experience points questions

[ShadowHawk]

Hey lads and lasses,


1 at when should experience points be given (at the end of a game, completion of a plot, whenever you've finished a story line, at the end of a session, when it's time to level up, etc, etc, etc?), 2 what is the average in your game, 3 what is the max you've gotten in one game or gaming session, 4 what other things do you reward OR give more points for and 5 can 1 action yield have multiple rewards?


Thanks guys for at least reading this, but please RESPOND!


Shawn

[kiralon]

1. I give them out at the end of every session so players get immediate feedback.
2. 800-1000xp per player. (I only give skill xp when the skill is used in its correct place, no backflipping to level 5)
3. It was around 9000 per player, but this was for defeating two old ones plots and an invasion from the outer dark and the players sort of sacrificed themselves to do it.
4. I give bonus xp for solving a plots and end of level encounters. I also give more for playing in character, making a good character background, and a 1 time bonus for remembering what happened in the previous session.
5. Yes, using a skill successfully that also saves a heap of people and makes everyone at the table laugh would give you xp for all 3.

[zyanitevp]

2 days after the end of every session- the xp given has increased dramatically as time has gone on, and players have reached 15th level and higher (2 of the 6 players).
We also give bonus xp for the mvp, player voted, which is why it is days after the game to get the private votes.
Average is now 6000 to 7000, with 2000 bonus for player logs.
30,000 was the max- we will go past that soon- I award bonus xp for things done on our wiki, and the current max for just that is 20k now- awarded next month.
1 action can get many multiple xp.

[pblackcrow]

Hey lads and lasses,


1 at when should experience points be given (at the end of a game, completion of a plot, whenever you've finished a story line, at the end of a session, when it's time to level up, etc, etc, etc?), 2 what is the average in your game, 3 what is the max you've gotten in one game or gaming session, 4 what other things do you reward OR give more points for and 5 can 1 action yield have multiple rewards?


Thanks guys for at least reading this, but please RESPOND!


Shawn

1. Usually at the end of the session, but if I see a player is nearing a new level, I will keep track of it and add up each action.
2. Average 1,500-3,500 for a day's game...more if a solo simply because you can do so much more in those. 2,500-6,500 for a weekender, but you know yourself that I have given 50,000 points or more in one session for a well planned, well executed, and over all great job. Like the crippling of that wolfen port and fort. That was awesome. Great call on the decreasing weight and teleport simple combo.
3. A recent game of BtS, I caused Mount Fugi to go KA-BOOM!!! And in doing so I killed a crap load of giant bugs that were underground there. Got mega major points for that.
4. Lots of stuff! Bringing in a completed character (With all your bonuses, etc. listed) and background on the first game gets you a bonus of 500 exp. I use the Bureau 13 exp chart for BtS. Also, in the pirates game:
Capturing a ship gives each member 100-2,000 exp.
Each member of the crew you capture 50-500 points.
Each member you convert to your crew, you get 75-750 exp.
For helping sinking an enemies ship each member gets 50-1000 exp...plus 25-300 for every life that died on board.
Running your ship according to character 200 exp.
Staying in character the whole game 75.
Using your character voice 10-100..Basically percentage of amount per sessions.
Really being true to character flaws/phobias/obsessions/insanities/whatever 25 per.
5. Yes, always.

[ShadowHawk]

Like the crippling of that wolfen port and fort. That was awesome. Great call on the decreasing weight and teleport simple combo.

LOL...Yeah, that was awesome.

Also, in the pirates game:
Capturing a ship gives each member 100-2,000 exp.
Each member of the crew you capture 50-500 points.
Each member you convert to your crew, you get 75-750 exp.
For helping sinking an enemies ship each member gets 50-1000 exp...plus 25-300 for every life that died on board.
Running your ship according to character 200 exp.
Staying in character the whole game 75.
Using your character voice 10-100..Basically percentage of amount per sessions.
Really being true to character flaws/phobias/obsessions/insanities/whatever 25 per.

let me ask you something, Shannon...Have you ever had someone argue up and down with you that you are rewarding too much?

[drewkitty ~..~]

1) each session gets exp. ether at the end of the session or the beginning of the next session.

2&#) per session between 150-500 depending, mostly averaging about 250 per session. (in a pick up game...1500 exp. for one session. however, that for a pickup game char)

4) when I GM'ed... other then skills use .... getting to the room 1st, beating me to the room, Role playing,

5) one action...No... An Idea and the set of actions that go with it..Yes.

