How to Award XP as a GM - Game Master Tips - How to be a Great Game Master
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- Опубликовано: 10 апр 2018
- In this video we take a look on how to award experience points (xp) as a game master, how much, to whom, and how it can impact you game.
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Sorry I skipped the video, how much xp do I get for finishing it now?
Ummmm... Let's see....
According to the procrastinators handbook you get......
3 xp, sorry.
10d6 damage. 🎲
The XP you gain is equal to the number of minuets watched. (50xp/min.) So if you watched all 25 min you "should" have 1250xp. A bonus 100xp for subscribing to the channel (occurs once) and 50xp for ringing the bell (occurs once)
@@nomadrl91x if I watch it a few times i'll be lvl 20 in no time!
You get NOTHING!
You LOSE!
Good day, sir!
You should write a book about GMing. I love your channel!
XC_47 'U' Seconded! Definitely he should! I'd climb over Charlize Theron to get hold of that book!
That's right!
Yeah, some sort of guide for dungeon masters.
Frannko I honestly would not at all be surprised if he has already. He is quite seasoned and knowledgeable about seemingly everything. Then again, everything is new to me so it may end up as second nature in a year or few.
@@jayfraser4785 I'd happily climb over Charlize Theron for no reason at all other than to climb over Charlize Theron... (With her permission, of course)
Just 5865 more xp needed until I become a great GM. I'm gonna get there lads.
*(static)* ...Kermit, kermit, give us a status report, have you... *(static)* ...yet?
Here, you receive one experience point for writing this comment.
Subbed. The only person on YT I found that finally explained XP, levelling up in a way I can understand. Also the fact you didnt edit out your mistakes, which I found pretty hilarious.
I'm learning all about D&D to run a campaign for my son's. Thank you so much. Keep up the great work mate.
Its amazing NGL
That's awesome. How did your campaign turn out? There's been a lot of time for things to go down since then.
@@lw256 Well met!! Haha, you're right!!! I run home brew campaigns now but set in The Forgotten Realms. It's been an emotional journey, I cant begin to explain. It kinda helps that I've always dreamt of being a writer of Fantasy & Sci Fi. So far I've written thousands of words I could literally turn their campaign into a book! Perhaps..lol.. My plan is to branch out eventually and perhaps run campaigns online for people, but I want to make sure I'm ready for that. There are so many people looking for DM's and I think I'll answer the call. It's the closest thing I'll get to making a movie. Coming up with concepts, then writing them down, editing, proof reading then actually running with it in game and then watching their reactions!!! I've had more hits than misses and I live for those moments now!!! May your future be full of adventure, mystery and above all fun!!
Here's my xp system since... 21 years of DnD in all editions. There is 4 xp rewards per gaming session:
1: I do reward xp based on the general game: the Roleplay session (was it satisfying, engaging?), defeating encounters (not necessarily killing them. The goal is the victories and sometimes; victories are achieved by simply surviving) and the engagement of the players in the session.
2 to 4: The players vote for three different questions anonymously. I sometimes get the critics that the players will always try to subdue the voting process in order to gain more xp, and it is true for the first 2 to 3 gaming session. As time goes, they always seems to be more willing to vote with what is true to their heart and passion and it becomes a rewarding moment of self-reflexion and improvement;
First question: who it the best player this session. It can be roleplaying wise, utility wise, OOC wise to help keeping the game running or resolving conflics. It can also be the player you feel did a wonderful improvement. Who is the player/character that you think did best in this session. The player that gets more vote gain some bonus experience points and the second get half of it. In case of draws, all draws get as much xp (so if everyone vote for himself or different players, they all gain it. In 20 years it only happened twice).
Second question: what NPC did you prefer this game. This is to help the player to reflect on the game and see what he liked or dislike. Also providing me with valuable information about what is working and what is not. Those who vote for the npc that got the most of votes gain a bonus xp. Draws are also rewarded equally (three vote for NPC ; gain as much xp as 3 vote for npc2 in a 6 player game).
Last Question: Is oftenly a fun question where I project something to discover intention or projection. Like ''Who or What cause the gate to crack'', ''What do you think this password is for'' or ''If there is a betrayer in your group, who would it be''. Its just a fun moment where people invent an answer and project themself into the future or try to discover something while at the same time giving a little clue for the next gaming session. this bring the idea to the players that there is always a little more to come and a little more to know. Xp reward goes with similar answers, and like the others, draws gain same experience points.
Usually after the questions, because DnD plays with alignments, I created my own alignement system (with points) so we all must declare the action that the other PCs has done (in action, never judge intentions) and I give them an aligment values (Yes, you lied to you friend about eating the cake, 2 points toward chaos). The fun twist is that a player cannot declare something he has done himself. This makes the player to try and communicate more with the others so they can act and play as they wanted, and discover that some ways of communications are better than others.
I hope this post can also help, and if you have criticism, I am always ready to improve.
I actually have a professional actor in my Dark Eye group, so I regularly face the challenge you address around 16:30. He really pushes the role play of our group, but I personally have to hold myself back from giving him too much attention or rewarding him too much for impressive role playing. You got a good point there.
You might consider approaching him out of the session and devising some plans to encourage the other party members involved in role playing situations. Sometimes what holds people back seems to be the opportunity to seize their queue. A professional actor will relish in the chance to bring out the performance of those around them.
Regardless of how you are doing XP. I think it's a TERRIBLE idea to keep track of how many monsters are killed. That just encourages murder hobos. Rather you should keep track of how many monsters have been dealt with. If some bandits are raiding a town, players should be able to get XP for scaring them off or paying them to leave or converting them to a pacifistic religion or any other manner of things in addition to the killing, so long as they complete the objective of "stop the marauding band."
Similarly, if there's SUPPOSED to be an encounter on the way to the BBEG, and the players manage to sneak past them, they should be rewarded the same as if they fought them (though they might have to face the encounter again fleeing the evil lair).
ghostbirdofprey have sword, will travel... For xp!
I generally agree. It encourages players to do more than just kill enemies. It allows them to play a charismatic character who might try to bribe, seduce or intimidate their way through a situation. In a situation where the only experience rewarded is by killing enemies, it makes characters who aren't all about combat a bit superfluous. Whereas, if you reward the party for coming up with clever, or just different ways of solving a scenario, it makes these other characters all of a sudden a lot more helpful to the party.
There are some scenarios where bypass XP gets a bit controversial. For example:
There are three paths through the forest. One leads straight through a bandit camp; one is regularly staked out by bandits for ambushes; the third is safe and avoids the bandits entirely. Blindly picking path 3 shouldn't get the players any XP for bypassing the bandits; picking path 3 because they've done research or used skill checks and reasoning to figure out that it's safe while the other two are likely to lead to bandit encounters is eligible for XP, though whether it's the amount they'd get for either defeating or otherwise overcoming the bandits along one of the other paths is still open to debate.
