Better Player Rewards (Ep. 251) 

As an experiment, I used Matt’s idea in my campaign. I gave the party a quest card for each of the big long term quests and I gave a few of the players a card for something personal to them that had come up recently. I was amazed to find that the players instantly latched onto the cards. The players switched from, “what quest do you have for us this week, Mr. DM?” And became, “We need to stop the northern forest hobgoblins from raiding nearby settlements, so the Duke signs his roadside tavern over to us, which we can use as a base of operations in the north!”

"They just sit around waiting for the adventure to happen." Just like I just sit around waiting for you to drop videos! Perfectly understandable.

I think it comes down to what you and your table wants to do. Reward the behavior you want to encourage. Do you want a game where you kill monsters and loot? Use the gp=exp method. Do you want character development and story progression? Use the individual goal method. Do you want story/narrative progression? Try milestone. Do you just want to hang out and play a casual game with friends? Level up every 4 sessions or so regardless of what they actually do in game. You and your table will probably find some sort of mix between these that works for everyone.

In my experience, if someone is going to miss a session, then whether or not they'll receive XP isn't going to influence their attendance. If anything, falling behind can create a vicious cycle that leads to an eventually drop.

PDM and Deathbringer, making the work day not suck so hard with a lunchtime upload. ♥️

This is a GREAT idea to keep players fully engaged. Confusion = indecision. DMs often complian about player engagement but if goals are unclear then usually the only thing clear and engaging becomes combat.

I like the gold for XP formula, but I tweak it slightly. Only the gold spent "carousing" goes toward XP earned. This has a few advantages: 1) It prevents gold bloat since the gold is spent on entertainment. 2) It makes shopping in game a bit more tactical since magic items for sale in town are EXPENSIVE and the players end up having to decide if they'd rather get a nifty new sword, or maybe level up. 3) And finally, it encourages the players at the end of a session to make up a great story about how they spent their gold. Was it wine, women and song, or maybe gambling at the race track, or perhaps they gave the gold away to a worthy cause while drunk. In any case it makes for possible plot hooks and fun character roleplay.

I run theme park campaigns and literally give players Quest cards when they encounter plot hooks during the narrative. Each completed Quest is worth a "level up". I typically keep 3 Quest cards in their hands and expire old ones to keep the options fresh. Quests tend to take 3-5 sessions.

Interesting points as always Professor. I run a hybrid version of XP and milestones in my games. I award XP as the rules state in 5E which is adding up the monster's XP then dividing it evenly among the players. I also award XP through milestones. For example, I'll say good job everyone, you cleared out the mine, that's an extra 1,000 XP for everyone. If the players found a clever way to clear out the mine, I'll award them double the XP and congratulate them. This makes the players feel like their Choices matter. I'm fond of this approach because even the small random encounters on the road feel important since the players are still getting small amounts of XP. But, this allows me to push the players to the story points because the players know they will level up faster if they follow the story.

I love the idea of 1 xp per sp then dividing the treasure by 10, as well. I am not sure why I never thought of that?! "Gold-bloat" was always an issue, usually leading folks to completely ignore "lesser denominations".

For adventures with a message board or work-for-hire listing, I assign a value to each quest or job. Each task value is usually one-quarter or one-half level. I don’t tell the players. I just keep track of it. And if a player misses a session, they don’t get the XP. Through NPC’s I try to encourage what tasks they could handle and which ones would kill them quickly. Sometimes they listen. Sometimes they don’t. As always, great video. Very thought provoking.

I loved that you showed the old XP tables from the older editions. I remember seeing them but I never used them because it took too long; instead I "spitballed" a lot of these calculations based on what I felt was expected and what was deserved. However, for larger modules I would do calculations if I knew it would be helpful. You are absolutely right that the old way was very cumbersome but that it really did feed into the "gold for glory" mentality. Thanks for sharing!

Bilbo lived mostly with Farmers -- so he needed the silver coins to more easily make change. Not everyone can break a Dwarven Gold Piece. :)

Concerning gold for xp, we make it gold SPENT rather than earned. And it has to be spent in a manner that makes sense. So a fighter on their down time spends X gold training with a master swordsman, a wizard spends down time in a library researching esoteric knowledge. Each costs gp that can be converted into xp and created opportunities for what to do during down time and…plot hooks potentially.

Another banger video, PDM. I always love when you give specific table/game tips. Keep them coming!!!

I know this an old video but I love your videos. They make me actually WANT to be a DM and not just feel like I have to to be able to play.

It's uncanny how your thumbnail on this video captured the quintessential gamer.

I think the combination of Milestone and the way WotC books are written leads to players waiting for the plot to happen. Running sandbox, or God forbid open world, leaves a lot of players feel like there's no direction. The linear, "This is the story" approach makes it very easy for DMs to run and players to play.

