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View Full Version : [3.5] Granting XP for goal/adventure/dungeon completions instead of per encounter CR?



newbDM
2008-10-28, 09:16 AM
While half asleep a few minutes ago, this idea just hit me.

I was contemplating the direction I am taking my current campaign, where I am planning for it to spand about 30-50 years in-game time, and I hope will document the lives and journeys/goals of each of the PCs. However, I have been having some trouble trying to work this out due to XP, because things will instantly stop/max-out at level 20. Sure you can go into Epic Level, but due to the very quick XP gaining system not much time will pass in-game.


If not, do any of you know any other ways to get around this little complication for a game/campaign like this?



p.s. I have a stubborn as hell player, who is already trying to control/dictate/etc this whole plan, so this guy might be an issue.

The Glyphstone
2008-10-28, 09:20 AM
Trying to control it? How does he expect to have any say or authority whatsoever in how fast you let his character gain power?

newbDM
2008-10-28, 09:45 AM
Trying to control it? How does he expect to have any say or authority whatsoever in how fast you let his character gain power?

Emailed my group with this plan/proposal. Immediately he started "suggesting" that this would probably not take so long due to gaining XP, especially if I started handing out Quest XP.

He has mentioned a number of times the Quest XP.

You need to understand the guy/situation to understand.

BRC
2008-10-28, 09:55 AM
This is what I do, I don't even keep track of XP, just level the PC's up every so often. This system allows for solutions to problems that are not "Kill things and take their stuff"

Tengu_temp
2008-10-28, 09:59 AM
This is what I do, I don't even keep track of XP, just level the PC's up every so often. This system allows for solutions to problems that are not "Kill things and take their stuff"

The only issue with this is that crafting and some spells cost in XP, but there are easy ways around that.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-10-28, 10:03 AM
Forget CR and XP tables. Award ad-hoc XP awards (the size based on how fast you want the PCs to level, in relation to the actions they perform) for PCs accomplishing goals (both external - set by you - and internal - set by them). This is, essentially, Quest XP. It's also the way most d20 games other than D&D handle advancement (Star Wars, SWSAGA, Wheel of Time, Conan, Call of Cthulhu, and so on - I can't think of one that uses D&D-style CR/XP tables).

Note also that the PCs can't adventure at the usual rate, unless you're planning to play frequently for years and years of real time - you'll need to pace it like a game of Pendragon, with about one adventure per year. (Actually, if you do that, you can probably just go ahead and use CR and XP.)

Using XP like this beats just telling the PCs "you go up a level", because it allows you to keep using the magic item creation system and the magic system as they are designed - and because PCs like having measurable goals, and if they're really clever and work hard, they should advance a bit faster.

BRC
2008-10-28, 10:06 AM
Using XP like this beats just telling the PCs "you go up a level", because it allows you to keep using the magic item creation system and the magic system as they are designed - and because PCs like having measurable goals, and if they're really clever and work hard, they should advance a bit faster.
Oh, that's definetally a superior system, I'm just too lazy to keep track of XP.

Vortling
2008-10-28, 10:30 AM
While half asleep a few minutes ago, this idea just hit me.

I was contemplating the direction I am taking my current campaign, where I am planning for it to spand about 30-50 years in-game time, and I hope will document the lives and journeys/goals of each of the PCs. However, I have been having some trouble trying to work this out due to XP, because things will instantly stop/max-out at level 20. Sure you can go into Epic Level, but due to the very quick XP gaining system not much time will pass in-game.


If not, do any of you know any other ways to get around this little complication for a game/campaign like this?



p.s. I have a stubborn as hell player, who is already trying to control/dictate/etc this whole plan, so this guy might be an issue.

You could also tell the players that you're going to hand out xp when you feel it is appropriate and then give them a list of examples of what qualifies as appropriate and what doesn't. In this case goal/adventure/dungeon/quest are all appropriate. XP per CR simply won't be appropriate. It also turns into a very nice reward system. If you prefer they not kill everything and take its stuff you can simply not award xp for those situations and award xp for other solutions.

As to your stubborn player, gently tell him that you want to try something different for xp awards to create the right feel for your campaign. Try to generally enumerate for him what will gain xp and what won't. He seems to be laboring under certain expectations for quest xp that you will need to deal with.

Theodoxus
2008-10-28, 01:43 PM
A side question to you all proposing ad-hoc xp...

My DM uses a similar system, basically stating that killing x number of whatever will never automatically increase your level. I'm not sure what guideline he uses, but I do know that we're leveling slower than the standard book example. My query however, has to do with loots. We're making a killing on, well, killing. Our 11th level characters (it's taken 48 game sessions to go from 6th to 11, btw) have WBL equivalent to 18-19th level characters, because we receive so much loot in comparison to gaining levels. This wouldn't be too much of an issue, if the DM didn't feel the need to send epic level encounters against us. Our spells are pretty crap (6th level vs 21+ enemies means we're spending 50-75% of our resources an encounters) but the equipment we have (mostly defensive, as we want to live) allows us to survive long enough to wheedle the enemies down to the point they flee.

We're doing a massive correction this weekend regarding loots, but I was wondering what input you might have in keeping this from happening in the future - and a as a warning of potential problems for DM's contemplating this route.

Thanks.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-10-28, 01:45 PM
If you don't use encounter XP, using encounter treasure is obviously a terrible idea. In fact, you should stop using encounter treasures entirely. If the PCs are specifically hunting a treasure, they'll get one, but random monsters do not guard big hoards of treasure. Humanoids, especially, use their gold and wealth on something.

Ethdred
2008-10-29, 07:43 AM
One campaign I'm in, our DM set it up at the beginning explicitly that he wanted us to advance in level slower and we were all cool with that. The campaign is based around a series of 'jobs' we find out about (much like a computer game's quests) which have a set reward in terms of XP and GP. So it doesn't matter how many things we kill, we will get the set XP for doing the job. He's also scaled the GP reward to be roughly matched to the rate of level advancement (and there are serious restrictions on buying magic items). So far it's worked out pretty well (we're about 5th level now).

So I'd advise that you make things clear to your party from the start (which it sounds like you have) and then if everyone else is cool with it, the troublemaker will have to like it or lump it. But make sure you have worked out how you are going to handle rewards well in advance, and don't make any changes without agreeing them with the players. It also helps if you can come up with adventures as good as our guy does!