WotC Milestone leveling in WotC editions?

[cbwjm]

Milestone is fine for 5E because every class has the same XP amounts etc

It doesn't quite work for old school stuff due to the different xp/leveling rates.

Since milestone is meant to be "receive a chunk of xp at an appropriate time" I think it still works for old school. Not sure what I did in 2e, might have based it on the fighter progression.

 

[CleverNickName]

Back in the old days (of B/X and BECM), we did it just a little bit differently. Like, if I were going to run an adventure module that was labeled "for characters Level 3-6," I wouldn't tell my players to "start your characters at 4th level." Instead, I would tell them "start your characters with 10,000 XP."

The PCs got experience for slaying monsters and earning gold, according to the rules. But I also awarded bonus XP for all sorts of other things, too: completing missions, exceptional roleplaying, bringing snacks to the gaming session...I thought every DM did that. (shrug)

 

[cbwjm]

Back in the old days (of B/X and BECM), we did it just a little bit differently. Like, if I were going to run an adventure module that was labeled "for characters Level 3-6," I wouldn't tell my players to "start your characters at 4th level." Instead, I would tell them "start your characters with 10,000 XP."

The PCs got experience for slaying monsters and earning gold, according to the rules. But I also awarded bonus XP for all sorts of other things, too: completing missions, exceptional roleplaying, bringing snacks to the gaming session...I thought every DM did that. (shrug)

I'd do the same for game starts, set it at X xp. I never did anything like awarding xp for snacks.

 

[Autumnal]

Are we talking about milestone experience rewards (quest xp), or story-based leveling? The 5e DMG defines them: milestone is quest xp =/= story-based leveling is "you killed strahd, you level up. But people conflate the two terms often.

Either and/or both, to leave the field open.

 

[Queer Venger]

It just occurred to me that I don’t remember seeing much/any discussion of leveling with milestones in B/X or AD&D, or in OSE and such. This is absolutely not an assertion that nobody’s done it, just me noting that I personally either missed it or forgot it.

How many people have done this in their play, and how did it go? I’m keen on it with more recent editions since I never really liked tracking xp and often want to focus on neither slaughter nor pillage. When it comes to earlier editions, I very much dislike weirdly uneven xp requirements and feel like it’d open up fun-for-me possibilities. But I also know how bad I can be at anticipating consequences, especially mechanical ones where tab A is now going to throw up into slot B.

So please enlighten me! Speculation is okay, but experience is what I most hope to hear.

Im doing milestone with my current curse of strahd campaign; Ive only ever used XP before. Im sticking with milestone now, just seems more intuitive to storytelling.

 

[Voadam]

I totally don't remember ever using or even reading that.

I had to look up both of them to see what they said, I didn't have the DMGs for those editions until well after I was on to new editions and have not read through them thoroughly. I used my 1e DMG in the 2e era and I used the SRD in the 3e era for most DMG related stuff but which did not cover xp.

I thought it likely though that the Dragonlance heroic quest style inspired 2e would have some at least optional vague xp for story stuff.

 

[Lanefan]

Milestone is fine for 5E because every class has the same XP amounts etc

It doesn't quite work for old school stuff due to the different xp/leveling rates.

Nor would it work well in 3e given that xp are a consumable resource for item creation etc.

 

[Lanefan]

Are we talking about milestone experience rewards (quest xp), or story-based leveling? The 5e DMG defines them: milestone is quest xp =/= story-based leveling is "you killed strahd, you level up. But people conflate the two terms often.

I always see milestone levelling as meaning "you level up when (if) you reach a specific pre-defined 'milestone' point in the story".

 

[Distracted DM]

I always see milestone levelling as meaning "you level up when (if) you reach a specific pre-defined 'milestone' point in the story".

I think the confusion comes up when people just say something like "use milestone then," and the only time the term "milestone" is used is regarding experience rewards- whereas they mean, by the book's definition anyway, story-based leveling. But somewhere along the way "milestone" became the term for "not tracking xp, just leveling up when the GM judges it appropriate."

Maybe the 2024 DMG should change the names for the terms:
"Milestone leveling" and "quest xp" since those are the more common usages nowadays.

 

[Lanefan]

I think the confusion comes up when people just say something like "use milestone then," and the only time the term "milestone" is used is regarding experience rewards- whereas they mean, by the book's definition anyway, story-based leveling. But somewhere along the way "milestone" became the term for "not tracking xp, just leveling up when the GM judges it appropriate."

There's a big difference between "level up only if-when the GM thinks it's appropriate" and "level up only if-when you reach a specific point in the story/module".

The GM has complete control over the first of these but no real control over the second. The players have very little control over either.

The term 'milestone levelling' has been applied to both but IMO it only means the second one.