That DC story brings back fond memories! I remember playing in a super hero campaign where one of the players played Batman. He was somewhat lower powered than anyone else(being Batman), that he got frustrated and started running villains over with his Batmobile, since it did the most damage. It was a short lived campaign. Good times! 🤣

one of the features of 3e i really liked was the Magic Item Creation Feat, in part because using it required spending xps to create items. expanding xps beyond their basic function made them a kind of currency, and i always thought this could/should be incorporated into more areas of the game for more classes. it also means DMs would prepare more encounters and players would seek out ways to earn more xps than they need just to level up.

Torchbearer is really great at goal setting and motivating players to contribute.

I really dislike milestone leveling. As a player I've never been given what goal I need to accomplish to get a new level. I don't see progress. Just the GM asking what level we are and then going "oh, you should have leved up 3 sessions ago." Watching a session later does make you realize what you don't hear. I have the same experience as you there. I like different characters get different XP. I do it after the game and players don't know what others get. Mainly to prevent jealousy. Also fully agree for multi-prong approach to XP.

Always good to relax listening to Prof Dungeon Master during my lunch break

Your nuts and bolts videos are my favorite, been waiting all week!

Milestones are too disconnected from anything to be fair or of use to me. What I prefer to use is Renown. Tie Renown to activities and factions or patrons and now your players have to dive into the world to progress. When they gain a certain amount of Renown with a faction or patron, they might even gain special features or bonus appropriate to what the faction does! What do you think? :D

As for milestone, I play Shadow of the Demon Lord, that book has "Your level is equal to how many adventures they have accomplished/survived" which promotes very fast campaigns, but assumes an episodic style of play where there is assumes to be downtime between most adventures lol. I'd say it's honestly been perfect for how my group paces campaigns, and we've just hit 9th out of 10th level, while most of our 5e campaigns with milestone usually tire out or run out of juice by level 5 or 6. Shorter, but sweeter lol, though if I had to run XP it'd definitely be the system from dungeon world.

The teacher example was flipping awesome...tickled my chaotic neutral side 😂

This is directed at players who have only played 5e D&D. The "Gold Bloat" of the older systems and modules is due to in those systems and days the party would also be able to bring along teams and even armies of NPC's which they had to pay. Also characters could buy and maintain their own personal keeps/forts/castles or build one for scratch... which they would have to pay for along with staffing and maintenance costs. In the BECMI system the C was for Champions box and that is where many of these things were dealt with in Basic BECMI D&D.

A few house rules: - XP needed to level up = next lvl *10 - The party gain xp if they fulfill the objectives of the quest. Extra xp is rewarded for completing the quest properly. - PCs gain 1 xp for every critical success or failure (20 or 1) - Thieves gain 1 extra xp for 100 gold they spend. - Fighters gain 1 extra xp for every fight they win or every dangerous physical feat they survive. - Clerics gain 1 extra xp for every character they save (if they are good) or for every 200 gold donated to the church. - Wizards gain 1 extra xp for every item identified, or for 200 gold spent in research/spell components.

Silver being the standard “high end” treasure makes far more sense.

Wow professor! Doing the heroic thing is what my players want to do. Or, questing adventuring. They know if they shirk me, it's "have fun in the tavern on a Wednesday afternoon" for them. Well, all groups are different.

I use a blended approach - Specific goals have experience bonuses, so completion of tasks rewards the party and gives an incentive to complete a dungeon We revamped the experience system and "fixed it" so that it looks more like 1st edition (simplified, take the XP per level, multiply by 10 and divide by 2) and that's the XP needed for each level. (Though to be fair we did a fair bit of tweaking to fix the power curve). We use a money and monster XP system taken right from 1st edition with a few tweaks. 1. Money earns XP if it's from the dungeon and campaign proper. Killing a village gets you nothing but notoriety with the law. 2. XP follows the same rules. If you have to burn a village to the ground, the XP is going to come from a task not the individuals. Magic items earn XP (but only because my campaigns are 'magic poor' and there isn't an open market for magic items). Magic shops just seem bonkers to me. To weed out cash, I also use the train for each level, borrowed from 1st edition. Nothing strips out cash faster than university for a PC. TBH, I think Gygax had most of it right, if it's tweaked just a bit to make it more relevant.

I have often used a mesh of Ten Dead Rats/WFRP; let the players set short and long term goals for themselves and for the party as a whole. They need to be realistic and show growth for the group. Short term goals take 1-3 sessions and long term take 4-6. This helps you know what to prep for and look ahead to, as you know what your players want to do and are gunning for far ahead of time.

I'm SO proud to say that my players are unambiguously heroic. They care far less about the combat and more about just saving the day and discovering the story. I'm honestly very spoiled.

For anyone wondering: Freakonomics is a great book. I just finished this week actually, and my way of thinking of why things happen the way they do has changed. Not everything is as black and white as I thought it was. I strongly recommend you read it. It’s less than 300 pages

Seeing that old DMG cover art peaking out behind the XP table brings back memories!

