G.M.'s: How Do You Deal Out Xp to your PCs

[SmilingJack]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

3. What things do you award xp for

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

[Galroth]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

3. What things do you award xp for

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

I'm curious, why would you deduct exp for bad decisions? Gaining experience is about learning and personal growth, and not much spurs the learning process like failure and mistakes.

[filo_clarke]

I allow players to calculate their own Xp every session. We use the list of Experience Awards from the books, with the addition of Experience Penalties from the Robotech Accelerated Training Program book. It has happened that a particularly bad role-playing session resulted in a character ending up with a net loss of Xp, but that player soon realized that while his actions might have been economically beneficial at the time, there were Xp consequences, and he has since learned to balance his actions a little better.

I, myself, have ended up with a zero-sum total at the end of the session, but I knew my actions beforehand would drastically impact my Xp rewards, and that was a sacrifice I was willing to make to get a particular job done.

[Killer Cyborg]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

At the end of each session.

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

Usually in-between sessions.

3. What things do you award xp for

The stuff that's in the books.
Also, I give minor (1-10 XP) points out for stuff like grabbing me a soda, making a funny joke, or whatever.

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

I use Palladium's guide.

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

Yes.
Usually, though, the PC ends up dying if they make that bad of a mistake, so it's often pointless* to penalize them.

*5 XP to me for making a pun that amuses me.

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

You mean a magic item that grants a bonus level?
It'd be a potential pain, due to the paperwork if it's negated or taken away.
Other than that, I don't see any problems.

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

Nope.

[flatline]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

XP is handed out during play. Sometimes extra XP is handed out at the end of a session, especially if a story arc is completed during that session.

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

During play, but only if it doesn't distract from play.

3. What things do you award xp for

Behavior I want to encourage and experiences (good or bad) that the character might have learned something from.

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

I use my own.

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

I have been known to deduct XP for metagaming infractions (out of character knowledge, that sort of thing).

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

Probably not worth the effort.

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

Nope.

--flatline

[MaxxSterling]

I follow the book. I let people gain levels, even if it's mid-combat, if they want to. If not we usually wait till the end of that gaming session and do it, but I leave it up to them. I don't put it off though.

[SmilingJack]

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

I always hand out Xp during the adventure , I think its cool to have adventurers see that good decisions and playing in character have rewards, also letting them expand their skills always seems to keep my PCs happy



2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

During,

I allow my PCs to always level up during the adventure, because it makes sense since they would get tougher from adventuring, and acquire more skills to handle varying situations ,as I mentioned PCs seem to really respond favorably to this

3. What things do you award xp for

Smart choices,
Using skills
Combat
Social interactions
Defusing tense situations
Solving puzzles
Completing Objectives

I really like awarding Xp for players who try some really unique or totally unexpected


4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

Combination,

I like using palladium's model as a base and then adding in my own points and additions

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

Yes. Yes. Yes.

I totally believe if a person makes a catastrophic mistake , does something that imperils the entire party, or blatantly does something to their own detriment you have to provide some penalty,

Idiotic choices even in myths had dire consequences, so should they in a RPG


6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

I've actually done this, I find it to Be a unique incentive and can instantly boost a character substantially, also the PCs I've played with really seem to pursue these when they're available

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

[The Dark Elf]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end
At the end of that nights session
2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after
During
3. What things do you award xp for
All of the Palladium experience table items found in each core game book
4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method
always use Palladiums
5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC
No (though I do joke about rubbing it out if I ever get the mickey taken out of me)
6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp
Up to you and depends. Lots of canon created items grant extra HP. I tend to shy away from levels as it is not really a tangible bonus.(Better off saying it grants 6HP, bonus to history skill and 1 extra attack etc. IMHO)
7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action
One session when the group had just discover the "Valley at the top of the world" they spent hours speculating on who or what was going on. All of the hypotheses were plausible so they got thousands of xp in "deductive reasoning" experience. Just by chatting!

[wolfsgrin]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end
During

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after
Usually after

3. What things do you award xp for
Mostly what's listed in the core books. I give quite a bit for playing in character and staying engaged with the game

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method
Paladium's with minor alterations

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC
Nope. Never. You may not get a bonus at the end or get full points for something but I would never take away exp. If I felt I needed to do that I would probably not invite you back to my table.

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp
Neat idea there, but it would be a mess. I might break it down and give levels to certain skill or abilities though

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

Not without everybody having wade through a bunch of typos....

