but we worked out the difference, I hope....

Other than that, we're usually glad to get "what we can get"... Every little bit counts towards that next level!

 

[ThirdWizard]

I have completely forgotten to give out xp for three session in a row, and none of the players said anything.

Luckily I keep notes on everything, so I can calculate out xp from 6 months ago and be pretty accurate about it. They leveled.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Other than some teasing when the DM leaves my character just short of gaining a level ("Okay, first thing next week, I'm killing an orc"), I don't think I've ever argued XP with the DM. What's the point?

We're usually like, "oooooo SO close.....!" and usually go ahead and prep the new sheet for the next game.

 

[Nifft]

My DM asks me to help him calculate XP.
I don't cheat.
In real life, I'm Lawful Stupid. :-/

-- N

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Never in D&D, since no one I've ever played with ever used the guidelines as written. I came close, one time in college playing 2nd ed. It was basically a downtime session, but we were doing a lot of character-related stuff, including a wedding for one of the PCs after the whole "rescue the long-lost love" plotline that the DM had come up with.

Anyhow, the subplot of the session was some strange murders that were happening around town, and we sort of poked around with the investigation in between doing other stuff. Eventually, my character tracked it down to a mummy who's tomb had been looted, and he was tracking down and killing the desecrators. This seemed reasonable to my character, so I wished him luck and went back to doing other things.

Not content to let things rest there, of course, the DM decided to have the mummy show up and kill a guest during the wedding, which was pretty much our main focus scene of the session. Naturally, we wasted it, and considering it was a standard by-the-book mummy and we were something like 12th level (average), it didn't take much to kill.

At the end, the DM must've still been pissed or something, because after 12 hours of fairly intensive roleplaying, we got XP only for killing the mummy, which was a few hundered per person. We griped about it, but pretty much let it go, since it was pretty late by then.

There was one time in a WoD game (mostly mages) that I argued enough about xp to get mine docked. It wasn't for me, though- it was for the Dreamspeaker player, who had been saving up forever for a major purchase (Arete or something like that) and was just short. He'd gotten about half the xp that I had, despite the fact that I hadn't been there most of the session and had basically just shown up, activated the GM-provided plot device to save the day, and retreated to the background.

Meanwhile, the Dreamspeaker had gone through hell and back to get things set up, and hold off evil spirits and do all sorts of other stuff so that we could get the item activated. Essentially, he'd contributed far more to the resolution than I had, but because I'd read the chant (or whatever it was, it's been a while so I can't remember), I got the resolution xp. I argued that he should get more than me and, after a few minutes, the GM's response was to give my less xp than the player in question.

Which definately shut me up. But still, it was pretty lame. I don't normally argue at all with GMs (for that matter, I usually am the GM), but something set me off that day I guess. I don't suppose it was an arguement per se, as there wasn't any shouting or other unreasonable actions on either side. I just stated my case a few different times, and that was that.

All this aside, however, I normally wouldn't argue over xp- especially in 3.5 where, like I said, we pretty much ignore CR and ECL and other such guidelines. I myself hand out xp based on roleplaying, goal fullfillment, and the rate of advancement I want to see. And everyone get's the same total, since I assume that everyone had an equal share in the solution.

 

[IamTheTest]

Every session, and I mean fight. If there is no blood on the character sheets I just dont feel right. Only kidding. We are all way too layed back about leveling up to even keep track. Everybody in our group is really green so I dont think we have much experience in experience (hehe). We only discuss what we like and dont like about certain sessions so that the campaign can evolve itself into something that everyone in the group enjoys.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

A few times, but more along the vien of passing a note letting him know I thought it was a bit stingy or too generous, but once...

We were playing Rifts, about 3 months of gaming 2-3 times a week, 6-10 hour sessions. Tough fights, a LOT of people lost PC's. I got lucky, I didn't. I was playing a Temporal Warrior in a set of technomagic SAMAS armor that I'd taken off of a technowizard's dead body, since he didn't have a use for it after I'd jammed a vibroknife in his spine.

Anyway...

There had been, on average, 10 combats a game, plans, plots, having skills at the ready, busting butt to get through a nightmare of doublecross, blatant GM cheating, lying (on the GM's part), omniscent enemies, and hearing, every night: "I'll hand out XP at the end of the adventure."

So the 3 months go by. Out of the original 9 PC's, mine, my wife's, and two others are the only ones who make it the whole way. Everyone else is playing level one PC's.

And then, he FINALLY agrees to hand out the XP. The Mechaniod War is over, we've managed to escape the Coalition, fake our own deaths, and even escape Atlantis.

The 6 people playing level one PC's get thier cards with thier XP on them and cheer. All of them get enough to bump them to level 6.

