EXP Free is the way to be...

[Flawless P]

I run D&D and I just just say...

Hey you guys go ahead and gain a level!

I like it, it stops people from starting fights just for the XP and they like it because, well, last time I gave them 2 levels.

Does anyone else do this or am I a freak?

[Setherick]

I run D&D and I just just say...

Hey you guys go ahead and gain a level!

I like it, it stops people from starting fights just for the XP and they like it because, well, last time I gave them 2 levels.

Does anyone else do this or am I a freak?

I've seen it done and I like the idea because it also prevents the number crunchers from going out and slaughtering hordes of Kobolds for those extra 250 xp points.

[Flawless P]

The first time I decided I didn't like XP was when I was playing a Paladin and my friend was chasing down an NPC in anger and I thought...I'm a Paladin so I should stop him...but he only needs like 15 exp to level and that guy is worth at least 30.

Pretty much made me decide when I started running games that I was gonna just level people when I thought the story had progressed to such a point.

[Moondog]

How do you handle when spellcasters cast spells that require an XP Component cost, or want to make magic items, which also entails XP drain?

[Flawless P]

Pathfinder did away with those things and implemented a system I have been using for a while.

More gold is usually the answer, but also my players tend to not craft items magic items, but when they do I usually make them make a Spellcraft check as well as pay an additional GP investment. We rarely play to such a high level that anyone gets spells with XP components.

I never really liked the XP cost for making magic items to begin with so I started toying with ideas from the start. Most of my other group members have picked up my style.

Out of the 4 of us who switch off DMing none of us use Experience Points.

 

[Moondog]

Pathfinder did away with those things and implemented a system I have been using for a while.

More gold is usually the answer, but also my players tend to not craft items magic items, but when they do I usually make them make a Spellcraft check as well as pay an additional GP investment. We rarely play to such a high level that anyone gets spells with XP components.

I never really liked the XP cost for making magic items to begin with so I started toying with ideas from the start. Most of my other group members have picked up my style.

Out of the 4 of us who switch off DMing none of us use Experience Points.

 

Good answer. Even though I mostly use/play 3.5 as opposed to Pathfinder, we inevitably end up using PF's rules for magic item creation. I'm a *very* big fan of the Master Craftsman  (I think that's the name) feat, which allows people with a ton of ranks in Craft: Armorsmith (or weaponsmith or blacksmith or so on) to substitute their rank in Craft for spellcasting to make magic items, provided they, of course, take the necessary feats to do so.

My Flind Knight, who apprenticed with a dwarf, has spent much of his time in the current 3.5 game I'm in working up the party's magic weapons and armor, to the point where the rest of the party has practically set up an account system, passing him tons of gold in exchange for enchanting/reforging their stuff to make it better.

And all without having to spend levels on doing it, which means our GM, who likes to pit us against unintelligent menaces (lots of home-brewed abominations and the such) and so on doesn't have to worry about giving us weapons and armor appropriate for our level and so on. It's a change I very much like.

[Flawless P]

I know what you mean with the 3.5/PF thing. I am running a Pathfinder game but it's really more of a blend of 3.5 and Pathfinder. I still allow alot of Feats and Prestige Classes from 3.5 Subject to my approval.

I dabbled in Character Optimization for a long time so I can usually see broken before it hits the table.

Luckily my friends are not all that interested in being OP so it doesn't come up too often.

The last time I leveled them it was because they found a unique way of temporarily defeating a 20th Level Vampire Lord (ECL 32), as level 3 characters. I was so impressed that they were able to get rid of him that I gave them 2 levels.

[Moondog]

I know what you mean with the 3.5/PF thing. I am running a Pathfinder game but it's really more of a blend of 3.5 and Pathfinder. I still allow alot of Feats and Prestige Classes from 3.5 Subject to my approval.

I dabbled in Character Optimization for a long time so I can usually see broken before it hits the table.

Luckily my friends are not all that interested in being OP so it doesn't come up too often.