[Dunia]

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

Only at the end, after the players have left my house. then I put a little post-it note in their plastic folder with the amount of XP they got, just to show them how much and why I awarded them this.

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

No, only after, or rather I tell them during the week (I play once a week) and they can come an hour or so before the next session and level up their character. Though my players have often planned a level or two in advance so it is fairly quick.

3. What things do you award xp for

Much like it says in RUE, but also if a player pushes the story forward or if they come up with an idea for a new adventure.

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

See last question.

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

Once, the player was a moron.

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

Cant say.

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

I had a player who decided to sacrifice his level 8 cyber knight with no chance of being resurrected just to save a group of NPCs and without the possibility that anyone ever learned that he did it -He saw this as a noble thing to do. To die for someone without it ever becoming known that he did it. So I awarded him all the Experience for that session with an additional bonus for a total of 6'000 something to his new character (which I spread out evenly over time - i think i gave him 300-500 extra per session for his new character until he got all 6'000 points.

He started to play a Body Fixer, so his little doctor leveled quickly fast the first four levels.

[arthurfallz]

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end?
I hand it out at the end of each session. It's a fun way to wrap up the session, and get everyone to look back on what they did. I do tend to have a list of checkmarks on my GM scribble sheet for how many skill checks they've made.

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after?
I just have them level up when they get enough XP, it's just simpler.

3. What things do you award xp for?
I use the standard list out of the book, but also give out bonus XP for out-of-game good stuff; bringing snacks, hosting, helping out. These are small awards (50-100), but I like to give credit where credit is due.

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method?
This is kind of like question 3, isn't it?

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC?
No. The nice thing about the Palladium XP system is that you can reward people for bad plans and ideas. I look at it this way - if they got a chance to even try it in game, the character learned something.

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp?
It depends on what your campaign scope is. I've thought about running an epic game at some point that gives a level every other adventure. Having the players quest or hunt for an item that grants "power" (ie: a level) is darn fun too.
Some of my friends used to give out a point per session (they were long sessions, 6-8 hours). When you got enough points to equal your current level, you reset your points and went up a level. It worked for them.

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action?
I can't recall any. Most of my players plans are either a) damn good or b) so stupid they don't warrant mentioning.

[SmilingJack]

So during the Steel City Rifters Palladium Fantasy Game Run By I SmilingJack

Our Psychic (tags wife) uses her psychic ability to lift 3 jabronies and levitate them slamming them into their compatriots casting them all off a cliff during a mountain battle

During a battle with shadow doppelgangers, Our Palladin in the group (clansunstar) casts a dome of light emanating from his shield and in one fell swoop decimates the entire group of doppelgangers

Our Diabolist steals a phantom demons dark sword converts the dark magic into light and slams it into the demon

So yeah I advanced everyone one level right in the middle of the game because they used their minds so well and played so damn effectively

[Goliath Strongarm]

1 & 2) I consolidate exp until the characters have a chance to actually "reflect" on what they've learned. Generally, this means 12+ hours of peace and quiet. Those are also the times I allow them to level up.

3 & 4) I use the palladium chart, with a few additions. Like the "giggles"and those that do things like the grub grab (picking up the pizza, etc) stuff like that. Normally only like 20-50 for the additions.

5) no, but will reward less. Remember, we still learn from our screw ups.

6) only in that it effects what kind of threat something is.

[arthurfallz]

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end?
Typically the EXP is sent out a couple days after the game. Gaming is a once a week thing usually. I send out a weekly newsletter that has the summary of the last game. Updated Exp Chart. And a "Tip of the Week", which usually reminds the players of rules or important things to remember about the environment they are in at the time.

Consider this technique shamelessly swiped!

EDIT: Which means, I like it, I'm going to use it too. Yoink!

[Cinos]

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

During I suppose, I've never really framed a game around 'adventures' and just sessions, thus I give out exp during sessions.

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

Again see former, since I just give EXP during sessions. This way they can deal with their leveling out of the session.

3. What things do you award xp for

All sorts of things, good role playing is form most, doing something clever (combat related or not), sacrificing their position (monetary, strategically, etc) for their characters personality is a big one (so a good guy running in to save people, a bad guy betraying a friend, a coward not helping the party in a critical moment).