I'm playing a level 9 Temporal Warrior who is 525 XP from getting my next level. I'm grinning as I unfold the card.

And get 520 XP.

FOR THREE MONTHS!

I came up with plans that saved the whole party, risked my PC to save total strangers, party members, the whole kit and caboodle. Including the memorable time I used a living Splugorth High Lord to parry the rune sword of another one.

Then, to top it off, a GOD comes up and demands I give back the guantlets I took off a dead Splugorth High Lord that gave me supernatural strength and upped my physical prowess.

Get this...

He wants: My rune sword, the Gauntlets of Shao-Lum, my SAMAS suit, my Battle Rifle, the eye of eylor I have, and wants me to agree to stop using the technomagic bullets in the Colt .45 that had Temporal spells in them.

My wife opens hers up, and recieves 190 XP. She's 10 XP short of 11th level.

John opens his and gets 45 XP. He's been 50 XP short of 10th level for THREE MONTHS.

Top that off with the God (Thoth) wants the following:

From Teh Heather: Wants the tricked out UAR-1 Enforcer she's had modified and jacked up. Wants her to have her cybernetics removed that she got in Atlantis, wants her to give up her rune sword, and her biological upgrades that she got after being in the vat.

From John: Wants him to give up his Ultimax, his partial cybernetics, his rune shield, and his Battle Rifle.

The others? Thoth rewards them for beating the Four Horsemen, RIGHT ON THE HEELS OF THE MECHANIODS! by giving them each two rune weapons, a suit of technomagical armor, and offering to give them either magical tattoos or another magical boon.

I offered him a choice. The GM, that is...

Either give us real XP, and take back the demand that we give up loot we fought for, and won fair and square in whirling nightmares of destruction, and reward us like the rest party...

Roll for initiave, because we're killing his little God.

or tell us to leave the table.

The other players couldn't believe we'd been cheated like that, and that Jake (the GM) was demanding that.

We rolled for init.

Thoth lasted until round four, when my Temporal Warrior managed to score a power-strike with the rune weapon, and killed him.

We demanded our XP.

He demanded taht everyone drop thier PC's to first level, and all the first level PC's were miraculously spared, but my Temporal Warrior suffered a cerebral hemmorage from killing a God and died.

We walked.

So yeah, I argued.

When I asked him what his problem was, he told me that he didn't like the fact that I was able to come up with plans to overcome whatever was put before us, and it was unfair that I had all that tactical training while he didn't. So he thought that the other people who had lost PC's should be put even with everyone.

I called him an idiot and told him that my plans were designed so EVERYONE survived, not just my PC. It wasn't my fault if I used my head. My PC was former military with a high intelligence, I was within the character concept and background to use my knowledge. If the others could figure out how to emulate what I was doing good enough to follow my lead, or figure out what they should do when I was sent from the room (he accused me of passing notes to them when I was busy reading a Hustler because my PC was making a deal for black market parts for our RPA's and not with the party), why couldn't he?

That's when he punched me in the mouth.

So yeah, you could say we argued.

Edit-Forgot Something
Oh yeah, I almost forgot...

Shari. The groups resident, self confessed bimbo/hoochie-momma. A 22 year old blonde with a fake chest who loved playing Rifts. An excellent role player whose PC survived through luck, determination and proper preperation and planning, as well as tight teamwork with Jake, Teh Heather, and me.

She got 35 THOUSAND XP, and Thoth granted her 2 rune weapons of her choice, granted her use of all magic, and "empowered" her so that she had double the normal PPE.

She was mad too, since it was obvious to her why she got it. She walked with the rest of us.

 

[Belen]

I had a player do this to me beofre. He kept bringing his laptop to the game and he had an automatic CR/XP calculator on it. He would calculate the XP EVERY encounter and call it out to the group. Needless to say, I do not game with him anymore. He was an LG player and I really never want to play in a game with an LG player again.

I do not use the CR/XP system from 3.5. The CR system sucks rocks. Instead, I assign XP to story/ goal awards for the game. If a combat is really tough, then I may add some more XP into the mix, but usually, I have a set amount that the players can get each session. It works out well and I do not have to do so much math!

 

[S'mon]

As a player I do wince if the GM gives a ridiculously low award after a tough battle; but it's really about consistency - if the GM _always_ gives low awards, fair enough. If they never give my PC an XP roleplay bonus (because she assumes I'll roleplay anyway) but gives Ravi's PC an XP roleplay bonus (to encourage him) it seems a mite unfair, but I sucked it up... I mean, I still wouldn't complain.

As GM I've told players that in my current game I'm aiming to give roughly standard XP overall, but that means that roleplay, story, etc XP + monster XP together average out to about 300/level/session; to keep this rate monster XP will often be less than standard, though usually at least 1/2 standard.