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It’s time to talk about all the things you get for doing stuff in your D&D game. No, not the TPK death stuff but all the shiny, magical, treasure and boon type stuff. It’s all about getting down with rewards.
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Out of the 130 episodes I’ve listened to, this may have been the most disappointing, even though it might be my favorite topic in one of my favorite series. I’m specifically referring to how to create rewards that encourage the type of behavior you want from your players. I really appreciate that you distinguished between milestone XP and Session-Based and Story-Based Advancement. However, I wish you would have went deeper into the pros and cons of the various methods of awarding experience.
For instance, I’m playing in a Story-Based Advancement campaign, and whenever the DM introduces challenges outside of the core adventure plots, such as those related to character backgrounds, I’m very aware (as much as I overlook it) that there will not be any XP awarded for overcoming these challenges. On the other hand, only awarding XP for defeating monsters lends itself to the murder-hobo mentality.
I prefer to use a Standard XP with a heavy emphasis on Noncombat Challenges, including personal goals. But the disadvantages are that it is more work to maintain, and offers more opportunities for the characters to differ in total experience.
What XP award systems do use prefer and recommend?
Excellent topic. I’m not sure if this is a topic Teos and I have ever discussed. We’ll get after it the next time we record (we just recorded today, so it’ll be next week).