[kiralon]

1) each session gets exp. ether at the end of the session or the beginning of the next session.

2&#) per session between 150-500 depending, mostly averaging about 250 per session. (in a pick up game...1500 exp. for one session. however, that for a pickup game char)

4) when I GM'ed... other then skills use .... getting to the room 1st, beating me to the room, Role playing,

5) one action...No... An Idea and the set of actions that go with it..Yes.

Just curious, about how long are your sessions (4hrs, 8hrs ?)

[drewkitty ~..~]

the campain sessions were 4 ish hours.

The pick up games...*shrugs* from two min to a few hours

[pblackcrow]

let me ask you something, Shannon...Have you ever had someone argue up and down with you that you are rewarding too much?

On the boards, yes. But not in game, I try to keep track of everyone's exp. by making a mark by the reward amount. I do the marks in groups of 10. ||||||||\ & / X'ing out the 8 lines. Something my mum did to keep track in both cards and scrabble. You seen me do it on my little pad of paper I always have to the left of me. With the Character's names, exp., and how much they lack to get to the next level.

Anyway, is the new gaming group in CA giving you hell over it?

[The Dark Elf]

1 at when should experience points be given (at the end of a game, completion of a plot, whenever you've finished a story line, at the end of a session, when it's time to level up, etc, etc, etc?), 2 what is the average in your game, 3 what is the max you've gotten in one game or gaming session, 4 what other things do you reward OR give more points for and 5 can 1 action yield have multiple rewards?

1. I give them at the end of each session
2. Average is about <1000xp each player
3. Max was prob 2-2.5K (IIRC there was over a thousand for some seriously good deductive reasoning that guessed all the adventures plots and made up some more)!
4. Nothing. I stick to Palladiums list
5. Yep totally. I tend to up the amount of xp I give for the higher level characters (from level 6+) by "looking" to give as much xp as possible by extending one action that fits several xp rewards (ie an action that saves a life whilst also being a clever idea and is in character)

[ShadowHawk]

let me ask you something, Shannon...Have you ever had someone argue up and down with you that you are rewarding too much?

On the boards, yes. But not in game, I try to keep track of everyone's exp. by making a mark by the reward amount. I do the marks in groups of 10. ||||||||\ & / X'ing out the 8 lines. Something my mum did to keep track in both cards and scrabble. You seen me do it on my little pad of paper I always have to the left of me. With the Character's names, exp., and how much they lack to get to the next level.

Anyway, is the new gaming group in CA giving you hell over it?

wasn't going to talk about it but yeah. 2 players are saying that I am over rewarding a wizard until I mention what all he did...CoA the road, while they were being pirsued by the dark priest and death knights. Later on, Blinding Flash in front of a charging dark paladin's wathorse, at night, then taking a couple of actions to fire ball targeting the legs of the same warhorse and casting Fuel Flames until the death knight got up. he was TOTALLY RIGHT in his thinking...Set doesn't send 1 person unless he is sure that he could do the job...they had 0 chance in hell of taking him out at their level or out running him on horseback. however, they could easily out run him if he was on foot and they were on horseback. Set won't tolerate failure at that point in time, not like he ever did before. the PC's should have figured this out. Set and Ra were gambling on the out come. basically they are playing capture the flag, only the flag is an object of great significance to the church of light. the priest told the PC's that there was a lot riding on this mission. not just restoring life to their fallen comrades if they succeeded but many things rid on the this. the players did not question this, not knowing the extent to this involved the freeing of good people from deals made to set within the past year or Ra relinquishing an equal amount of evil people who have converted to the way of the light. Succeeding on or before the winter solstice was also a must! Set and Ra could only send so many troops.

I will give your idea thought about keeping the record method. it's a good idea though.

[Vincent Takeda]

Hey lads and lasses,


1 at when should experience points be given (at the end of a game, completion of a plot, whenever you've finished a story line, at the end of a session, when it's time to level up, etc, etc, etc?), 2 what is the average in your game, 3 what is the max you've gotten in one game or gaming session, 4 what other things do you reward OR give more points for and 5 can 1 action yield have multiple rewards?


Thanks guys for at least reading this, but please RESPOND!