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

I ignored most of it early on, but I did leave the automatic exp for skills, and expanded something similar for successful combat actions, but eventually did away with both for too much book keeping.

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

No, I've always felt EXP is some what sacred and a non-reducible factor. I can punish them in other ways for dumb ideas.

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

Not off the top of my head, plenty of stories, from holding off the CS from Psyscape through the use of possession, soul twist, and disarmonize, the much loved 'shenanigans in tolkeen' in which two of the party adventured through the air ducts, fighting off 'giant' spiders (mind you they had to shrink to get in the ducts), to find a magic ring, to mercenary work and odd moments working for Count Lovejoy in Kaash who was actively sending them to jobs to get them killed (Lovejoy haaaaaaaated them, but Kaash enjoyed their antics, so he wouldn't let Lovejoy just strait have them murdered in their sleep), or when the group got a hold of a dangerious artifact which wrecked the ship they where on, and could potentially threaten an entire nation, one player keeps it hidden from the others, then sells it to the Western Empire.

[Michael Barakofsky]

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end
I try to hand out xp at the close of each session, sometimes its 2 or 3 sessions depending on if there is enough time for the players to do the math before leaving.

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after
If the xp is enough for the next level I allow them to level up, roll extra HP and what not, however selecting any new skills or spells or such needs to wait until there is a lul in the activity to allow for the training needed (especially since sometimes our sessions end right in the middle of combat).

3. What things do you award xp for
I follow the xp awards as the Palladium system states for the most part, skill awards I only give when I actually call for the skill check however thus I do ignore the "until 4th level" part.

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method
Not to be a smarty pants but I think I answered this in #3.

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC
Not in Palladium games, when I ran 2nd Edition AD&D I would if the cleric or palladin REALLY offended their deity.

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp
I think items like that could potentially overpower the game, but if limited to only 1 item per character (maybe 2 at the absolute most), I might allow it as a variant to xp.

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action
Yeah my biggest mistake ever, turned into a BS game. My group and I were experimenting with adjusting the XP award system of Palladium Books. We used the rules for determining xp from 1st edition AD&D slightly modified to apply to the Palladium mechanic.

The setting: Space, used Phase World rules and such but in a totally different galaxy/dimension.

The event: Galactic Civil War, a single civilization that had expanded to dominate the entire galaxy they lived in was having a civil war of sorts. 40% of the empire wanted things to work a new way while 60% were fighting to keep things as they were.

The Hook: The characters possessed artifacts that belonged to this galactic empire, and said artifacts once hooked into their starship caused the ship to initiate a temporal fold of space to arrive in the new galaxy in a few short hours. The characters then sided with the 60% mainly due to similar views on morality and such.

The Action: The characters after having their ship overhauled to better serve as wild cards in the war got involved in a fight with a moon-sized space station that was 1) a central supply depot for the opposing side & 2) commanded by an alien intelligence (1 of 3 responsible for the revolt). I took the base stats for a splugorth, merged them with a few minor adjustments from Nyxla & Zanshan (Psyscape and England) and threw in several mods from the random AI generation table. The players came up with some really good tactics (I had gotten used to them doing things a particular way for several years and suddenly in the blink of an eye they took a completely different route that had my entire game plan thrown out of whack. I was placed totally 100% on the defensive reacting instead of acting, I hate when that happens.) Well not only were they able to slay the AI but they also managed to blow up the station.

The Award: 2 hours later after I was finished calculating the values for everything they achieved in that fight (the combat itself took 5 hours & a lunch break to resolve) the award was in excess of 2 billion (2,000,000,000+) xp, per character involved. I just about fell out of my chair and proclaimed the experiment as a failure and that the session NEVER happened.

[Vrykolas2k]

I hand it out just before a break, and at the end of adventure.
According to what each person did.
Bonus xp for people who take notes/ notice things, role=play and the like.

[Natasha]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after

3. What things do you award xp for

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

I spend time pondering the session and then award experience points at some point between sessions. I am going to try something different with our upcoming campaign and tell the players what experience points were earned after we call the game for that session.

Players can level their characters during a break in the session or at the end of the session. During online games it is entirely possible that they level up their characters during the session.

I give the most experience points for attention to detail and preparedness. So having a clever idea is one of the biggest winners when I award experience points. So I do not really use the Palladium guide since my values are clearly different from those of the guide. I do not like the Epic Good Against Evil theme that pervades Palladium’s games and the tables definitely reflect that theme.