The keyword I'd be looking for is "overcome" - did the players overcome the bandits (either by defeating them in combat, or by thinking their way around the obstacle) - and how much effort/luck went into overcoming them? If they asked questions you weren't expecting, and as a result managed to bypass the obstacle, or if they had to pass a number of checks to do so, then it's more likely to be worth XP than if the situation would have been no different if the bandits had never existed in the first place.
On the other hand, there are also times when circumstances allow a player to straight-up kill vast numbers of monsters with very little risk or effort - flooding a dungeon by diverting a nearby watercourse may kill all the monsters, but is hardly worth more than a relative handful of XP. Unless, of course, diverting the water is the result of a lengthy and involved process, in which case it might be worth the full credit for the dungeon - particularly since the flood will have significantly reduced the amount of loot that can be retrieved...
rmsgrey blindly picking the “safe” route should not be an option in my opinion in the described scenario, if the party does not choose to do research via any means e.g. tracking, asking around, scouting etc., the route they pick should in opinion magically turn out to be the one they patrol - not the one with the camp, cause the camp might have some interesting loot in it. For me it’s all about player agency, if they choose not invest in proper honest preparation to whatever they are doing, they get the most “vanilla” outcome - they get ambushed by bandits in this case.
What Do You Get More Experienced At By Paying Bandits To Go Away, Bribery?
I prefer milestone, and i hand out level ups at the end of a session not in the middle of the session.
clericofchaos1 do you have any method of rewarding creative or passionate players? It should be it's own reward but some people need a Lil push
loot
Inspiration
Recently I've been considering moving away from handing out xp at the end of a session towards doing the maths behind the scenes and handing it out at the beginning of the next session instead if the players are in a hurry to leave.
or you could do milestone and not do the math at all.
you are quickly becoming one of my favorite GM advice channels! You have a slight "Monty Python" vibe to you, and I love it!
As a player quietly working things out in their head, I appreciate the recognition you constantly afford us. Thank you so much!
I give out bonus experience points at the end of a session, but it's a result of the players voting on each other since I like my players feeling involved in the process:
-MVP Award
-Best Roleplaying
-Best Oops
Sounds good, might give it a try in my group next time.
I've been completely enamoured with the Hero System since the early eighties. In Hero System you build characters with points. A starting fantasy character might be built with 150 points. With those points, pretty much your imagination is the limit, only restrained by the points you have to spend. Within that constraint, you can build anything. Experience was on the order of two or three points per game session, which the players could spend between sessions largely as they will. For nearly forty years, nothing has been more fun for me than deciding each week what to do with those two or three extra points.
I typically avoid systems that have discrete levels, like DnD/Pathfinder etc, and instead gravitate towards point based systems, such as GURPS and Shadowrun. GURPS being my favorite system that I play the most. Characters in those sorts of systems, of course do grow in power over time, typically by gaining Character Points (or Karma or Build Points, or whatever the system in question calls them).
As I said, GURPS is my system of choice, but the book is very unhelpful on the subject of how much CP (Character Points) to award. They suggest between 1 to 5 with an average session earning about 3. Which is fine, and I can surely judge a session and how my PCs did, and I did do that for years, but recently, I have stolen an idea from Dungeon World. In Dungeon World, at the end of session, you ask the Players a number of questions, awarding XP for each Yes. The DW questions are like, "Did we Loot a Memorable Treasure" and "Did we defeat a worthy enemy."
So in my GURPS games now, at the beginning of each campaign, I create a list of five Yes or No questions, and award CP based on the answers. Some are for the group, and some for individual players. I tailor this list to the campain I want to run. In some games, I might put "Did we best a worthy foe" and in another I might say, "Did we make a new friend/ally" or "Did we avoid detection" or "Did we act as honor demands" whatever sort of behavior I want to encourage, and thus reward for a given game.
I always have some variation of "Were you meaningfully impacted by your Disadvantages" as one of the individual questions, as a way to encourage the Players to lean into their Disads instead of downplaying them.
I typically allow the Players to decide the answers to these questions without my input. It is up to them if a foe was "worthy" or if a treasure was "memorable" and since I play with cool people, and not assholes, that hasn't been a problem yet. They are reasonable, and don't abuse my trust. Though I have broken a tie when the players were split on if a given event counted or not.
The Players are aware of these questions before we begin, and are usually consulted while devising the list. If a given list isn't giving enough points, after a few sessions, then that is also a good cue to talk to the players, because either the campaign has deviated from what we thought it was going to be about, in which case the questions should be rewritten to reflect the story we are actually telling, or there is something else going wrong. Fortunately that hasn't really happened to me much, yet.
I agree with this. Since I played Shadowrun 4th, which has a table of questions to ask, I generally put it to the players at the end of a session. For the group points, I read the entry, and say whether I think they deserve it or not, and am open to criticism. For the player specific ones, I leave it open to the players to nominate each other for the categories.
Yeah, giving players ownership over how fast they feel they should progress makes a lot of sense, and helps with engagement. For the right sort of player. If you have players who are more interesting in gaming the system and breaking the mechanics, then you're going to have to impose more of your own opinions rather than trusting the players to be impartial and honest.
Uhm... I know some players (more than I like to) who would just answer every question with "Yes, Master!" to get the maximum amount of points!
Milestone end of session level-ups I'd say are the best course. This helps cut down on complexity and time wasted. Doing it during a game grinds it to a halt while everyone updates their character. End of session allows players to go home and update their sheet without worrying about bringing all required material to a game.
This episode was clearly sponsored by 'But more on that later'. I love your videos :))
I think one of my favorite methods that I've seen used was something sort of akin to the milestone. I'm lucky enough to have a story-centric group where we all just genuinely love to build up the story and the characters. Dice rolls and mechanics are seen as just adding to the fun and providing a bit of structure. As such, the GM decided to take away xp altogether and decided to make levels based around character arcs. Essentially, instead of leveling up just for showing up at the end of a quest (although she did do that on occasion, usually if everyone had actively had their characters engaging in the plot), it was more based around the character's personal story and development. So, if you missed a couple sessions, you didn't necessarily have to be left behind if you showed up long enough to have your character's arc resolved. Whenever it came time for a new session with a new leg of the adventure, she would ask us one-on-one if there was anything we had in mind. If we didn't, she would either help us brain storm or, with our permission, try to surprise us.
So, for example, when our totem barbarian's next level gave them another totem, he spent an arc trying to get back to his roots, since he'd just spent the last few (in-game) months parading around a city with a bunch of people who had a knack for distracting him. Not being the brightest guy in town, he kind of began to forget about his tie with nature at times and he wanted to rectify that. The player had to miss a couple sessions here and there because of personal stuff, so when he came back we had done a good portion of the adventure without him. As such, our characters already had completed their own little side-stories and leveled up, while his didn't. So, during our next session, while we were traveling, we had the opportunity to help him on this weird nature spirit adventure that ended with him being gifted his totem. To compensate for an entire oneshot dedicated to his character (though it was a lot of fun, so we honestly didn't mind), we didn't get levels, but we did get a neat magical item and a new recurring NPC friend out of it.