I don't run or play with Milestones, I always use XP. The only change I have made is that social encounters and exploration encounters also give XP. As far as character driven goals, my players have found that resolving them is reward enough. Cheers!

Professor DM. As much as I enjoy Colville, my game has been vastly improved thanks to your tips. I came for the ultimate dungeon terrain and I stayed for the wisdom. Keep the tips coming..

Watching this vid and seeing 99.9k subs, open your main channel and see 100k, Congrats!! You deserve way more than that with the quality of your videos

I like the idea of giving out XP for completing quests and accomplishing goals. It's a great way to incentivize players to engage with the world in that sort of Quest centric playstyle, and it's familiar to players of video games, considering a lot of video games give XP for completing quests.

Your comment about not paying as much attention to players at the end of the table would make a good basis for a future video, I think: My Biggest Weaknesses as a DM.

Hi Prof DM another great video I especially like the idea of 1 xp per sp then dividing the treasure by 10 👍 Thank you for that idea

I just use your "Easy XP" system, Professor and it really works. Players get 1-3 experience points for completing a quest. When they get 10 XP, they can complete a Milestone Quest to level up.

I loved the Fantasy Flight Star Wars system which is similar to the note card goals. The player would choose or role motivations from the player hand book and their XP was determined at the end of the session by how closely they followed those motivations. I think this could work really well in DND 5e with a tweak to the Flaws, Ideals, and personality traits the PHB offers for character creation and tracking it to the alignment chart. For rules light you can determine at the end of the session. For rules heavy you can track actions on a Good Evil/lawful chaotic chart where each degree of change is plus or minus experience depending on choices made by the player.

I guess without thinking about it, I give out rewards for players figuring things out, finding certain things, using those things. But my players don't know when or if these rewards are coming. I like the surprise factor. My players seem to enjoy finding these rewards as a surprise. I would argue that I've "trained" my players to explore, mess with, and do more than the rote defeat bad guy receive loot cycle. However, I may start to incorporate more explicit missions to the player. I just don't want it to seem too railroady. But I guess the way I phrase the mission can account for that. As always, thanks for all the great ideas and your experienced perspective.

I have found great successes with the XP system I modified from your previous video. 10 xp to level up, you get 4xp for completing a personal goal each level and that goal is required to level up. I have also had fun using the XP as a resource for custom abilities. Really marrying the XP system with character powers. But recently my favorite innovation has been a gold for healing system. I use the optional long rest rule of long rest is 1 week short rest is 8 hours. It is rare in my games to have a week off and it's usually a calculated sacrifice against one of the games many ticking clocks. By giving the cleric "unlimited" spells but requiring a tithe I find my players are always leveraging keeping their gold or spending it on healing since it's a relatively low magic setting by 4th level were looking at 250 for a spell. It's been cool cause the cleric can use all her abilities not just healing if she pays and everyone can get back in the fight, at a literal cost

Thanks for this. A veteran DMs running a persistent campaign, it is always good to have more to think about to improve the game.

Thankfully this is a problem I've never had to deal with in any concerning degree. Great video as always, professor.

Right. I've heard a lot of these sorts of complaints before about player motivation and rewards. This isn't as hard as it looks. It starts with engaging with each player one-to-one before the campaign starts. I always do this and ask the same series of question so there's a level playing field. Once I have that skeleton outline, follow up questions might pop up. This process has two effects: - I learn what makes this character tick. I see the WHO behind the WHAT, if you will. - The player sees their character in a new light, and typically learns something about themselves too. Second, set expectations before the campaign starts. Lay out how absenteeism will be handled. I've literally run a campaign where absent PCs would *poof* out of existence because of Feywild shenanigans. Next, when it comes to rewards, I realized a long time ago that XP creates murder hobos, Gold XP turns even the holiest character into a klepto, and milestone experience fails to reward individual effort. Therefore, I created a "token" system based on Inspiration where a player would earn such tokens for great ideas, roleplaying, heroism, etc. They could save up to 10 of these tokens and there was a sliding scale on how many tokens could buy what benefit. They ranged from the simple Advantage that inspiration provides, all the way to spending 10 at one go to buy another level. Milestone rules still applied, so advancement could occur so long as you showed up and accomplished the necessary goals. This turned XP in risk management. Would you spend that token to possibly save an ally or were you hoping for a new level? And before the cheap seats decry this as a way t "skyrocket to level 20", level advancement via token occurred all of twice in 6 years. Most level advancement occurred through milestone. This was a table of 6 players, so it can work and it simplifies the math. It rewards heroism, engagement, and effort. Furthermore, the one thing I took from Colville (since he seems to be everyone's muse) is the return to things like followers, strongholds, raising armies, politics, and romantic subplots. My table has even seen a wedding. And wars. And famine. And extraplanar invaders. It can be done. First start by seeing what makes your players tick, then either tempt or endanger that. They'll follow. Trust me.

