D&D General What do you prefer to give/get XP for?

What do you prefer to give/get XP for?

  • NOTHING: I don't want or use XP for leveling in D&D.

    Votes: 28 33.3%
  • Killing monsters

    Votes: 39 46.4%
  • Collecting treasure

    Votes: 17 20.2%
  • Exploration and discovery

    Votes: 29 34.5%
  • Carousing

    Votes: 8 9.5%
  • Making relationships with NPCs or Factions

    Votes: 16 19.0%
  • Building/crafting things in the world

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • Achieving non-XP rewards (lands, titles, etc)

    Votes: 10 11.9%
  • Succeeding at individual tasks (spotting traps, jumping chasms, whatever)

    Votes: 13 15.5%
  • "Overcoming challenges"

    Votes: 45 53.6%
  • Playing in character

    Votes: 14 16.7%
  • Out of character jokes/ideas/etc

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Helping the GM (mapping, taking notes, etc)

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • Real world crafting (drawing the party, making goblin cookies, etc)

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • Just showing up

    Votes: 6 7.1%
  • Completing personal goals/milestones

    Votes: 28 33.3%
  • Completing story goals/milestones

    Votes: 50 59.5%
  • Keeping an in character journal

    Votes: 5 6.0%
  • Other: let me know in the thread and I'll add it.

    Votes: 2 2.4%

Reynard

Legend
Supporter
When playing D&D, what sorts of things do you as GM give out XP for, or as a player prefer to get XP for.

This is one of those polls with as many things as I could think of, but feel free to suggest additions and I will add them.
 

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payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
My journey was annoyance at all the work deciphering every twiddly action into an XP award divided by solo/group or who was present...im getting a headache just thinking about it. Then it became add up everything done during a session and divide it equally amongst the party. Finally, just getting rid of it and going milestone. Never going back.
 

Reynard

Legend
Supporter
My journey was annoyance at all the work deciphering every twiddly action into an XP award divided by solo/group or who was present...im getting a headache just thinking about it. Then it became add up everything done during a session and divide it equally amongst the party. Finally, just getting rid of it and going milestone. Never going back.
Did you ever play Rolemaster? XP for moving! Yay!
 


Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
A few years back, Mearls tested the 3 pillar XP in a UA and I've been using it. I short, you gather xp (on a 100 points scale) for combat, finding rare items or locations, or coercing a NPC based on your tier. So a finding a Goblin cave at lvl 1 grants you 10% XP, but 0 XP at lvl 5+.

It's simple but it works well.
 

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
I used to do milestone leveling, until my players complained about it. ("So basically we only level-up whenever you say so? DM-may-I have a level?")

When we switched to online gaming, we went back to tracking numerical XP. It's a lot easier to do on Roll20--I've installed a mod that automatically distributes and tracks XP for us. Anytime a monster token is marked "defeated," it looks at each monster's CR, adds up the XP for each one, then distributes it to the party. I can also type in any amount of XP and distribute it to one or more characters with a click of a button. I push that button whenever:
  • A trap is successfully disarmed
  • A curse is broken
  • A downed character is rescued
  • A quest is successfully completed
  • Exceptional in-character roleplaying
  • Certain parts of the map are reached
The mod is called Lazy Experience.
 
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payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
A few years back, Mearls tested the 3 pillar XP in a UA and I've been using it. I short, you gather xp (on a 100 points scale) for combat, finding rare items or locations, or coercing a NPC based on your tier. So a finding a Goblin cave at lvl 1 grants you 10% XP, but 0 XP at lvl 5+.

It's simple but it works well.
I dont like XP because it drags players by the nose, but this is an interesting idea of balancing out the pillar play of D&D if one so desires.
 



payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
How do you mean?
It's so simplistic in do X get XP. I dont need an XP award system to tell my players to kill something, pick locks, and talk to people. The mechanics of character build inform them of their tool set. What is worse, they get into meta arguments about which things to kill, locks to pick, or people to talk to are worth doing becasue of the XP they award instead of actually doing it because its interesting in of itself.

So, in a pillar system where you award combat/exploration/social XP, you can get the players to balance out more amongst the pillars, but its the XP thats leading them there and not the interest of just playing the game itself.
 

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