I really liked the system because it allowed everyone's characters to have their time to shine while tying in all of their backgrounds and motivations into the story itself. Plus, it gave a narrative reason for a level up. In most groups that I've seen that uses the milestone method, a Paladin finishes a quest, gets their xp, and just sort of feels better about themselves. The next day their Divine Smite ability is stronger, so that's cool. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, of course. Some people just want to cut right to the chase and just look forward to those sweet new abilities that they get to play with. I can dig that. Although it just feel so much more solid when you watch that paladin go through this journey where they are forced to prove themselves and, at the end of all of that hardship, they manage to gain the favor of their deity and that deity rewards them with divine strength for going above and beyond in their job to serve them.
I think the only thing that might get a bit old for some people is that it does sometimes start to feel a bit episodic if the GM just keeps handing you what your next arc is supposed to be rather than allowing it to flow a bit more naturally. Also, if someone in your party sometimes struggles with sharing the spotlight, this might make some people frustrated.
I used to use milestone leveling for a long time, tellimg my players when to level after an adventure and using xp as just a tool for me to work out how many challenges felt fair. Now though I have changed to mechanical / ad hoc xp rewards and I let the players know "you did x action" or "you made y decision" and let them track total xp values. I feel like by doing this I have encouraged my players to make certain decisions better and actually find alternatives because I will frequently give more xp for trying to work arround solutions instead of just killing monsters
This is a fantastic video, thank you. At the start of my recent campaign I felt strongly that XP should be used to encourage the kinds of actions that support the game I wanted to run. Story focused, proactive players, role play heavy... the concept you present here of rewarding the players vs the characters is a light bulb moment for me. 😀
The way you described your ideal system at the end sounded more like school than tabletop fun with buddies. Having a post session "What did we learn" period and making sure the troubled kids are able to express themselves properly and awarding paying attention in class and learning with level ups.
I honestly prefer the style used by the old Cartoon Action Hero (1st edition) system, not sure if you're familiar with the system. Players gain CP (character points) at the end of each session, but can only use those CPs to improve their characters traits/abilities/items/etc AFTER the season (campaign)... on average between 10-12 game sessions. Levels don't even exist in the game. The fun part with this system, in my opinion, is that it's not just the players getting CPs. The VILLAINS get CPs as well and they improve between the campaigns as well!
For other systems, I prefer milestone leveling on a party-wide basis after an adventure/scenario comes to a close.
@DialatedPupils
Sounds a bit like WEG D6 fantasy. I always wanted to run WEG D6 games but I couldnt wrap my head on the Spell making stuff.
@DialatedPupils
They were free Pdfs of D6 space, d6 fantasy and D6 adventure (modern) until last year then A chap bought the property.
Now, they still cheap and there is also the Open D6 SRD which has no magic system in it, but you can get a general idea of what's going on.
opend6.wikidot.com/srd
Love your content! You're the best! This is my obligatory content to improve your results in the RUclips algorithm. :)
Our group uses GURPS, which recommends an average of 3XP per session. We follow that for the most part, with an occasional bonus for important in-game accomplishments. Some characters start with Disadvantages that the player gradually buys off with XP as the character grows (e.g., starting with a -10 point disad, buying it off to the lesser -5 point version, then buying it off to a -1 point quirk).
But one GM started awarding an extra XP per session if the player writes a diary/journal entry about the session from the character's perspective. I found this very helpful as a player, but I wouldn't have done it without that XP reward. And I'm shamelessly stealing this technique for my upcoming GURPS Firefly game.
I love this idea and will be pitching it to my players!
I like this channel a lot. I'm going to try DM'ing for the first time tomorrow. Absolutely bricking it. But I feel somewhat prepared from watching these :)
Good luck!
You make very good "points"/insights. Thanks.
EDIT: I think it´s important to be reminded as a GM that the players should not feel judged or feel like they need to be better - because it´s all about enjoying a good adventure together.
Interesting. I personally always saw levels as an abstraction of the progress a character does through the adventure, so I always played on the idea that milestone leveling should just give the character a bonus on some action they practised and learned during the adventure. The idea of leveling up being related to the player and their behavior instead of the character never once passed through my mind.
It seems weird at first, but after thinking how systems work it makes total sense. Game mechanics, in tabletop games, videogames and anything of the like are supposed to reward specific actions and punish others, so they push players to have a specific behavior that is fun for everyone. So if you want to make social and creative storytelling to be the focus of your game, it makes complete sense that you would design a system that supports that and rewards players for being in sync with it.
Fascinating stuff.
I definitely leveled up as a GM watching this.
This is my exact method. Nice video.
I wanted you to make a video on this for MONTHS, thank you sir!
For my first time DMing I decided to do one based on the Legend of Zelda, and how I decided to handle the leveling is by Heart Containers and Pieces. Players get a Heart Container at the end of every main dungeon which is a level up. Heart Pieces are given to the players as the complete a minor or side quest. Once they get 4 heart pieces they get a level up.
It is a method easy to keep track of and understand. Also it helps give motivation for doing side quests.
A GM in one of the Pathfinder campaigns i played turned Exp as a concept into Crystals that gave power to beings. We could then just loot those from monsters in abundance. However, to level up each character had to fullfill some sort of personal quest every 2 levels. It was always something that made them improve themselves.
One such example was to be successful at Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidation, Bartering, Seduction and Bribing 3 times each for a social character. Another one was to use 200 spells in a useful manner in one day for a Sorcerer.
The excess in crystals we then could use in trading or to strengthen NPCs.
This way Levels & Exp became less of a numeric value on our sheets, and more actual character growth.
Too videogamy
@@Mr.Monster1984 How?
That opening was so accurate. I like this concept to help improve games, though I don't think all of my players will really be for it.
Awesome! Hey guy, that's a really good idea on xp!
When I GMed a WhiteWolf series of sessions: we had the "final discussion" talk and there would be XP awarded based on mechanical forces in the game, but then we would ask each person - "What did you learn about the story that is happening in this session?" It made people stay involved and pay attention to things like some of the NPC/villain motivations that were going on in the sessions.
I award experience points in a sort of blend between ad-hoc leveling and mechanical leveling (though with my own formula for how much EXP they gain). I also don't allow leveling during a session unless it's for a story reason. It's working pretty decently, as my formula is made specifically to account for both roleplay effort and combat effort alike, though it may not be the most efficient method for people who don't have a lot of time for GMing.
I have found that a mix is best. I go straight by the book for experience assignment to help ensure fairness. Each session I also have some bonus XP up for grabs. I award 1/2 this XP based on my own thoughts (role playing, amazing moment, good player) the other 1/2 is awarded by the gaming group by majority vote based on their thoughts. I find this helps encourage behaviors both I and the group want and encourages people to think about each other.
It's nice when level up happens at the end of the session. Let them go home, think on it, then do a session 0 (again) where you can talk out of character for a while if there are tech questions. That way minimal game time is wasted & anticipation builds between sessions.
Same here! My players just reached level five and my wizard so absolutely GIDDY about being able to summon undead! 🥰🥰🥰 Makes my little dm heart swell!
Another nice one!
I use somekind of mix of the three EXP-Awardings.
