Great ideas! But I am not that generous at all. I think I would cut all these XP amounts in half and then make each one shared XP for the whole group, not awarded to each PC. Of course, YMMV.

I give bonus xp for some things and for good role-playing, but the amount varies.  It's usually not more than a couple hundred, though PCs also get xp for surviving critical hits, since we use a pretty lethal crit system. 

Incidentally, the old MERP game had a wide variety of XP provisions that included higher XP the first time you did something.  And the XP you got in combat varied by the foe's level compared to yours.  If you were lower level, you got more XP and vice versa.  They also gave xp for travel, scaled to the danger of the region you were in.  And of course for delivering or sustaining criticals.  Man, that was a lot of book-keeping.  And after two years of play, the PCs were still only 5th level or so.  And most were maimed due to crits.  The party had a one-handed scout, a one legged bard, and a one-eyed mage.  And they lost so many hobbits that they were banned from the Shire.  But man was it fun.  But I digress....

Ghul wrote:

Great ideas! But I am not that generous at all. I think I would cut all these XP amounts in half and then make each one shared XP for the whole group, not awarded to each PC. Of course, YMMV.

I can Attest, Ghul is a Stingy Bastard 

I remember the old Rolemaster stuff; I played MERP a lot and travel felt like a trial worth XP.

I have yet to test these ideas, but last time I ran an OSR campaign (using ACKS) the players struggled with the rate of advancement and the fragility of their 1st level characters.  I wanted something that, in the very early stages of play, would give a sense of achievement without radically changing the Gold = XP dynamic.  The Xperience! awards are very much one off, to ease players into an OSR dynamic.  I did not want to just award levels every X number of sessions, I hate that for OSR as the experience system is an integral part of the play experience.  Of course, once players are hooked, the DM gloves come off 

Antalon wrote:

I remember the old Rolemaster stuff; I played MERP a lot and travel felt like a trial worth XP.

I have yet to test these ideas, but last time I ran an OSR campaign (using ACKS) the players struggled with the rate of advancement and the fragility of their 1st level characters.  I wanted something that, in the very early stages of play, would give a sense of achievement without radically changing the Gold = XP dynamic.  The Xperience! awards are very much one off, to ease players into an OSR dynamic.  I did not want to just award levels every X number of sessions, I hate that for OSR as the experience system is an integral part of the play experience.  Of course, once players are hooked, the DM gloves come off 

Well, I certainly don't keep track of the OSR and what other games are doing within that sphere of influence (in fact I don't think the term "OSR" even existed when I started writing this game in 2008, but "retro-clone" was a buzz word). I do believe that we offer a decent variety of ways for players to earn XP beyond killing monsters and gaining treasure. See page 266 in the rulebook for some of our other options.

I do agree that simply awarding levels after so many sessions of play defeats the purpose of the XP progression rates that each character class has. To wit, a thief gains level 3 when a warlock gains level 2. But, of course, at the end of the day making the game fun for you and your participants is the most important thing, so do what thou wilt!



 

Ghul wrote:

I do agree that simply awarding levels after so many sessions of play defeats the purpose of the XP progression rates that each character class has. To wit, a thief gains level 3 when a warlock gains level 2. But, of course, at the end of the day making the game fun for you and your participants is the most important thing, so do what thou wilt!
 

 
Damn, Ghul, getting soft in your old age. ;-)

But true, Rule 0 always need to be kept in mind.

Antalon, that is a great list and very evocative! 

HI Antalon, Jeff Reints also inspired me to incentivize exploration and, to a lesser extent, extraordinary experiences with small XP rewards. However, like others suggested in this thread I recommend significantly reducing the value of your rewards. This is only my opinion but keeping players hungry for XP and gold encourages them to explore and seek adventure for more (one of many reasons I don't like milestone XP)

mabon5127 wrote:

Brock Savage wrote:

HI Antalon, Jeff Reints also inspired me to incentivize exploration and, to a lesser extent, extraordinary experiences with small XP rewards. However, like others suggested in this thread I recommend significantly reducing the value of your rewards. This is only my opinion but keeping players hungry for XP and gold encourages them to explore and seek adventure for more (one of many reasons I don't like milestone XP)

I just started a new campaign and went in the opposite direction. They gain a level after each adventure, with adventures taking about 3-4 sessions. We are not tracking xp or gold for that matter.

I do something similar: never track XP, just level up after several sessions. We do track gold, though, as they're getting near the level that strongholds/guilds/temples/towers will become important.

I prefer to give tiny bits along the way for just about everything. Not only because as a player I think it's awesome anytime I get to make adjustments on the character sheet, but mainly because I think you gain a little experience from everything you do - put your foot into a spike hole? You learn that freakin' lesson right then and there - not when you get back to the village in 2 weeks to seek out a higher level guru who asks you whether you learned anything or not this time out...