Shawn

Hmmmm.
We give out xp at the end of a session... Average for a night is typically about 3000... Dont think we've ever had a night above 6000 though... I dont give out anything above and beyond what the rewards table calls for. I only let an event be used to qualify for a single type of xp payout, so it always only qualifies for the highest paying reward to which it applies. On the other hand instead of letting each player have only what they earned or taking the total and dividing it up amongst the number of players, I give that same total amount of xp to every person at the table, so leveling at our table probably happens a lot faster than it probably does normally.

[Whiskeyjack]

I've always been stingy when it comes to experience. An awesome session with major combat may see 5000, but that would be an incredibly rare event. Most of the time a session will run 500-1500.
Experience is always given at the end of a session, and level ups won't take effect until they have a chance to rest, so if we break in the middle of a combat area, but between battles, they won't go up a level until they can get a solid break. They can roll up the new character stats ahead of time though, and start using it when applicable.
If the characters do something truly stupendous, I'm more inclined to give them in game rewards (gold/magic/titles/land etc).

[Veknironth]

Well, once question I've had with EXP is taking down groups. If you have a group that defeats 20 scrub goblins, is that 1 major menace or 20 minor ones? If it's 20 then I guess you give the individual EXP to the PC's based on how many of the menaces each killed/subdued (kidding, who subdues things?). IF it's one major menace, do you give each member of the group the entire bonus, or do you decided who earned it the most. You could have one character kill half of them, and then how is it fair that the other characters receive 300EXP?

-Vek
"Why didn't they run when confronted with 20 assailants? That's a lot of confidence."

[kiralon]

Depends on the level of the group, if they are all level 1 and beat up 20 goblins and are outnumbered 4 to 1, that's a minor to major menace per goblin, if the party is all level 10 and the mage accidently sneezes and ganks em all, that wasn't even a threat. I then add up the xp total depending on who killed what then divide it up equally amongst the party, even if 1 guy does most of the killing the other players are usually meat shields at the minimum. If they don't participate in the fight they don't get xp.

[ShadowHawk]

Depends on the level of the group, if they are all level 1 and beat up 20 goblins and are outnumbered 4 to 1, that's a minor to major menace per goblin, if the party is all level 10 and the mage accidently sneezes and ganks em all, that wasn't even a threat. I then add up the xp total depending on who killed what then divide it up equally amongst the party, even if 1 guy does most of the killing the other players are usually meat shields at the minimum. If they don't participate in the fight they don't get xp.

that or if they rush in to help at the last minute to calm part of the glory. PISSES ME OFF WHEN PLAYERS DO THAT!

and actually, I had a wizard, Alumore, 14th level...killed by a 3rd level wizard who increased weight on his dragon helmet. 300lbs, snapped his neck in nothing flat. the GM thought it was one of the ones that would just fall off. it wasn't. the GM had me roll a D12, for head position, I rolled a 6, which would make since because he was fighting a 20+ foot creature. but he died. the GM apologized. and I continued with Faronz.

[kiralon]

Depends on the level of the group, if they are all level 1 and beat up 20 goblins and are outnumbered 4 to 1, that's a minor to major menace per goblin, if the party is all level 10 and the mage accidently sneezes and ganks em all, that wasn't even a threat. I then add up the xp total depending on who killed what then divide it up equally amongst the party, even if 1 guy does most of the killing the other players are usually meat shields at the minimum. If they don't participate in the fight they don't get xp.

that or if they rush in to help at the last minute to calm part of the glory. PISSES ME OFF WHEN PLAYERS DO THAT!

and actually, I had a wizard, Alumore, 14th level...killed by a 3rd level wizard who increased weight on his dragon helmet. 300lbs, snapped his neck in nothing flat. the GM thought it was one of the ones that would just fall off. it wasn't. the GM had me roll a D12, for head position, I rolled a 6, which would make since because he was fighting a 20+ foot creature. but he died. the GM apologized. and I continued with Faronz.

Lol, the neck is fairly hardy, and the person would have to have struggled to keep his head up so adding 300lbs to a helmet is very unlikely to break a neck, faceplant hard certainly, but break a neck not as likely, even less likely if it was part of a rigid suit of armour as part of the weight would be transferred to the shoulders, still a funny story though as the monster would have eaten you anyway.

[the ancient gamer]

Experience points--I do try to stick to the table as a reference point. Once I had characters of advanced levels though, I often held back "mission", or "quest" points. As I didn't want the players clued in on as to what was exactly going on, or how close they'd come to their goals.