First the group gains experiance as a team (simplifys my tracking ^^), If you weren't there... well no points for you!
At the end of each Sessions I'll loke at what have the character due to the players achieved.
You made time to play with us? great 1 EXP! Your Character survived the evening? Even greater! Another EXP (if you died... well no reason to listenfurther to the exp of the other players... move on thinking about you next character)
You did 3 hours of shoping... you don't really expect anything therefor, did you?...
You found my plothooks? Good Guy 2 for each!
You Created new plothooks by doing unexpected thinks (i never had Imagined they would follow the refuse collector, but hey now you stumbled over a new Junkyard mafia plot... that I totally had in mind for days ehrm weeks no no no month I meant month!)... Ok further 2 EXP. You followed the main plot 5 EXP. You solved a part of an mainplot further 5. You Finished the main plot 20.
And you found, fought AND defeated an extra tough NEMESIS/MONSTER/PIRATE whatever considering the difficulty 5-15 points.
After that I'll give some individuall EXP since it really helps improving the gamestyle of (at least) my players.
Your played your Character true (not as an actor even thougth that is fine and fun but your actions reflected the kind of person the character should be.) 10 Points.
I award XP on an ad hoc basis and it really ends up being a mishmash of all the methods you mention here, including the player XP method. After trying many different approaches I find that no single method is without problems. The ad hoc method I use works like this:
1. I award XP based on encounters. The amount is fluid based on how long or difficult the encounter was. I use 5% of the XP needed to get to the next level as a baseline, although I usually end up awarding 2-10%.
2. If the GROUP worked well together (or role played well together - they don’t always have to agree with each other) I award bonus XP - about another 2%. I make sure that the players all know that they all benefit (or not) equally. This is key for encouraging a good group. Note that I rarely explain what they did to get the XP. This sets up the situation where they have to think about what makes a good session.
3. I do not award individual XP. I found this creates conflict. I will talk to a player who is clearly out of line with the group separately. In effect, I do not award XP for being “good” - but I award no XP for being “bad”, where bad usually means disruptive.
4. Players who put more effort into their characters are rewarded in game, but not with XP. They are just more likely to receive a gift or boon from the world. These players tend to value these flavor gifts anyway. If the gift has any power it is always something only they can use.
5. Since I stress that the game is about the GROUP and not individuals, players rarely argue about XP or even mention it. After all, arguing about XP might impact the next XP award.
6. At the end of a major plot arc or event I give everyone enough XP to get to next level, as long as they have not leveled very recently. The most I would give would be 30% unless it was a campaign end.
Note that I mention percents but I don’t really do any exact math. If it takes 1000 XP to go up one level I just hold in my head that 50 XP is an average and 100 XP would be a lot for an encounter.
Milestone here, and i give it for what they do, not more so finishing the dungeon, but for mosnter slaying, trap finding and disarming, roleplaying in character, entertaining me or making the events entertaining.
Like the idea of followup very much. Luckily my players also come to me to ask about those mundane times such as "Downtime" which I appreciate very much because I know they're thinking of the characters on their off-time and therefore invested in the game world.
I give out a fixed amount per session with the odd payout at the end of story arcs. I'm lucky with the players I have that I don't have to micromanage xp to enforce / encourage good behaviour. It takes an amount of stress out of xp management and allows players to budget for stuff they want.
At the end of the day, I'm the GM so it doesn't matter how powerful the players are because I can tailor the encounters to always be a challenge.
If I had some of the players you described in this video, I think I'd just murder the players and then go write a book instead! :p
Great content as per usual!
I'm GM-ing a campaign in the Fate Core system, and the way we go about gaining experience/abilities is:
1- Every time a player rolls or uses a skill, I make note of it. If they've gotten 8 successful rolls or just 16 rolls in a particular skill, then that skill is going up when they "level."
2- Every time a player researches, studies, or practices a skill during gameplay, I make a note of it. If they've consciously worked on that skill at least 3 times, that skill will go up. (For example, a player who had no experience with swords found a short sword and she asked a couple of NPC soldiers if she could watch them practice and spar, then at night when it was her turn to keep watch, she said she was "quietly practicing those moves." Next level up, she added the "Short Sword" skill to her skill list.)
3- Whenever the players accomplish a major goal in the campaign, they get to "level up," meaning they get to move up or add any skills they've earned. Also, any skills that they haven't used or focused on since the last level-up will get "rusty" and they have to roll to see if their "rusty" skills stay where they are, go down a level, or even get removed from their list completely.
It works well for us.
Hey, I've always struggled with writers block and have a new story every month. I'm currently making my first homebrew game and I'm far alone being what you called an 'Author' and I have found your videos greatly invaluable. If I could ask anything is a video of how to create a religion. Thanking you.
Something I think could work quite well with the system you propose at the end is tracking those experience points separately, as well. Since those are for the player improving or contributing to the game, let those experience points be applied to ANY character the player brings to the table for that campaign. So if they get tired of their old character and retire them, or their character dies a glorious or ignominious death, they have all their player experience to put on their next sheet.
"can i borrow some points to level up now?" that always gets me
I agree with what you have said in this video and prefer to award xp in the way that Shadowrun does....it encourages active roles in the story and game rather than just killing...completing certain parts of a story and coming up with good ideas and take an active part in the character they play gets you awards.
I found it interesting to see your perspective on XP, I find it strange at this point that it can be such an issue for so many groups. At the end of the day XP is a reward for playing the game which allows players to progress their characters, and to that end using whatever method seems the most rewarding for the kind of behavior you want from your players while minimizing the method getting in the way of the gameplay and story will be the best system.
My players tend to be on the more casual side of things and a few players don't show up every session. In order for the absent players to not feel as though they wont be able to play if they miss a few games I give out XP to every player in the campaign in equal amounts even if they aren't present at the end of every session. This also makes it easy for everyone to keep track of their progression, and gives a steady reward stream with a feeling of making progresss. I also make it clear to my players what they did well or poor and how much they did at the end of each session and award an arbitrary amount of XP based on their actions in the world. I pick a number that seems like just enough to feel significant at their current level and give them a little less or more if they do poorly or very well.
I think that giving a level every now and then doesn't provide the feeling of progression that gaining numerical XP does. I also don't think interrupting the flow of things mid game is very good for immersion. Finally keeping track of players experience individually and not giving XP for not showing up makes sense if your players will respond positively to it by say showing up or engaging more, but if you have a group like mine which isn't the most serious and has some members who simply cannot make it every week no matter how much you punish them then a simple made up number might work out well.
I'm planning on giving exp for solving encounters (you can kill those creatures, sneak around them, persuade them to let you pass, and so on. This is solving the encounter.) I also plan on giving milestone experience for completing quests and the like. For good role playing and having good ideas, I play 5e, so I'd simply give inspiration points for this.
I know that this is an old video, but I just discovered your channel. I love it.
Anyway, I feel like the concept of the GM using XP as a reward for getting players to play the way HE wants is a bit archaic. Unless, I guess, your players like that. The real key, to me, is talking to the players and setting agreed upon expectations.
