Your Game & XP

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:29 pm

For the CK's out there, how are the juicy goodness of XP's awarded in your game?

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:40 pm

I award like I always have:

Critters + Treasure = Levelly Goodness.

marcuspeddle · Post by **marcuspeddle** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:02 pm

I give experience points for monsters and treasure. But there are never huge piles of gold coins lying around so going up levels isn't that quick.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:03 pm

For me it's a mixture, of BTB with NO treasure XP and ad-hoc. So if you read the PHB, I guess this means BTB.
For the most part I award BTB (with no treasure XP), and often times use the Palladium XP system for bonus XP.

-O
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Post by **Fiffergrund** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:13 pm

By the book, with treasure XP, with spot awards as warranted.
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Grey · Post by **Grey** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:18 pm

I voted 'ad hoc' as I tend to go btb in the main EXCEPT for treasure, where I allow it to be spent for training and similar (and hence Xp's)

D.

LordSeurek · Post by **LordSeurek** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:27 pm

As my players know, I totally disagree with gaining gigantic XP amounts for finding treasure regardless of the system used. I give a fraction of the XP for goodies collected. To counter this, I award more XP for encounters and role playing. I created my own XP progression tables, a mixture of how a couple of systems do it. Since classes move up at a faster rate in my games compared to BtB, the lack of treasure XP doesn't slow leveling down.

In terms of XP amounts, I based it on a word doc I downloaded last year. (Forget where I got it now). It used the party's 'power' level, based on ECL (Effective character level) and the critters hit dice. A couple of calculations and I have an XP amount. It may be more work, but the math teacher in me finds it works for my games

L.S.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:42 pm

Option 4. I hate tracking everything, like minutes of the day, encumbrance, ammunition... XP is just one more thing to abacus, so I don't bother with it. The players don't care as long as they get to level. They just have to earn it... and there are ways of doing that that don't involve killing and looting (though that is fun.)
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Buttmonkey · Post by **Buttmonkey** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:29 pm

Fiffergrund wrote:
By the book, with treasure XP, with spot awards as warranted.

Yep. The One True Way to Award Experience (TM). Convert or be destroyed!

Traveller · Post by **Traveller** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:55 pm

I'm much like Grey, except I only award xp for treasure that is spent. You could have 100,000gp, but if you only spend 300gp for the things you want, you only earn 300xp.
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Maliki · Post by **Maliki** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:16 pm

None of the above.

I give experience for monsters plus story awards for reaching goals/completing dungeons etc. Not giving XP for treasure I found XPs for monsters to be way low so I use my own system for monster XPs.
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:06 pm

I do creatures and treasure, but I've been limiting it technically to creature plus 50% treasure. They're going a little slow in the levelling, but not terribly slow, so I'm not overly concerned.
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marcuspeddle · Post by **marcuspeddle** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:12 pm

I think that is why I don't mind giving 1:1 experience points for treasure; experience point values for creatures are quite low and I don't give huge amounts of treasure ("The red dragon has 10 copper pieces in its horde!?" "Yes, but look at how lovely its nails are. It must have spent all its gold on manicures."). That prevents characters from going up levels too quickly.

Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:34 pm

marcuspeddle wrote:
I think that is why I don't mind giving 1:1 experience points for treasure; experience point values for creatures are quite low and I don't give huge amounts of treasure ("The red dragon has 10 copper pieces in its horde!?" "Yes, but look at how lovely its nails are. It must have spent all its gold on manicures."). That prevents characters from going up levels too quickly.

I'm sure that would thrill the players...
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DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:17 am

When I was in high school I DM'd for a group of other high school kids and I was a player in a group of Marines.

I was talking to the Marine who DM'd the game I was playing in and treasure for XP came up in the discussion. I asked him his thoughts on it and this is what he told me:

"I don't award XP for treasure, I award XP for reaching objectives."

So, I asked him how he determined what the objective was worth in XP.

"Well, funny thing is, most of the treasure is generally found at your objective and that seems to be as good of means as any...so I give them 1XP per GP. If it aint broke, don't fix it kid."

Kinda stuck with me.

Dude was a kick ass DM too.

Traveller · Post by **Traveller** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:27 am

Lord Dynel wrote:
I'm sure that would thrill the players...

About as thrilling as killing a red dragon, losing half the party in the process, only to find out that your reward was 50,000 chocolate-centered gold pieces, valued at a copper piece each.
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:24 am

Pretty funny, DD!
I'll admit that I stopped giveing out XP or treasure early in my gaming experience. It made for some slow levelling. I can;'t even remember if the "rule" was ther in 2e, but that was also during my "enlightened" era of gaming and I gave a lot of ad hoc XP, Rp'ing XP, and story reward XP. And of course 3.x didn't use the GP = XP rules. It wasn't until I came to C&C that I realized that XP for treasure was kind of important for levelling, at least at a decent pace.
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LordSeurek · Post by **LordSeurek** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:35 pm

It does make for slow leveling if you wanna stay true to the system's xp amounts each level. Of course, you can tinker with the tables as I did, make progression at a rate my players and I enjoy. Anyone else change these around to suit their needs? As far as I am aware, I m the only one who has done so.