[zyanitevp]

Experience points--I do try to stick to the table as a reference point. Once I had characters of advanced levels though, I often held back "mission", or "quest" points. As I didn't want the players clued in on as to what was exactly going on, or how close they'd come to their goals.

I do this as well. I give extra xp for surprises the group comes up with that I was not expecting.

[pblackcrow]

that or if they rush in to help at the last minute to calm part of the glory. PISSES ME OFF WHEN PLAYERS DO THAT!

and actually, I had a wizard, Alumore, 14th level...killed by a 3rd level wizard who increased weight on his dragon helmet. 300lbs, snapped his neck in nothing flat. the GM thought it was one of the ones that would just fall off. it wasn't. the GM had me roll a D12, for head position, I rolled a 6, which would make since because he was fighting a 20+ foot creature. but he died. the GM apologized. and I continued with Faronz.

I remember that game, William and Alex were co GMing it. We were all running 2 characters at that point.

Well, what happened was, the game started out as 2 separate group. But then we failed to catch on to a plot twist and we let the bad guys team up. So did our teams. Even though, my apprentice turned out to be an 125 year old dragon who was working as a spy for Lord Dorian. Not all the time though, just the past month. Thus explaining the change in him.

[the ancient gamer]

Experience points--I do try to stick to the table as a reference point. Once I had characters of advanced levels though, I often held back "mission", or "quest" points. As I didn't want the players clued in on as to what was exactly going on, or how close they'd come to their goals.

I do this as well. I give extra xp for surprises the group comes up with that I was not expecting.

It makes more sense that way, I think.

Also, by holding some back, the players aren't always assured they're on the right path, or how important what they've been up to is.

[ShadowHawk]

that or if they rush in to help at the last minute to calm part of the glory. PISSES ME OFF WHEN PLAYERS DO THAT!

and actually, I had a wizard, Alumore, 14th level...killed by a 3rd level wizard who increased weight on his dragon helmet. 300lbs, snapped his neck in nothing flat. the GM thought it was one of the ones that would just fall off. it wasn't. the GM had me roll a D12, for head position, I rolled a 6, which would make since because he was fighting a 20+ foot creature. but he died. the GM apologized. and I continued with Faronz.

I remember that game, William and Alex were co GMing it. We were all running 2 characters at that point.

Well, what happened was, the game started out as 2 separate group. But then we failed to catch on to a plot twist and we let the bad guys team up. So did our teams. Even though, my apprentice turned out to be an 125 year old dragon who was working as a spy for Lord Dorian. Not all the time though, just the past month. Thus explaining the change in him.

that explains a lot. oh wait, the skinned half eaten child...that was possibly him! WOW!!!

[pblackcrow]

It could have been..But explain there was a slurry of missing kids from the next town we came to. I don't think you were there for that game. What happened was witches were making flying potions, buying kids from the boogieman. I thought we saved my apprentice in Lord Dorian's dungeon under his keep when we freed the people in there. It has been long while. Clearly I will have to read my PC's journals.

[ShadowHawk]

yeah, I was there for that. I just had to leave right after we defeated Lord Dorian's 2 wereboars, a 20'+/-, [clockwork? magical?], hollowed, metal, statue, thingy and the wizard that were all guarding the tower.

[URLeader Hobbes]

I always awarded EPs at the beginning of a session for the previous session. Usually players wanna leave and get on with whatever they had planned for the rest of the day. Also doing it at the beginning lets players know how far they are to level up, as well as make any changes from leveling up before we really get into the game.

[say652]

I give experience as it's earned, I also adjust the Xperia given for each character.

[SittingBull]

Hey lads and lasses,


1 at when should experience points be given (at the end of a game, completion of a plot, whenever you've finished a story line, at the end of a session, when it's time to level up, etc, etc, etc?), 2 what is the average in your game, 3 what is the max you've gotten in one game or gaming session, 4 what other things do you reward OR give more points for and 5 can 1 action yield have multiple rewards?


Thanks guys for at least reading this, but please RESPOND!


Shawn

1. I give xp at the end of game. If a character levels they have time to update their character, pick skills, update hth, and pick spells during the week before the next session.

2. XP given out usually averaged around 1,000, maybe a little higher.

3. Max I have gotten in a session... 5K+, but these were over powered sillyness games.

4. I give XP just for what is on the XP chart.

5. 1 action or plan can give XP from more than one category but I judge those very strictly.