When running a game with distict levels, usually I can come to an understanding with players such as: "I'm looking to make this Campaign run from level 1 to 12 or so in about so many sessions. How about we go up 1 per session for the first 4 sessions, then about 1 level every 2 or 3 sessions for the next 4 levels, and then a level every story arc completion." Maybe that's OK or maybe too fast or too slow for some players.
When working in a more Character-Point based system of advancement, again set out how fast everyone is comfortable advancing and stick with it as long as everyone is having fun. If you want to give bonus points after a session, my best advice is put a pool of points out there and let the players have a say as to who gets them. Why should the GM be the sole arbiter of who is "playing right"?. You will see things like:
- "Alice risked her character to save all of us. Give them all to her"
- "Bob and Carl came up with a great plan. They can split them."
- "It was so much fun watching Elizabeth improv her way through the royal meeting."
- "Frank hasn't gotten any points in a while"
- "We think it's most fun to usually just split them evenly"
I've done this "bonus points" method before, and it was pretty well received. If you feel you need to reward people based on actions, it might as well be for making the game enjoyable for everyone.
I like that the whole group lvl up the same time, (Bard and Barbarian) and gets one 1 or 2 items of loot in the group. and sometimes they dont lvl up but gets more loot. For me it's hard to get everyone back to the table when we are all adults with work and kids, so after every game this is the "suger" to get them all wanting to get back to the game soon to test there new skills and weapons. Hitting them with the same monsters they had a hard time with to let them feel the power!
I've got a few comments to make about the different points you made in that video.
First of all about your ways of awarding exp points I do have sort of a fourth one. In my roleplaying circle we strive to always have everyone at the same exp, so as to keep the game balanced ( I remember a game before we shifted to that system where the social character had so much more exp than my guardian-type crusader that in combat I was useless compared to him) but we do sometime award exp for particularly ingenious or funny solutions to problem but the exp is awarded to the entire party? That way people are motivated to do great things not only for their own profit but for the whole table.
Second of all I don't agree on your point about the characters not caring about level ups. Because of course they do care! If the story is about preventing the apocalypse and your character finds a new power within him after exploring a ruin he will notice this newfound strength and actively use it and he definitely will care about this new way to prevent the end of the world.
And finally with your system of awarding players exp when they get better I couldn't agree less. It is the character who gets exp because he is the one getting better as he goes about killing dark wizards and saving cats caught up in trees. Why would the Mage learn a new spell when the player gets better at acting? This system also begs the question of how to deal with veteran roleplayers. Someone such as yourself will rarely get significantly better at roleplaying. Does this mean your character will never gain experience?
I give the same XP's to all players. I don't like giving X, Y and Z different XP's to different players, just because they had a cool idea. Plus in the grand scheme of things they all have cool ideas throughout. Plus it's easier, as I just want to know how much everyone has got in total. Furthermore I want my players to level up quickly to a certain level (Circle as I'm playing Earthdawn and XP's are called Legend Points there, same thing though). For two reasons, they can actually succeed in doing more stuff, and they become more engaged, as now they have a 6th Circle (Level) character. By that time they are recognisable heroes in the town they now have a house in, and I only have to slightly nudge them to follow the plot that started in Session one, when they're now on session 20.
Disclaimer. they are not on session 20 yet, just session 10. They will get a house in session 11. By the time it's session 20 they will be 6th circle at least. The plot doesn't require them to be, it just makes it more cool.
I havent played much and have not exactly played beyond fifth level but I started dming and like less work so mile stones it is. I do like Inspiration Points for great ideas or roleplayong. I congratulated my Group on avoiding conflict. I did kind of hint that you dont always have to engage, if you can avoid conflict you still get experience which in reality is true. Its them writing the story. Im just throwing dilemma and mystery at them and watching how they react to it. Ok so I cursed a good portion of them and their whole objective is to figure out how and why so they dont die slowly and horribly. Maybe next time Ill try a pre written game. Lol
Love your videos
I love that intro :D
My system is definitely mechanical leveling. Players get experience for defeating enemies (regardless of whether their enemies actually die), crafting stuff, and learning knowledge (especially if it's forbidden knowledge). And as for skills, they level up a skill at most every 5 times they crit while doing it, less if they're lucky.
Though, come to think of it, I'll probably manually adjust experience gain to keep the party roughly on the same level. Using experience as a direct reward is a good idea; perhaps I could do it less directly by having important NPCs offer books on, say, communicating with animals, summoning your own personal skeletal servant, or whatever else I may think of, seeing as books are another important way to gain special abilities in my system.
Thank for the great tips for Experience Points. I have been given my players EXP if they can remember the recap from the last game & even more EXP if they write it down as it was a dairy. Putting there own feelings into the experience they had through there characters eyes.
I award Exp to the whole group for Encounters (social), Plot progression (and side story progression), and good old fashion killing. My players have liked it, and I don't mind it (it's just some quick math at the end of the session). I can still control the Exp to be like a milestone when I want to, and the players can control the exp to a degree as well. I've liked the freedom of my way.
This past year, we have been playing the Pathfinder system, with a friend of mine as GM. We've been using the "standard" leveling method, using xp. I have to say that I have found this system to be both very simple, and gratifying. Granted, from time to time somebody leveled up while doing nothing particularly exceptional but our GM still rewards roleplaying, doing things in character, being involved much more than not. Also, I find that this system allows players that have lower level characters to catch up pretty quickly to players that have higher level characters. Two of us lost our characters in the middle of our campaign, mostly because of stupid decisions, and we've had to catch up to our fellow players. It took some time, and we've had a "private" catch up session to help along the way, but we're finally around there, and the system allowed for that pretty well. It slowed the progression of our higher players, that were a bit bogged down by us but now that the level of the group has risen considerably, they both leveled up as well. I think, honestly, all system have their perks and drawbacks, but I don't think any of them severely impairs roleplaying or the essence of what an RPG is, quite honestly if a player is a metagamer, and seeks only to exploit the game mechanics to his own advantage he will do that. Of course, creating my second player I knew much better what worked and what didn't and I was able to "build" him accordingly, but that didn't prevent me from creating a nice backstory that my GM was able to use to make my character progress in a way that I couldn't predict. Also, by playing with the mythic adventures, our GM was able to add another type of leveling whereas we have to accomplish extraordinary tasks in order to gain mythic ranks. This of course makes our characters much more powerful, but the challenges are...well, quite challenging.
I was in a campaign where the structure was a daily routine where we got shills in things we allocated time to, with working out causing exhaustion as well etc. We didn't even have a character class until it was warranted. I got my class by finally dealing with an enemy that had knocked me out eight times prior.
I agree on the post event "stuff" though it's not always a discussion.
At the end of an occult investigation rpg campain with complicated story, I ask to fill a multiple choice test to check on the understanding of the story : "what was the goal's vilain ?", "why did he kill X or did Y ?", "who stole the old parchment ?", etc.
And the player who scores best gets a reward.
As a rule of gold : never penalize "bad" players but award "good" players. It's a positive way of thinking :)
(sorry for my english, it's not my native tongue)
YES! Always reward good players, bad players get enough punishment by not getting cool stuff.