Tom sounds like the type of Batman we deserve.

The gold bloat should be spent on hirelings, mercenaries, magical research, and mighty construction projects (every fighter needs a fortress, every wizard needs a tower and every cleric needs a temple…) among many other uses.

I use a combination of methods outlined in the video. Surviving the a session is worth 10xp, with most of the experience coming from completing goals and quests. Defeating a powerful enemy is also worth a bunch, but not mowing through a bunch of goblins. If a player can't make it for whatever reason, their character earns half of the xp the rest of the party gets, assuming the character participated as a temporary NPC.

We use Milestone experience, as well as a variety of in-game rewards. In one game, characters undergo Transformations - collections of powers and mutations. In another, legendary artifacts also level-up.

When I first started RPing back in the 90s we either sat in the living room on the floor on couches or when we got a house we used a table and turned horizontally where the DM would sit at a long side. It allowed everyone to be closer and no one felt like they were left out.

I think I agree with most of these points, but I wanna add that you could hand out different kinds of rewards, not just levels. Like a rank, a deed to a place, favours, recipies, hints on the characters backstory, hints on the bbeg/villains, treasure maps and so much more.

I've always like experience for gold, been playing with it since the old-school days. Recently, one idea I've implemented is experience points for treasure, but only after that treasure is spent. I've long wanted to encourage players to roleplay what a real person would do with a huge hoard of treasure; Buy a house, furnish that house, get nice clothes, eat very good food, rub shoulders with the rich and famous, hire tutors, etc. Awarding experience when gold is spent encourages players to do these kinds of things and also encourages continued adventures because the players accumulate expenses, run out of money, and need more money to maintain their expenses. So far it's worked well for my group, though admittedly we're a very roleplay-heavy group so mileage may vary, and I figured I'd throw it out there as an idea!

I use a bit of a hybrid but mostly XP for encounters and the way they are handled. Fortunately we have a group of players that have all been playing since the old Basic days of the late 70's and early 80's so motivation is not an issue. When we get together we all want to play and enjoy the game!

Great thoughts! I have wanted to run an XP for Gold game for a while. Remember to tell your players that gold taken from villagers dosen't count if you don't want them to be straight up murderhobos. I think my ideal system would be a mix of XP for gold and Exploration. Bringing back treasure you find out in the world is the main way to get XP but you get bonus points for actually taking the time to search a hex, or go to a new town, or seek out that rumored dungeon. Oh, and don't forget about carousing, which is the best part of D&D!

Prerolling treasure in classic D&D is incredibly important, and a fantastic part of prep. I recently rolled up that a pair of Sea Hags had a Ring of Three Wishes. It raised the question: what would they do with those wishes if they knew what they had? How many would be left? These days, we've got the benefit of donjon ad&d treasure generator. Instant treasure, baby!

House Rule 2: Hero Points When PCs achieve a major goal, they get a Hero Point (track this on the character sheet). Spending a Hero Point does not take any action. You can spend as many Hero Points as you have at any time (can collect a maximum of 3 and must spend overflow Points immediately). Hero Points aid story improvisation. They should not be used as a replacement for planning and cleverness, cannot change events or details, and the DM can veto their use. Hero points are used to: • Facilitate downtime plans, gain clues, and & bolster plot points. • Aid in setting the scene by describing a location, item, or occurrence in the scene. • Gain convenient access to equipment, specific items, NPCs, or services. • For a moment, alter an effect/Action in a minor but meaningful way. • Change out Class Feature options normally reserved for Rests & Level-Ups.

I tried this once mid campaign to see if it would change game play. The players were locked out of the town's resources and were unable to have their equipment serviced/repaired or upgraded. Mandatory in my game as a maintenance cost and for gear improvements. They had to earn points on the next adventure to gain access to those town services; 3 points for villagers saved (4 villagers min-must or mission fails), 1 point per monster kill, 5 points for boss kill, 2 points for information gathered, etc. Individual goals for characters based on how the players typically played; Fighter must do 3/4 of all damage for a boss kill at least once in the adventure (a few boss types available), Ranger must draw a boss into a party ambush, Rogue must initiate a boss fight with a sneak attack. This was intended to get the players to actively play to their strengths and look for ways to make it happen. I need some tweaks but it made for a good session if not unusually aggressive players.

The XP system I've used for ten years now is pretty simple: each level up costs 1000 xp. Players spend xp like money to purchase new skills. Enough skill improvement and character levels up. Each major encounter can earn a player 50, 100, or 150 xp depending on difficulty for that player. Difficulty is based on the difference between encounter level and character level. I plan each session to have 3-4 major encounters and 1-3 minor encounters (25-75 xp range). Three sessions average is enough to accumulate 1000 xp. Players (when downtime is available) can spend gold and gameworld time on training to get more xp. The "calculations" are trivial (on the GM's side, at least; players will still need to figure out how to add 225+50 occasionally).

