I'm wondering about online XP (chat) if someone could help me get a feel for how much should be correct there per session.

In the core it is 10-20 xp per session for a tabletop game.

I'm running an online chat game. Per 3 hour session one can say we get a scene finished (2 if its fast). A scene is a lengthy social/action part with an additional possible combat part. (1 session per week btw)

For example th group was on thee way with landspeeders through a forest, stumbled upon a cave that was filled with a residue of the dark side and searched it for some materials and got attacked by a robot in it. That is one scene.

Now my question is what would be a good per session xp for such a chat game?

(same as for tabletop games? or 1/2 of that?)

We go with 5xp per hour rounded to what seems fair. Bonus xp given if we finish a long story arc or do something really cool.

My group meets for 3-4 hours every other week. The GM has been awarding 20-35 XP per session depending on how intensive the situation is. A heavy combat session with many members in dire situations leads to more XP usually. We haven't had an intense social interaction yet (only been with them for 4 sessions).

I've also been in on a couple of the Shadow of the Broker one shots that have been advertised on the board. The great GM for that (Tommy, can't remember his screen name) awards 20 XP base with potential 1 pt bonuses for certain triggers and general good roleplaying.

I'm planning to start running a once a month game for my friends. 20 XP seems more reasonable. 25+ and it feels like characters are making huge jumps between sessions, at least in my (limited) experience.

Is that both offline or is Motivators mentioning about online?

Hmmmmm rowdy: How much do you get done in those 3-4 hours? (curerntly we are at session 4 and what happened is that the players arrived at a space station, a child broke into their spaceship and from it they heard that a plague is hapenning on the station and they got to a healer and received a list of ingredients. Tehy then flew to a nearby mining moon and persuaded the foreworker there that they can stay (they stunned him though as part of the deal was unacceptable by the moral standards of one of the chars) and anotehr miner that they get a few landspeeders to fetch the ingredients and went to a darkside cave inside a hill in the forest surrounding the mining station....fought a droid there and then flew to a cave (one of the landspeeders was destroyed en route thanks to a trap that threw a tree at one of the players the other player managed to save that one at the cost of his own landspeeder and 3 wounds)....then they went to a lake got some special bark from the trees there and fought an oversized lizard that is about the summing up of what was happening in about 20 hours of play (last session was oversized).

I don't want to give out too much xp but also not too few (last round I had was in another system and after 3 months the players could just increase one skill which was too few xp given till then so I want to avoid the problem this time but also avoid going into the other extreme accidently...was also an online game)

Ignore this post...

I typed up a session summary for the 4 sessions I've played in but mycomputer wasn't cooperating. If you want more detail on anything I can post it.

The first session involved taking a smuggling job and then stranding our selves with an astrogation despair. Then there was a handful of knowledge checks, some social interaction to get another job and find a navicomluter, and then one combat encounter against a rival and 2 minion groups of 4 while exploring a crashed Imperial ship for salvage. 20 XP

The second session had 2 combat encounters with a rival, a nemesis, and 6-8 minion groups of 4 spread between them. Our ship was also attacked by Y-Wings with only a single pilot and an NPC doctor to man the gun. The rest of the party was on the crashed ship and after 2 rounds was able to rig a gun to support our ship. It got shot down, but we managed to get it to a spaceport. 35 XP

The third session involved a lot of stealth. Avoiding imperials and sneaking repairmen into our spaceport, sneaking off to a rebel base, sneaking off to a crime lord's base to plant incriminating evidence. There was a tense combat encounter against stormtroopers at the end. We managed to secure all the cargo in the ship and some of us were captured by Imperials only to be freed by rebels. 30 XP

The fourth session was a mass space evacuation. 3 GR-75 transports with an escort of 9 Y-Wings had to survive 4 (dropped to 3 with a good astrogation roll) rounds of combat against a LOT of TIEs (fighters, some interceptors, and bombers too). Before the space combat the whole party had some prep work to get the evac ready with various skill checks. We only lost some NPC Y-Wing pilots, so the whole party and all 3 transports made it to the destination. We were then offered a job that will net us a new ship. 30 XP

Interesting. was it an online round?