L.S.
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DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:51 pm

LordSeurek wrote:
Anyone else change these around to suit their needs?

I'm pretty happy with the leveling rate but if I wasn't I think my first thought would have been to increase the XP gained instead of lowering the Xp required.

I'm lazy like that.

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:52 pm

I'm curious about the folks who picked the last option.

Do you still account for the differences in the XP required for the various classes and level thegroup at different rates?

LordSeurek · Post by **LordSeurek** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:37 pm

DangerDwarf wrote:
I'm curious about the folks who picked the last option.

Do you still account for the differences in the XP required for the various classes and level thegroup at different rates?

I do DD. At the start on my game, they are given a set XP amount if its higher than 1st level. If i set it at, say 10,000 XP to start, thats enough to be either a 5th level rogue, which would then require 5000 more to hit level 6, or 3rd level paladin with 2000 more needed to hit level 4.

L.S.
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:48 pm

I don't do that, but I've heard stories. Actually, one fellow who left my table (for scheduling conflicts) told me that he actually, for quite a while, never tracked XP - he would set a certain session limit and the PCs would level up after that (like every other session or somesuch). I've never do it personally, but it intriguing.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:58 pm

Quote:
Do you still account for the differences in the XP required for the various classes and level thegroup at different rates?

Yes, as I have explained in other posts before... my game is more "goal oriented." For some, that means killing the creatures and taking their loot. It might also mean hunting down the slayer of your parents... its all very flexible. I find doing it that ways keeps the players focused on their characters, and the desires of the character... and not always "hunt, kill, loot" (though that is still fun and happens.)
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Hrolfgar · Post by **Hrolfgar** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:58 pm

DangerDwarf wrote:
Well, funny thing is, most of the treasure is generally found at your objective and that seems to be as good of means as any...so I give them 1XP per GP. If it aint broke, don't fix it kid."

Back in '83 at Michigan State I played AD&D with Marine that had a similiar opinion of some my houserules .

Currently for C&C I award XP for treasure, I also award bonuses listed in the Yggsburgh options section. Since I'm stingy with treasure I often give bonus for achieving goals.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 8:25 pm

Yeah, this all goes to my post in the rules forum about awarding XP's, the bottom line of the rules has always been, in my opinion at least, that a DM should do it however best fits their personal conceptions about their game.
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clavis123 · Post by **clavis123** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 3:51 pm

I give a flat XP award at the end of each session, regardless of what happened during the game. I calculate the award so that the average PC will level every 3-5 sessions.

dunbruha · Post by **dunbruha** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:33 pm

clavis123 wrote:
I give a flat XP award at the end of each session, regardless of what happened during the game. I calculate the award so that the average PC will level every 3-5 sessions.

+1, although I will increase or decrease the amount based on the difficulty and/or RP quality of the session.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:19 pm

clavis123 wrote:
I give a flat XP award at the end of each session, regardless of what happened during the game. I calculate the award so that the average PC will level every 3-5 sessions.

See that would bother me. Not that it would be a game breaker for me, its just that I like to at least feel that how we played had an effect on how much XP we got. So the idea that no matter how stupid or smart I play makes no difference would bug me.

Plus I roll treasure randomly, and some times I even do it with players present, and the way they act you would think they were in Vegas playing Black Jack or something.

Plus sometimes I roll something that forces me as a CK to adjust, and stretch my skills in a new direction and forces me to learn to deal with various power issues I would otherwise avoid.

Which has been good, because my players have gotten to play with powerful magic items that they have never before been allowed to have. Presumably because their previous CK/DM/GM's feared allowing such items into play. Not that I really blame them, it would make my job much easier if I didn't let such items into my games. However the game is about fun, and players have fun kicking but with their powerful items.

So I learn to adjust, and allow them to have Hammers of Thunderbolts and Books of Inifinite Spells and Staves of Life, Staves of Fire/Power/Magi, etc...
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clavis123 · Post by **clavis123** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:21 pm

Treebore wrote:
See that would bother me. Not that it would be a game breaker for me, its just that I like to at least feel that how we played had an effect on how much XP we got. So the idea that no matter how stupid or smart I play makes no difference would bug me.

In practice I've found that flat XP actually encourages role-playing. Yes, the PCs get the same XP whatever they do. Consequently, I've seen more PCs run from fights, and have seen PCs actually leave a dungeon that creeped them out too much. In my experience, players will try to talk their way out of situations when they don't need to kill to gain XP, and will try truly innovative things then they don't think they have to solve a situation in exactly the way the CK wants. The big thing flat XP allows a CK to do (and the original reason I started using it) is that it allows for scenes where only one or two of the PCs are actually present, and the rest of the players are taking on other roles (such as inn patrons, town guardsmen, wily merchants, various monsters, etc.).

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:54 pm

clavis123 wrote:
The big thing flat XP allows a CK to do (and the original reason I started using it) is that it allows for scenes where only one or two of the PCs are actually present, and the rest of the players are taking on other roles (such as inn patrons, town guardsmen, wily merchants, various monsters, etc.).

Now thats something I never tried before.

I think I haven't needed to try flat XP's because I award XP's whether they kill the "obstacle" or not, they just have to bypass it and be able to go onto the goal.
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