The last time I leveled them it was because they found a unique way of temporarily defeating a 20th Level Vampire Lord (ECL 32), as level 3 characters. I was so impressed that they were able to get rid of him that I gave them 2 levels.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who tends to blend a lot of 3.5/Pathfinder.

Also, that sounds awesome! How'd they manage to put down the uber vampire lord?

Also also: Did he mention that men were nothing but miserable piles of secrets?

[clockworkjoe]

the new world campaign is like that

I am fukken lazy when it comes to shit like bookkeeping and my players are even worse about that

[Flawless P]

I know what you mean with the 3.5/PF thing. I am running a Pathfinder game but it's really more of a blend of 3.5 and Pathfinder. I still allow alot of Feats and Prestige Classes from 3.5 Subject to my approval.

I dabbled in Character Optimization for a long time so I can usually see broken before it hits the table.

Luckily my friends are not all that interested in being OP so it doesn't come up too often.

The last time I leveled them it was because they found a unique way of temporarily defeating a 20th Level Vampire Lord (ECL 32), as level 3 characters. I was so impressed that they were able to get rid of him that I gave them 2 levels.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who tends to blend a lot of 3.5/Pathfinder.

Also, that sounds awesome! How'd they manage to put down the uber vampire lord?

Also also: Did he mention that men were nothing but miserable piles of secrets?

Sweet Castlevania reference.

Man What is Man!?

Ahh good times.

Well they were able to use a plot device to send him through a portal to Faerun. It was his plot device to begin with but they were able to figure it out and use it on him. Unfortunately it caused some rather nasty side effects that requrie then to do some multiverse hopping to Faerun to get another plot device to fix the problems they caused.

It is kind of a full circle thing since the campaign is based on a campaign I was a player in where we all left Faerun through a portal, my character was (un)lucky enough to be killed and turned into a Vampire. 60 years later he comes looking for revenge on his former adventuring companions who are all much older and have children.(its been 60 years since the incident but they are only physically aged about 35 years due to time moving differently on the different planes they moved across).

The PC's by and large are playing their own kids. While my former character was inflicting torment on them. Until they got rid of him temporarily.

[Moondog]

Very cool.

[Kelkesh123]

I run D&D and I just just say...

Hey you guys go ahead and gain a level!

I like it, it stops people from starting fights just for the XP and they like it because, well, last time I gave them 2 levels.

Does anyone else do this or am I a freak?

I love doing that.
My players sometimes get afraid that one of them might be too strong for the rest of the group, and feel like restarting.
I stop 'em with that.

[Fizban]

If I were running 3/3.5/4E, with it's crazy complicated encounter level production balance system, I would probably go XPless.  But because the game I am currently playing is 2E, I use XP, and I like it too.

About 50% of the xp I award to my players is for keeping the game moving, roleplaying well, innovative ideas and including other players.  I publish a little tally online every week so they can see how much xp they got for defeating this monster, solving that riddle, interacting with this NPC, coming up with that cool idea, etc.  I think it makes my players feel that the effort they put in to roleplaying is appreciated in some tangible way. 

Of course, that means I have to measure their RP, which makes the xp system pretty arbitrary at the end of the day.  I try and be fair and make the better RPers work harder for their xp, and the newer players or shy players get more for less, so no-one really falls back too far behind.

Also, since characters in 3/3.5/4 all level at the same XP amount, it makes more sense to me to level them at the same time.  Whereas in 2E, different classes level at different XP amounts, so it makes less sense to level everyone at the same time.

[Sriad]

I've played (almost) exclusively with exp, but exp-less is nice not just because it frees up effort that would otherwise be used in book-keeping, but also because it allows the GM to move the scope and power level of the campaign forward at whatever pace they like.

Of course even in exp-using games this happens sometimes; over one Christmas break we decided 6 months went by in world, wrote a couple pages talking about what our characters did, and came back 2 levels higher.

[malyss]

My groups haven't used XP in years...

When I want to reward players I just give them extra items that are customized to their character (but that won't break the game... just fun stuff they wouldn't likely spend their money on but is fun to have - think, decanter of endless water, folding boat, etc.)