House Rule 3: Favour When a player rolls and keeps a Natural 1 on any D20 check, or fails an important check by 10+, the player gains a point of Favour (track this on the character sheet, no maximum). Players also gain 1 Favour at the start of every game, and as a reward for cooperative roleplay. Multiple Favours may be used in a Round, but the type of Action may not be repeated in the same round. Favour may be exchanged for: • 1 Favour = One extra Free Action. • 2 Favour = One extra Reaction. • 4 Favour = One extra Bonus Action. • 10 Favour = One extra Regular Action. • 1 Favour = Extra 5’ of Expanded Movement Action (double regular movement maximum). • 2 Favour = Reactivate a Racial Feature. Useable once per Long Rest per Feature. • 2 Favour = Reactivate one use of a Character Level Class Feature. Higher Class Level Features cost an additional 2 Favour per Class Level. Useable once per Long Rest for the Class Feature reactivated. • 2 Favour = Reactivate one level of spell slot (a Level 2 spell costs 4 Favour, a Level 9 spell costs 18 Favour)

The milestone rewards could be a neat way to give players the things they'd normally get when when they level. Like... A wizard could get/find a tome that with a few days of study teaches them a next level spell. A rogue could get/find a lockpick that makes lockpicking easier.

I actually really like the XP set up that Palladium uses for Rifts and Ninjas & Superspies .

Great topic. I just ran a poll about preferred methods for level advancement and milestone was the clear favorite. It’s the easiest for DMs, and it allows rewards for however characters solve encounters. I think I’m going to try gold-XP in my next campaign, but tying a party level to each PC’s main goal is an exciting idea!

5e also has high XP values for monsters, compared to the low amount of XP needed to level. An orc has an XP value of 100, set against the 300 xp threshold to get to level 2. Compared to a 1e orc with a value of 10xp + 1/hp... against say a fighter's xp threshold of 2000 xp. Combined with mechanics that make it harder to kill characters, I imagine leads to many players going in with a 'kill first, ask questions later' point of view. 5e - rewarding the murdohobo since 2014!

Blades in the Dark has an interesting xp system. After the session you ask yourself 3 questions written on your character sheet dependent on your class. Things like "did you address a challenge with Violence or coercion?" "Did you express your beliefs drives, heritage or background?". And then you get to award YOURSELF your xp if you believe you earned it. No=0xp, Yes=1xp, very yes many times=2xp! Never more than 2xp per question. It takes about 8 xp to get a new ability and 6 to get you another stat point. Going over these questions with the GM every session you consider what you did and what was impactful. I usually get my players to voice things out loud in front of the table... and if they don't come up with it, the other players like to chime in to give them an idea. Because rarely do you do nothing in a session. And then its the fact you proclaim it out loud and tell everyone what you think was important to your character. Its a good way to reinforce that you are playing your character. And a great way for the GM to guage what the player as an individual thinks was important of the last session. I don't think this would work for D&D. Instantly you will get players with different xp amounts, even if they are close. But it would be interesting to impliment and add a little flavor for those that want it.

I run a 1/2e campaign where I award xp for loot based on how challenging the scenario is or how cleverly the PCs manage it. In general for equivalent level encounters it’s 1:1 down to 1:5 for simple excursions. I will also, frequently apply bonus xp for milestones as you’d indicated, Professor, where a PC gets a significant xp bump for achieving particularly important and difficult goals. Deathbringer as your alter-ego brings me joy.

About 17 years ago I ran a game themed off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the BESM system. In trying to stick to the theme I constructed each session like an episode. After 5 or 6 sessions it would be like a mid-season finale with ultra high stakes and storyline tension and advancement. In another 5 or 6 sessions they would have the final battle with that season's big bad. Level advancement came from the mid-season and end of season sessions. But there were also side quests that are personal to each character in the story. They do not provide level advancement, but there are many non-XP related rewards that are powerful, but not critical to the main storyline. These rewards could be better magic items, new allies, favors owed, and boons from someone or something powerful. While the players were separating the mainline from the side quests at the metagame level, they were finding in-character reasons to choose one direction over the other. They were engaging in the world, and thinking about what they needed to do before they would level up. It was immersive. To this day I still use a format like this. Every paladin wants to get their hands on the Holy Avenger; it is a character defining weapon of extreme power. The same can be said a lot of legendary items in the DMG. These rewards don't exist in the pathway of the main story. They are rewards earned from the sake of the reward itself. I find that when the party embarks on a quest for one of their fellow party members alone, it creates a lot of in-game roleplayed cohesion. I don't know if this style would work at every table, my group of friends have been playing together for decades, but it works for me. I find there is more roleplaying immersion and selfless group play. Also, I think it pairs nicely with a more grimdark type of game when the players and their characters really really want to give the big bad some "justice". I don't think rewards need to just be a mechanic created by Hasbro and WotC. They should also be in-game and in-story resources that can shape a character's standing in the world. If I am going to go fight the big bad, I'd much rather have a favor from the arch-duke's chief of staff, than 4 more hit points and a second level spell slot.