I have never deducted experience points even if a lesson is not learned—I will just reduce the amount awarded or simply not award any.

I think as a once per character thing it is alright to have an item that gives a level especially at higher level when levels are more difficult to achieve but the item should be comparatively difficult to acquire. Although I tend to scale awarded experience points to the character’s level because I figure a more experienced character is able to gain more experience from something a lesser experienced character would—essentially, the age is wisdom notion.

Two recent examples of awarding large amounts of XP occurred in our Rifts campaign. A character was extremely thorough in planning and I ended up awarding several thousand experience points due to the attention to detail and depth of the planning. That is something I value a lot in real life and my job, and it carries over to my Game Mastering style as well (perhaps by too much). The second example occurred a few weeks later when a character delivered an excellent and well thought-out speech to a gathering of people which represented the full spectrum from pure love to naked hatred for the speaker. See the trend?

[Natasha]

Thanks, Saurvon, and I agree completely.

The newsletter idea is great, yea. I have not been doing newsletters per se but instead I maintain a website for my campaigns. In fact, I just wrapped up putting the shell together on a website I have created for our new campaign. I will update each week for the players but it is empty now as the campaign is not even a week old at this point. I will be storing there experience points, session summaries, character sheets, and world details. We also use facebook for some stuff but since at least one from our players does not have a FB account, the website is where I definitely put everything for them.

[Damian Magecraft]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end
Both... I plan (if you can call it that) my adventures to issue roughly 800 to 2000 exp (dependent on Player actions) I also issue out "special" (RP, Puns, pithy quips, etc...) awards (10 to 50 on average) at the time they occur
2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after
PCs may level when they reach the next level But I require in game RP of the level rewards (mages need to have that eureka moment for new spells, same for fighters and rogue types and their new tricks. .
3. What things do you award xp for
the standard guidelines plus due to my treating the game as if it were a TV show for puns, pithy quips, unique buffyisms, etc...
4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method
both: see answers to questions 1 and 3.
5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC
never; in game consequences add to the over all exp.
6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp
I was never fond of level tweaking (up or down) items/powers
7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action
Well there was the Ogre Palladin that once used the Gnome Assassin (a fellow PC) as an improvised war club...
Then there was the Gromek's Chain Zavor Wacker (the only non-magical item he owned was a length of iron chain once used to enslave him)...
There was the Elf that through a series of mean spirited pranks drove a local magistrate to alcoholism...
(I got 30 years of tales like these...)

[Hot Rod]

While printing out palladium docs and working on my new adventure I began contemplating over the myriad of ways GMs hand out experience and the best way to handle the process

Specifically I began wondering how my fellow GMs give their PCs Xp

Here are a few questions to stimulate your thoughts on the subject

1. Do you hand out xp during the adventure or only at the end
Used to hand out xp as it occured, so players could know what was a good idea and what was pointless. Now I wait a couple sessions and tell them they levelled up, have their character ready to be reviewed next session.

2. Do you allow players to level up during an adventure, or only after
Used to allow it when the party 'rested', of course characters had to be able to be quickly leveled up for this to work. Now it is homework.

3. What things do you award xp for
Good plans, Good RP, Surprising me (in a good way), and working together. The last point is essential to everyone enjoying the game.

4. Do you use palladium's guide to awarding xp or do you have your own method
Used to, & awarded xp after each combat so each menace was accounted properly. Now I give them an option of the chart or levelling up regularly.

5. Have you ever deducted xp for terrible and costly decisions made by your PC
No, they might not get as much, and they miss more chances at more, but their decisions are what the game is about. If they decide to past their pics on a CS wanted poster and put it up in the 'burbs who am I to tell them it isn't a good idea...

6. Would having items in the adventure which grant a 1 level increase including all HP/SDC bonuses, new skills, + existing skill improvement, be overkill or a variant mode of assigning xp
In other games I experimented with making +stat potions fairly common (as in 4-5 per person in 10 levels as high quest rewards) but some players fixated on it, and others ignored it. I prefer to keep the players the same level, or a level below the lowest level character in the group. Occasionally the lowest can gain an extra level up if they come up with a brilliant plan that saves the party, but not common, I also don't go out of my way to kill off players more than the story demands.

7. Do you have any stories you'd like to share about awarding large amounts xp to a player for a truly phenomenal plan or action

Such stories would date me...

HR