First time Player AND dm (My group rly wanted to start playing but none of us knew how to, so i said i could be the DM idk why) and i honestly like XP because my group is familiar with that level up method and no one rly argues about thinking they should level up because they think they did enough stuff, i just tell them the XP (sometimes they say ''wow so little?'') but they agree that they are leveling up correctly and it's not me just making it up. ty for the help.
Yes there is. Allow character upgrades through class trainer npc in conjunction with class specific quest line 👌 👍 💪 😎
Rather than Leveling all at once include a story arch for each PC that can run along side the main plot line. Something integrated especially for that player.
This can be used in game. And would allow you to even line up Benchmark Leveling but award the ability and attributes/feats at key story 👉 points. Distributing character upgrades along the the way and one at a time rather than all at once.
Another way I view growth as a Player is by seeing them being willing to try new things. Such as, the guy who always plays the large Orc Barbarian, or the Large Human Fighter. The next time you play, does he try a different race? Gender? Class? Does he try playing a spellcaster rather than a 'smasher of things'?
This to me shows that the player feels comfortable enough with the system, mechanics, and concept of roleplaying, that they now are actively trying to try new characters.
My group's main GM rewards XP as a lump divided by number of players at the session, and informed at the end of the session. He usually shifts the balance of RP vs. Combat XP based on what we do more of in the game.
I like the system used in Warhammer 40,000 Only War and similar games, where EXP is delivered at the end of session and before the next, EXP is spent to build up skills.
Nowadays I mostly run one-shots for people, so levels/etc are static for the day. But before, what I would do is essentially using Mechanical EXP from combat. But, for me, I never really made sense for a person to become more capable of combat by a long series of peaceful/diplomatic choices (which my players loved/preferred, even when it was a terrible idea). So instead of the ad hoc XP given for role-play, I would instead let successful diplomacy result in gaining resources/items from people they helped. Example: there was this evil goblin thing doing a ritual to summon a Cat Demon and sow chaos. The players, before they even realized what was going on, were taking time to give the cats that were being ritually sacrificed a proper and respectful burial. So, when the cat demon was finally summon, rather than having to fight it, the demon cat guided them to a cave where they slept through a storm. The next morning, they had magically arrived at the mountain range that was just a few miles south of the village they were travelling to (saving 3 days of travel and an entire session) and a magical cloak that gave a +1 AC and a +2 to attempts at sneaking. No XP, but my players felt that they accomplished something good, and were rewarded for it.
I think I only managed to get like 1-2 xp from this. Gaining personal growth from roleplaying is strange to me considering how stressful and difficult it can get at times. Just making it through sessions without my mind going blank as soon as I'm asked something or just generally feeling horrible is tough enough.
Personally I vastly prefer milestone leveling, it works better for the narrative and gets rid of any dumb xp hunting.
I had a inexperienced Group not long Ago and we did a simple Experience system. Its a system I actually quickly made on the fly, and it worked. I use more complex system for more experienced Players of course. This system Also discourage murder hobos. Ive copied the rule set below (first version that is).
XP Awarding System this is how you earn experience as a player:
Be Ready and prepared Pre-session.
Involve your character and role play it accordingly.
Solve puzzles.
Solve Conflicts.
Completing missions or Adventures.
Bonus points: Bonus experience are Awarded for completing something extra in a mission. For example; You find a Hidden door and inside a prison with a maiden fair. Or you may have solved a diplomatic mission between the dwarfs and Humans, and since they ended up not Going to war and it all was just a misunderstanding you can gain extra points. However if you dont solve These extras you just get the set amount of experience.
Now your wondering what About Combat defeating enemies, creatures, and monsters. NO! You wont get anything for that. You need todo the following above.
Worked well to be honest and you can use it since its Pretty simple ^_^
I run Mutants and Masterminds, a point based superhero RPG. It has a slightly different take on xp. It is a mechanical system as far as character development goes, but it rewards good RP in a different way. It uses an ad hoc "Bennies" system to reward player for being interactive with the story. These bennies allow the players to affect the narrative in some fashion. They can even get bennies for adding complications during combat.
The system also has elements of the milestone method too in the form of a Power Level. Players can still spend XP up to a certain point, based on the power level of the campaign. The GM can change the power level at any time if he so chooses to. In other words, this is a hybrid system when it comes to XP, which is a fourth type.
I spend almost all my Christmas Vacation reading up on DnD settings, Changeling, other races and even deities (I really wish their was a book only about deities for 5e) to ensure my backstory/construction of personality for my Changeling wouldn't conflict with "Canon" or my DM world.
I then relized in January that having a book for my Character personality, other players and notes about the campaign/way to improve my game next session would be a good idea and that's how I ended up with 3 notebooks.
Yet I still reflect on my character and recently asked my DM about potentially having Fey Ancestry due to having a Elven mother.
I was told no due to no instant of Changeling inheared anything from their non-Changeling/Doppelganger parents in any of the official 5e sourcebooks but it was smart of me to think about stuff like that.
Based on your take, I have decided to implement a different leveling system for my next campaign. Admittedly this one is extra work for the DM, but it should work, so I will do it happily.
I'll use mechanical XP as the foundation, and all of it goes into a pool. However, even here things start to change. I prefer my parties to be as equally leveled as possible; it makes creating encounters that much easier. Also the size of the party may wary, so I use this rule:
I'll pretend every encounter is balanced for an ideal amount of players; 5. Then raise or lower XP according to difficulty. Divide that total XP number by five. That is what every single character gets, independent of actual number attending. Because some players can only attend once in a while, others are there every time etc, party size varies between 4 and 7 (most commonly 5 with the expected group. I also find balancing encounters on the fly have a difficulty near zero; I will also happily re-balance monsters as needed.)
For this reason EVERYONE, even non attendants, get the XP, so that they can take part whenever they return. If needed I will even provide some limited item upgrades, so that they don't end up lagging behind, should anyone manage such a gap. On paper they have been active elsewhere in the meanwhile. I am considering offering alternative side story sessions for these people in between sessions. Yes, I have some time on my hands. If I end up sort of having two parties of 4+3 players that sometimes join together, I would love that. This is about fun and story and stuff.
I will not do personal XP; it would negate the balance goal. Personal achievements can get rewarded by inspiration or any number of ways that don't kill balance. If this is done as group rewards as well, I find it should avoid resentment of that very good player: everyone should love the guy. Also, since there will be no punishments for not being that good, no-one should lean on the weaker players either.
Ok so that is base XP. Then the party can earn up 10% extra on the session. Divided this way:
1-2% can be earned from the group, as a whole or partially, achieving some good to really good XP. 1% is one or two players driving it alone.
1-2% can be earned for good ideas. 1% for the same 1 or two players always having the ideas.
1-2% can be earned for mostly functioning as a team. 1% is "at least they are working together, despite differences" 2% for achieving IC solutions that let troubled IC relationships heal; at least to the point of working well together, even if they have disdain or whatever.