I use milestones based on adventures or points in a long campaign. I'll have to try the goal cards, those sound fun! I like to advance the character's levels between sessions so we don't waste time choosing new spells, etc during the session. 1st level players who complete one short adventure are promoted to 2nd level. I give 2nd level characters a harder adventure and if they complete it they are promoted to 3rd level, etc. For epic adventures that last a year or more I divide them into chapters for levels. For example Frodo would be 2nd level after arriving in Rivendell, 3rd level when he and Sam leave the party. 4th level when he returns to the Shire.

I use GURPS for my Westmarches campaign. I have a gold for XP rule, and my solution for the huge mountain of gold problem is that my players MUST spend the gold for gaining the XP. They must spend in training 10 GP for 1 XP per day (in GURPS 1 XP = 1 Character point and could be spend directly to rise a skill or atribute ). So they must balance buying equipment, XP and the spendings in the City (the better rooms and food they have, faster they heal).

This is the best thing I ever saw.

The Rules Cyclopaedia had five ways to gain xp: XP from roleplaying XP from "achieving goals" XP from monsters XP from treasure XP from "exceptional actions". I use this as my system. Works pretty well. I really like 1sp=1xp though. I'm going to use that now. I would expand it as well so that starting money is in silver, but armour and weapons keep a gold price (other items are repriced using a silver standard). Makes things a bit more exciting at first level (and a bit more lethal perhaps...). Note I play Rules Cyclopaedia and prefer a slightly more historically accurate economy. Other D&D systems are probably different 😃

Trying to be the cool dad and uncle by getting something like D&D ready for all the kiddos on the family vacation this year. Videos like this are very helpful, thanks Dungeon Craft!

I currently run 4 campaigns: - Descent into Avernus strictly by milestones where XP are not a thing. Characters level at certain events as prescribed in the module. Levelling is extremely quick and it is less work for me as a DM. That said, it also feels very railroad-y to me. My players have fun, so who cares. The campaign is currently at level 8. - A homebrew campaign that has a strong pirate theme. I have decided to go with group XP. Characters will all get the same XP, but I track party XP based on encounters and achievements. This campaign is a sandbox, designed to be more of a West Marches style game. There is a home base and there are things to do. Some adventures will be too dangerous for characters, but if the party decides to to a different direction, knowing they might get killed, they can still go there. This is 100% about player agenda, stories develop based on their actions. This is the newest of my campaigns and the group is at level 2. - Dungeon of the Mad Mage I run on individual XP. It's a sprawling campaign that started with Dragon Heist. I have a spreadsheet going all the way back to session 1 and can track exactly which player got what XP for what. If a new player joins, he will get the same level as the lowest levelled character in the group. With people missing sessions, others dropping out due to work or personal stuff and others joining in, there's still never been more than a gap of 1 level. Sometimes the party was over-levelled for certain areas, but the wonderful thing about this group is, they then make their own life harder by completely and utterly overthinking things. This game levels very slowly and after nearly 4 years is merely at level 9. This is no wonder when players can spend 2 hours on examining on how the showers work XD - A homebrew campaign set in the Forgotten Realms.I also use individual XP, but I don't track them. This is also surprisingly little work. This is a group of players mostly not interested in story telling, they just enjoy rolling dice and killing monsters whilst looting ancient treasures. They are not murder hobos nor power gamers, but they for the most part don't give a hoot about any sort deep RP. That game is now running for 4 years but due their playstyle, they are now at level 15/16 and approaching the point where they will be up against the creature that has been pulling the strings and manipulating events (a Demon Lord) Of these, by far the most streamlined, railroady games is the one running on milestones. The players have fun, but they mostly expect the DM to go "and your next thing to do is X" while the least railroady one so far (excluding my new group) are the guys in Undermountain because there is just heaps to explore and do and they are just so, so good in making their own stories and alliances. In total I have 17 different players in these four campaigns and they tend to be motivated by different things, from wanting to just roll dice and kill stuff to exploring a world unknown to them, from target driven (save an entire city from hell) to wanting to tell their characters story. I can see the uspides of different systems, but, if I'm honest, I enjoy being able to look at a sheet and know "oh, yeah, that's when they encountered a pack of ghouls and nearly all died" or (as happened yesterday) to say "oh, yeah, that's when the paladin rolled a crit and nearly one-shot the undead bullete". Sometimes it's nice for players to see juts how powerful their character has become.