115 XP for 4 sessions from what I see and it looks like you came about as far in a session as my group did.

do you feel that is enough or too much / too few xp in retrospective?

Interesting. was it an online round?

115 XP for 4 sessions from what I see and it looks like you came about as far in a session as my group did.

do you feel that is enough or too much / too few xp in retrospective?

There is no right or wrong answer. I tend to use the talent tree as a bit of a guide. I think the 20 and 25 point talents should be something the player saves up XP for and when they buy into a talent or skill it feels like a big change to them. Their character just got better in a big way.

I take a number of items into consideration. How dangerous were the encounters, what did the players have to do to overcome a challenge, how many XP do the PC's currently have, etc.

I start with 10 XP for each player as a base. I will award extra XP when a player deliberately uses PC traits to inform their role play, such as backstory, motivations, Obligations, Duty, and Morality. Finishing a major story arc will get an extra 5+ XP. Using creativity to get past a challenge will also earn some extra XP. People usually repeat behaviors that are rewarded. So always encourage those elements of play you want to see more of in your game.

Also remember, the higher the PC's total XP becomes the slower progression becomes. Talents become more expensive. Increasing skills also becomes more expensive. This means the first 100 XP is probably more noticable in power level than when a PC is already at 500 XP.

Don't forget to also use credits and gear as rewards in lieu of XP. If you want to slow down the party's progression in XP but you don't want to it to feel punative, you can drop some extra loot into the encounter. Finding that Restricted weapon with a mod or attachment might be worth more to a PC than an extra 10 XP.

When I start the campaign i'm planning right now I will most likely reduce the per session xp I give out. I had been giving 10xp for a 2 to 3 hour session. Problem with that is we don't always get a lot done. What I think I will do now is give 5xp for sessions where a good amount or significant events took place in.

I will off set the lower per session xp by upping the amount I give for completing objectives. Overall I will be adjusting how I do xp over the course of the campaign until I find a good balance. I have been discussing this with my players so this won't be a surprise for them.

Hmm. 5 seems like a punishingly small amount.

I'd only do that if the players literally accomplished almost nothing. IE: Basically sat around for a few hours and talked about a bunch of off topic things. Not if they were actually playing, but instead of following the mission decided to get involved in a high stakes poker game which turned into a good ol'fashioned bar fight, which turned into a high speed chase with the local gang of criminals.

The latter is still roleplaying, and its actually probably more exciting than the mission you had planned anyway, and thus deserves the full XP. And maybe some extra just for being funny.

As long as your players are actually roleplaying, give them the XP they deserve. Only handing out XP for doing what you the GM want them to do basically amounts to railroading.

Whatever feels right for your group is a good starting point. I like to award 20 XP per session, regardless of length (within reason—they're never less than 2 hours, never more than 4). Bonus 5 XP for a milestone that isn't really covered by Obligation or Duty, bonus 5 XP for the player who recaps the previous session.

I give out about 5 XP per actual hour of game playing time. We play in person at my house every other Saturday. Everyone arrives around noon, we usually start around 1230-1300 and go until about 2100-2200. Once we went to 0100!! We also have diner in there as well. All of my players use a "character voice" which I award 5 XP per session for. I also award 5 XP for anyone that does an adventure journal on my obsidian portal page. I also hand out some extra XP along the way great one liners, or great ideas.

So with out the journal XP, I usually award the guys around 35-40XP per adventure. We usually get in about 7-8 hours of really good game time in. So it looks like I am coming in a little under the 5 XP per hour thing on average. I would not hand out 25 XP for only gaming for two to three hours. That would be 10-15XP in my opinion, but whatever works for your table.

I also award 5 XP for anyone that does an adventure journal...

That's a really good idea!