1-2% Can be earned if I find exceptional things happening, like making the DM very happy. No, I do not take bribes... not unless we are talking new car. (I keep hoping.)
1-2% can be earned for Not trying to f.x. rules lawyer the DM, or any other IRL bad behavior around the table. 1% allows one single instance of "but, but, but" that doesn't go on for too long; at least in early sessions. 2% still allows questions, as long as they don't go full on "but" once final ruling has been made. The difficulty in achieving this one increases as time goes by for each individual player based on attendance.
I will never tell them fully openly which ones they have achieved or not, so that they can't harass any other player for messing up. I don't want to give rise to bad blood.
I will never reveal in public which player caused a percentage not to be achieved, but I will have private chats with players when necessary, should for example any of the toxic types you've described pop up.
Other difficulties, like murder hoboing etc, I handle in game. I like progressive consequences and worlds that react somewhat realistically. I like to think that I might be far too inventive for my own and the players' good at times. :P
Thanks for a very inspiring channel. I have learned a lot.
Pertaining to XP: In the conversation pertaining to the types of award system's (vs. the individual player - as I'm only 7& 1/2 min. into your discussion), I Try to use Wisdom bonuses / penalties to represent a "Personal" % for the player's to add in addition to DM discretion's. [Example: a Wis score of 18 is a +4 which allows for a 20% XP gain while a Wis score of 3 earns them a penalty of -20%...then I add them any "Individual" XP based on participation's ---- this system (like any other) has its "Pro's / Con's", however it does make the player not ignore their initial build's of their character... Using the bonuses to mirror the game system point value really does make one consider option's before allocating stats, I've been using this system since 2nd Edition D&D with little fail's / player - DM conflict's.....as it also imposes each player to actually Roll-Play their character's vs. the "Mechanical" play style --- which all to common in today's play.
On the topic of a player's growth vs. their "Character"; When I start a new campaign (and I do this to Avoid lengthy discussion's) I have the player's play as themselves...in this I can actually skip the the Alignment choices, see the player's for who they are and award them recognition's for "Their" action's or lack there-in. When it becomes the "Lack there-in" that is when I'll talk to the individual player and find out if they're shy / uncertain or simply aloof. I've found that building trust among the DM and the Player's (all and Each), with-out the "Fore-play" of Alignment(s), allows me to really see who / how those player's are as people which in turn also allows me to build / create or alter a campaign to each of the player's so that many of them are having fun and each have a personal moment to shine --- their 15minutes so to speak & that 15minutes can happen more often, (on average) normally every 3 - 4 session's.
As for XP in regards to Campaign Completion's; I take into account the total XP that campaign has to offer and divide it among the player's (as we used to do)...then I take into account any personal "player" (not character) gain's --- no penalties at this point, that would make them feel punished for completion --- and award them accordingly. If a disagreement does occur I sit and discuss it with them (all of them) so as to try and maintain objectivity and fairness.
I agree with the perspective of assigning experience points to the player rather than the character. I allow these points to be carried over to a new character if they die.
I am also experimenting with what I would call a fourth system of leveling combining elements of both the mechanical and milestone systems. I'm calling it dash experience. The idea is that there are several milestone encounters and story plot points once resolved usually ends in a small treasure hoard being awarded or found. In these treasure hoards if the party is all the same level and where they are charted to be in level progression, the players will find the standard loot. However if the timeless "XP Whore" decides to take on the bulk of the combat encounters and earns the bulk of the experience, this will probably cause them to level up faster than the rest of the party. If this happens and there are few opportunities for your character to shine (a charismatic bard in a mega dungeon) the next milestone event will reward specifically the players under leveled to keep party balance in order. I would do this by having the character find a potion of knowledge( liquid experience points) and only raise them to the threshold of the level of the highest character. For example if the highest level character is 500 XP over level 5 the lowest will only be at the required xp to be level 5 allowing the "XP whore" to still feel special about scrounging every bit of xp they can. On the other hand there are also plenty of sessions when the xp whore fighter doesn't have much to do in a quest, like a quest of intrigue. Of course if they are a good player they still can play this well but say they aren't. The players that role play and pass dice checks during the intrigue will be awarded xp for that and the muscle will obtain xp for showing restraint if applicable.
As I said this is an experiment in experience points so I'm not sure how it will turn out. I like the overall idea of mechanical Xp but it seems cumbersome and can some times destabilize party balance. If you have any tips for keeping track of experience points as a GM I'd love to hear it. I find myself arbitrarily awarding lump sums of points for checks at the end of sessions but accurately award kills. If anyone has a dc experience point award chart I'd love to see it!
I find the BRP system of handling Experience Points is extremely convenient. Points that either go into a percentile skill, or collected to increase attribute points. Very easy to use, and very quick to assign.
Trying something new with my upcoming game, a bit of a blend of all three systems. Firstly, everyone gets the same experience points so everyone levels up together, I give out ad-hoc Experience for players Role playing to their characters well or for being a part of the story telling process which the entire party gets, The individuals that role play their characters well also get Inspiration dice so they don't feel cheated for others getting experience for their role playing and obviously they all get experience for getting through fights, or finding inventive ways around them or completing missions. I hope it works well, fingers crossed.
I like to award exp during periods of downtime, relaxation, or meditation, times when you're thinking about your actions and committing them to memory, discussing your adventures in the pub, or writing in your diary, or revising your motions to perfect ones you tried out in the field, or getting a good night's sleep after a workout, etc..
Times when you could potentially say that you leveled up irl.
My favorite improvement system thus far has been from Call of Cthulhu. There were no experience points or levels. Instead you had a set of skills. If, during an adventure you succeed in a skill in some sort of critical situation, you'd get a check mark for that skill. At the end of the adventure for each skill with a check mark you'd have a chance of improving that skill. The chance was inversely proportional to your current skill. So the worse you were, the more likely you'd improve.
I liked this system because it rewarded players for using their skill effectively -- and it made a certain amount of sense. In D&D if a character never used their sword, why did their sword skill improve when they leveled?!?
However, I very much like what Guy is suggesting here in rewarding players who put in effort. However, I'd take that reward out of numeric space and put it into story space. A character with an improved background is more likely to have contacts, or allies. Even adding an enemy is a reward of sorts for a role player. And in a sense this is a win for all the players, even though one player received the reward, it increases the depth and feel of the world for all the players -- and sometimes give a GM inspiration.
I use mechanical with little tweaks. Bonuses for playing to class, character, and special things (like taking almost all damage) and reaching plot points
I usually award experience depending on the length of the session we played. If the players did exceptional roleplay or did well in a very big fight, I might add a few points here and there. Every player gets the same amount of points. And because it is possible in the system we use, I only allow them to spend those points on things their character actually did. If we spent the whole session just talking and partying, I will only allow them to spend their points on social skills and maybe endurance for drinking. That has worked quite well so far!
In my current campaign I use milestone leveling to represent the over time growth of the characters, but will reward levels either to a single character or the whole party for performing heroically or achieving something substantial that is part of their characters own storyline, it's worked quite well so far, but it could function a lot worse if your players never take any chances or metagame.