So what you're saying is that 5E is the perfect version of D&D for the Millennial and Zoomer generations? Rewards given just for existing, everyone is unique and special, fun supplied rather than sought, and few real consequences for their bad choices. Sounds about right.

I have a group that is extremely motivated just to roleplay their characters and play the game because we just all love D&D so much, but I'm aware that many people have problems with this. Personally, I award experience points in the warhammer style - where experience points represent your character learning new things. Quote (paraphrased) "slaying the hordes of chaos in 12 rounds, your characters may not have learnt many new skills"

i use milestone XP for achieving major party goals. i also use Reward Coins which are bonus xp awarded to one player each session for good roleplaying. we play mostly online these days so the reward coin is represented by a unique coin image and added to their online character notes. players who dont show up earn 1/2 xp for that session and their character is played as an NPC for that session.

Hey Professor Dungeon Master! You sound more under the weather than normal video's. I hope your all right, take time for your self if your overwhelmed or sick. :)

The last tip with the gold bloat is really good. People in the OSR community always praise gold-for-xp, so i tried running it once, and after just one session of doing this my players had so much gold that everything in the shop became trivial to buy. Initially they said "finally an RPG where you can actually afford stuff!", but very quickly they realized that it basically made adventuring meaningless. I think the rule that "only gold you waste drinking and partying counts towards XP" is also a good idea in this case, in the spirit of Conan. So they have to make the decision if they want to buy stuff or level up faster. I also tried introducing the encumbrance system from Lamentations OTFP, so they had to choose if they want to be able to carry treasure of gear, but...that idea failed very rapidly. Still too complicated of a system.

For the kids I do 5 xp per level. +1 xp or showing up. +1 xp if everyone in the party survives. (so they'll help each other and be smart and careful) +1 xp for a successful night (find the thing, clear out the CHUDS, discover the secret, whatever the goal was that session) I run very episodic sessions with a rotating cast of players. I don't think I've ever had the same group twice. It's whatever kid, parents and grand parents want to play that night.

One Gold = XP Variant, I'm found off, is that PCs can spend gold on useless things to gain XP. (tavern, brothel, party, jewelry, alms. Everything that does not give a mechanical benefit) This way, you don't get a gold bloat because the PCs will spend it all between adventure. But what I mostly use, is giving the characters in game motivations and rewards. They have goals to strive for, NPCs will thank them and help them if the PCs help them out. They will honor the party, and throw parties to celebrate them. You can give out items, spells, connections to powerful NPCs and factions, ships, houses, keeps and fiefdoms. I usually let my players come up with their character goals, but giving out personalized goals through cards is a nifty idea.

I like Dungeon world way of motivating players to roleplay by making your alignment giving you a broadly specific action you do to gain XP, I know it doesn't work for every game, but I think it's a neat way to encourage people towards roleplay using the mechanics

Ironsworn and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying both base their experience point reward system based on character goals. Ironsworn does this when a character swears a vow: the more arduous the vow in question, the more XP they can possibly get upon completing the vow. With MHRP, each character (an established Marvel character) has a Milestone theme and three tiers of XP acquisition. The 1-XP tier is a relatively simple condition that characters can fulfill multiple times in a scene. The 3-XP tier is a more-involved condition that characters can only fulfill once per scene. The 10-XP tier is the overarching condition to resolve that theme, whether in victory or in defeat; once that tier is accomplished, a completely new Milestone theme and conditions are set up for the character since they've completed that character arc.

Great advice, professor! Lots of useful ideas!

Great insight and advice as always. Keep up the great work! The grass will always look greener if you compare it, so please don't.

4E is still my favorite D&D setting ... my 4E variant campaign borrowed ideas from 5E, adding combat advantage/disadvantage and a few other ideas. Magic items in my campaign are typically both more powerful and more plenty than the standard ones you find in the books, even straight at first level. Most +1 items tend to have an always-on property and a minor/bonus action activatable encounter/daily power, but come with three simple house rules: Item properties never stack, activatable powers stack once; using an activatable power disables uses from items in that slot; you can wear as many items as are comfortable.

I am GMing a skill based game now so no levels. Easy to just give out bits of experience which they can spend once they have enough. Small numbers, maybe earn enough for inexpensive improvements every four sittings or so. How much they earn is roughly equal to how much they accomplish. Meeting/interacting with "important" NPCs, taking or completing quests and level of danger, traps, combat, did someone die. Most importantly role play. Did they stay in character? Did they take actions according to their characters motivations or what the player thought would be expedient in the moment? Very easy and effective.

Good stuff as always. I recently wrote this in a doc for a game I'm planning, thought I should share since it has a similar motivation to your video. Also, this is for 5e, and I plan on including a certain amount of treasure per player per pillar of game play (so, some of this will be hidden for the explorers, some will be gainable through roleplay interactions, and some yes, through good old fashion murder-hoboing, er, combat). - Gold ‘Spent’ = XP. - Spent gold must be eliminated from the game to count as xp. - If the gold is used to buy equipment, the resale value of the item is deducted from the gold spent to calculate the xp gained. Spell components that are consumed count as their equipment type. Equipment lost, damaged, or destroyed does not grant its resale value in xp, it’s just gone (replacing it between games does though). Example: You buy Plate Armor for 1500 gold. Plate Armor, if undamaged, can sell to NPCs for 750 gp, so you gain 1500 - 750 = 750 xp for buying Plate Armor. Basically, you turned 1500 gp into 750 gp, so you spent 750 gp. - Gold may be spent for in-character reasons as a thinly veiled excuse to gain xp. This is what I call the ‘Hookers and Blow’ rule. Basically, your character can donate gold to charity, lose it all gambling, etc. in order to convert gold to xp. Since this is pretty much just RP money loss, it gains the full value. You can make up whatever reasons your character has to be motivated by finding treasure to justify their adventuring and use that to fuel your xp growth. - Class related expenses, such as wizards doing spell research, also count as gold spent for xp, even though the wizard gains something from it (since he can’t sell the spell, not really, it counts as money spent). - Buying something from another player is not worth xp, since the gold is still in the game (it’s just resource trading). This allows for altruistic characters in a pulp-fantasy setting (I'm doing it to gain money for the orphanage... yes, the one the tiefling burnned down). Also rewards spending that cash, since it's not xp until you spend it. I imagine that players will hoard money, buy only what they need, then party when they have enough gold to level up, but whatever.

Gold for XP is a great idea... If you pay to level up. This method means leveling up can only be done after an adventure and players need to decide between resources or increased power. A priest needs to donate to his church, a fighter his guild, a mage needs to pay college debts. These can eventually be changed to buy-ins, investment opportunities or rewards for one shots (great idea for character replacement or legacy system for campaigns). The point is... Power for gold.

There's a whole interesting theory of motivation outside of roleplaying games, far too large to go into in a comment, but one of the core concepts is intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is doing stuff 'cos you want to, extrinsic is doing it because you are rewarded for it. What's particularly interesting about extrinsic rewards is that they rapidly replace intrinsic motivation and so extrinsic rewards can actually end up de-motivating people. Sure, you can mould your reward system to try and extract a certain kind of behaviour from players but your chances of exactly balancing it are slim and so, in my experience, all the best advancement systems I've played in my many years of roleplaying are ones which don't reward any particular kind of play. That way instead of players trying to hit the extrinsic reward hoops they play for the intrinsic rewards that they want as players, or that emerge naturally from the game world. 5e's milestone system is a breath of fresh air for D&D. Instead of the game paced by xp, it's paced by what fits the campaign. Instead of players trying to maximise their xp generation, they can follow their own intrinsic goals, and those of the campaign.

I liked how 2e had XP for doing anything class based. Like breaking magic items, or reading books for wizards or climbing walls for thieves. I think removing asymmetrical leveling messed alot of things up.

Mandatory switching seating place around the table so that it's not the same players that gets most often ignored!

Oh, you mean the promise of certain death isn't motivation enough to get players to leave the tavern? I can't imagine...😆

I based my xp system on the Professor's simplified xp. I give 1-3 xp per session for treasure and combat challenges, usually 1 for each discovery while exploring the wilds and 1 for anything I deem a significant enough feat achieved. Oh and 1 for participating. 10 xp to level 2, 15 onwards and perhaps 20 to higher levels. I haven't had a chance to utilize this evolution of the system a lot yet having played other systems intermittently so testing is needed yet.

Get your players to face a ridiculously over powered antagonist early on, and have they escape or getting Imprisoned or some other way of them escaping but demoralized. Now you give them tips of the items they need to be able to have a rematch Now the players will move their butts to get what they need to kick the antagonist ass. That's how MMOs gets so addictive. You tpk on q dungeon boss, figure out the appropriate gear and level required to defeat it, and then you go farm for it like crazy

Years ago back when I was playing 1st and 2nd editions I simply stopped calculating exact xp per monsters and treasure I just gave a base XP for the battle, with extra xp for fulfilling your role in battle. This really sped the game up. Then I started awarding 10xp per day for traveling and exploring. Finally I just started awarding bonus XP for any instance where player RPd something that made everyone enjoy the game, I.E. do something funny/dramatic and IC here's a 100xp

Colville’s great, but I’ve learned a lot here in a more manageable manner. Thanks, Prof!

My kids and thier friends are one of my gaming groups. I tend to lose players during basketball season, baseball season and spring musical season . Before the kids return , l ask them to write a small backstop as to why they were missing , a fighter going to a training academy for gladiators, gets some cool weapons and some xp... Clerics on a pilgrimage, same things , magic users , working for an artificer or herbalist... you get it ... also helps that my girlfriend is a creative writing teacher.