I'd like to experiment with XP rewards by handing out a lump sum at the end of a session, and letting the players decide how to split it among themselves. In theory they would reward the kind of in-game behavior they want to see more of and thus encourage it in each other, and players who get singled out for deserving less would be motivated to step up their game. In reality it probably depends much on the group dynamics, I guess, but it would still be an interesting thing to observe.
I agree with your way for XPing, and there are RPGs that can use it well, however (in D&D) I've seen that there is contention when the players aren't leveling up at the same time.
I go by XP but I'm pretty specific about when I'll allow them to level up. For example you're in a dungeon, you have no time to reflect on what you've learned as soon as you return home and have full health that's when you can level up.
Like morrowind - level up when you rest and heal.
Yep, I agree. Down time is needed to reflect, research and improve skills and abilities. We used to use the rule of one whole week per level achieved dedicated to training/reflecting/etc in order to advance and improve
I personally do Mechanical +Role-play experience distribution equally among the party and at the end of sessions for good role-play such as being entertaining or staying in character.
I recently had an interesting way of dealing with experience points. Experience as encouragement rather than reward. That is to say, traditionally experience points have been a reward for achieving some goal and some characters might gain bonus points for having high ability scores or playing their class's defined role "well". or for good roleplaying.
When treating experience as encouragement, rather than reward, experience points would still be a reward but any bonus xp would not be for most of the above things. Instead it would be to reward player behaviour, good roleplay, or character behaviour. While this would not be expressly explained to the players, it would hopefully encourage more good behaviour in the future. Eventually players might realise what earns them more xp and begin to be better roleplayers instead of asking "can we level up again now?" every other session.
i play gurps and character points are quite mighty. I mainly give character points to the player like this
half point for showing up on time (or showing up despite having a good reason not to)
half point for recap (everyone recaps on a rotational basis)
half point for good role playing (~per hour roughly) (being prepared, knowing their skills [reasonable good] and playing out the character)
half to one point for outstanding role playing (relatively to the player)
and points when i feel it is appropriate (main point source)
(i don't give points for bringing food or bringing extra stuff cause i do not want players think that they have to buy stuff but it is still appreciated)
for slaying monsters and skill checks you get ingame stuff (loot, info, and so on) and the opportunity to learn skills/techniques or get hints/help to personal quests/goals
you rescued the daughter of the smith? well he is offering to show you to smack people with a hammer really hard (or something in the way)
My approach to being a GM and running adventures is like Drew Carry's "Who's Line is it anyway". At the completion of an adventure I tell the players that the next is going to be X level and to adjust their characters before the next session. If they ask for some number during a game I give them some arbitrary number. I'm not doing all of the arithmetic.
depending on what sort of game you want you can customize the incentive badge levels to reflect certain desired behaviors.
Im running my first game right now and I told everyone this is just a quick star wars game so I can learn how to handle a big star wars epic story and how to GM. All my plans are that, plans. I got their xp hard set at the end of their missions so I know exactly when they'll level up. 7 missions with maybe 3 scripted combat encounters each and my first run will be done
I award bonus XP for anything I consider excellent for the narrative. Yes, I sometimes award bonus XP for failure/defeat. I try to keep rewards as open as possible and never forget that XP isn't the only form of character/party growth and development.
For example. I made a simple system for fame/infamy that only I keep track of. One of my players fame spun out of control in one town. The town's toy maker made action figures based on his heroic deeds. Of course his deeds where greatly exaggerated to make the toys sell better. It created an interesting party dynamic. Most of the other PCs didn't mind, but one player decided he was going to be a rival and out do him. Now they compete for the town's attention. Even going as far as bribing bards, donating 50% of their gold earnings to the town, hiring artisans to bolster the towns beauty/defenses. So much effort has been put into the town and I've considered creating a level system for this town.
The way around low intelligence characters trying to come up with clever things to get xp is to give xp for roleplaying your character correctly. You can also force them to roll their intelligence to see if the can actually pull it off.
I also like to award XP for non combat encounters or getting around combat the same as you would for combat. Or, you can directly give characters points in things like stealth or speech or whatever.
14:30-15:20 I do grow by watching your videos. Also in DnD I tend to make characters that are somewhat like me, so my role playing will be more natural, and so I can actually ask myself when playing; "What would I really do in this situation?".
We play online. I give xp to players for sharing details about their characters and its working great 👍🏽. Its done between sessions.
15:51 - that's not roleplaying, that's performing.
16:21 - THAT's roleplaying.
Also, passive roleplaying is sometimes better than active, it depends on the situation. With a couple of my less congenial characters, I have to be careful. I say "I start grumbling about being taken for granted again," rather than delaying the game by acting it out, no matter how funny I could make the old wizard's whining about wasting his spell slots.
Me and my brothers use mechanical and add as we go or after a confrontation. We use inspiration 1 up to a total max of 5 (depending on which of us is the gm) to reward good role playing.
I play mostly pathfinder. I give exp. When they kill a creature and give the built in machanic, but when ever someone passes a check I give 10xlevel+some if they went over the DC by some and if they roll a crit I multiply it by 2. For role playing I do the inspiration rule where I give them a D8 to add to any rolls or trade it in for a automatically confirmed crit.
I use a "crystal" system. At certain points, as I feel balanced, the characters receive crystals. At long rests the characters can place the crystals under their pillow during sleep and they wake up the next day feeling a magical aura surrounding them. When enough crystals are used, they level up. The players can exchange crystals between them freely, meaning they're themselves responsible for the group balancing. I don't see this working with all parties, but because my group has a lot of people falling in and out of sessions I think this is a way of not having anyone fall out of the group as the two without work who can meet up every week gets more experience then the one who can only meet up when the moon alignes with saturn
My favorite example of leveling up comes from a Shadowrun campaign. The Shadowrun setting lends itself very nicely to episodic adventures. What our GM did was state that several months passed between jobs, and our task when leveling up was to determine what our characters were doing in those down months that lead them to gain/hone the skills and attributes we acquired with the new level up.
There is one alternate for gaining exp in the older editions of D&D. Individual exp. This was exp gained for each character for utilizing their characters abilities. Fighters got exp for the amount of damage they deal per the hit die of the enemies they defeated in combat. Spell casters got exp for each spell they cast to over come a challenge per level of the spell and rogues got exp for skills used and obtaining treasure. I don’t have my books with me and its been many years since I looked at these rules but they are a way of getting the player to actively engage with their characters and their abilities. Then you can always add the adhoc exp for each monster too. If you get the PC's to track this exp themselves they will be more engaged at least on some level. I know these are in the second edition books but I don't recall seeing them else where.
In my group I implemented giving xp for what skill you used for it after the session. Lets say someone did well in bringing the price down with a merchant. I give him personality xp. He only can use them to level up his personality traits. And if he does well in battle he gets strength or agility xp. Or he survived a disease he gets some endurance xp and so on. It of course depends on what system you use. I think this way its a little bit more logical. E.g. if I have a player that didn't fight for 3 sessions he should be able to fight better after that.