Hi I'm currently having a discussion with my RL group and as we have different povs there I wanted to ask here about it.

We are currently discussing. Taking fanmade and also published adventures as basic we took a look and compared to our own adventure [probably 6 sessions with 10 base xp each session in total with bonus xp (excl. rp xp) probably around 80 xp] and began to wonder there when we saw the published and fanmade adventures:

How long do other groups normally take (how many sessions) for an adventure and how much XP do you usually get / give per adventure in total?

tnx

Most sessions for me are between 3 and 5 hours long. The exp rewards vary from 15 to over 30 depending on the time spent playing, special conditions or even if it was a special event in the story. It averages to around 24 xp a session.

Of course it is about what is right for the group so if the group is happy just go with the flow. Also I would caution rushing to the end game as it becomes hard to balance when near everyone becomes a one shotting machine.

Depends on the length of the adventure, but on average we usually take 2 sessions per "episode". Sometimes 3 sessions but it all depends.

As for experience, I usually give my PC's 20xp at the end of each session with sometimes an extra 10-15xp picked up over the course of the session/adventure. So yeah, it various between 20 and 30xp.

If we haven't been playing for a few weeks and aren't in mid adventure, I tend to give them 30xp to start... to show the passage of time and possibly any 'training' they've done between adventures...followed by the usual 20xp at the end of the session.

So far everyone is happy with that arrangement.

Most sessions for me are between 3 and 5 hours long. The exp rewards vary from 15 to over 30 depending on the time special conditions or even if it was a special event in the story. It averages to around 24 xp a session.

Of course it is about what is right for the group so if the group is happy just go with the flow. Also I would caution rushing to the end game as it becomes hard to balance when near everyone becomes a one ahotting machine.

how many sessions do you usually take for 1 adventure?

I explain my process better on my blog but basically my sessions are ~5-7 hours.

I told my Players the overall Campaign focus. It is broken up into subsections I called Adventures (so far like normal people)

But my Adventures were rather larges so I further broke those into missions. Also for an overall theme of Star Wars, the Campaign has 3 acts. Each adventure also is broke up into 2 or 3 acts. So there is a build up over the adventure and over the campaign.

I am over 16 sessions into my group's first adventure and it is about 60-70% complete. I end up with 10-15 XP per session sometimes there is more if big objectives are met. Out of that Adventure they are on Mission 5 of 6 (they are actually on a side mission that took them away from the Story but they are "basically" at Mission 5).

The Missions themselves take 2-4 sessions each, or basically the same as most published book adventures. Some Missions are short and just were "escort this dude here and make sure he isn't killed" that turn into an all day event. =)

I am sure my results aren't typical but my Players seem to have fun with the story and their characters and they have progressed decently so far.

Well the way we have it setup the individual sessions are missions from a shadowy benefactor. It is a multi-gm setup where folks can drop in and out as they please. To keep it from being overly complicated we try to try have each session be an adventure in itself.

Of course we keep story lines going by having actions from one session have an effect on the next with obligations, or having the work they have done in one adventure lead up to the action in another using call-backs, shout outs, and even just direct continuations of a story line but setup in a way that you don't have to have had a part in the prior chapter of the story.

The players in our games typically have schedules where they have work, family, etc, and can only meet on weeknights. As a result our sessions tend to be about 2.5 hours long at the most.

I tend to give 20xp per session. I'd ration it out a bit more if I felt confident we were going to be playing these characters for years, but you never know when people's schedules change and your campaign goes on hiatus.

So I give plenty of XP, hoping that people get to enjoy what they can do with their characters.

Based on responses here I feel like I've been stingy with the XP.

Our group meets every two weeks (with the occasional cancellation) and play for 3-4 hours per session. With a few exceptions, I generally tend to give 5-10 XP per session with 3-5 bonus XP to a few players that performed well that night. I'm a first time GM, but I feel if I were giving 15-20 XP per session, plus bonuses, then all my players would too quickly become OP killing machines.

I understand the concern that keeping a group together long term is difficult, and perhaps we're in the minority having been playing together for a year this month (with session #18 tonight); and only having one PC (out of an initial six) quit.

The timeline in our campaign has only progressed maybe 6-8 months at most. They met their most formidable encounter last week (a fire fight with group of Trandoshan bounty hunters in the Rodian Hunting Grounds on Kashyyyk) that lasted the entire session (which resulted in a party member losing a limb!). I awarded 5XP plus bonuses. The last scripted adventure we ran was Jewel of Yavin, which lasted 5-6 sessions, and I followed the XP rewards written within (5-10XP plus bonuses per section?)

I suppose it just depends on the regularity of your group and if they are satisfied with the rate their characters are progressing..

Since I like my campaigns to last a good long time, I tend to try and lowball the XP. Give enough so that they make progress, but not enough to drown them in points.

Our games are 6-ish hours (give or take) and I'll give out 10-15 points. If it's the end of a story arc, a particularly tough or exciting game or someone's obligation came to a rip-roaring end, I'll give out an End of Story bonus, too.

The "standard" that people talk about on the forum is about 5xp/hour or 20xp for a 4hour session. Printed adventures you find on the internet are often designed to fit into a 4 hour slot so they can be run in convention slots. However, I just give 20xp regardless of the length so I don't lose track of how much xp everyone has.

A lot of it really depends on the level and what rate you want the PC's to progress. The system that FFG has employed really does not make necessary to cut down XP for to keep players from progressing to quickly or keep a game going over a longer time span. That is because you can have players who want to pick up additional specialties not just from their own career, but from other careers.

First I would look at how often you play and how long you play. If you are playing with extended time between sessions and having long sessions then having a base of 10xp even with the ability to gain bonuses can seem low. At that point I would say increase the bonuses for exceptional game play. If you are playing often with short sessions then 10xp with small bonuses would work great for many players.

The "standard" that people talk about on the forum is about 5xp/hour or 20xp for a 4hour session. Printed adventures you find on the internet are often designed to fit into a 4 hour slot so they can be run in convention slots. However, I just give 20xp regardless of the length so I don't lose track of how much xp everyone has.

This is a really good example of what to takes as a standard session setup.

Remember, as a GM you can adjust the flow of combat as you see fit. I would always keep contingency challenges both combat and non combat on the side; that also goes for options that will quickly resolve challenges that may cause things to come to a halt. That allows you to really keep the flow of the sessions and story at the pace you want.

I tend to favor the low end of the XP spectrum. In one of the Order 66 podcasts, I believe either Jay or Sam mentioned that they gave out 14 XP for a six-hour session. Since my sessions are usually about three hours, I usually give out about 5-7 XP per session, although games where more happens tends to get more of a reward. If there's a game where the PCs spend more time shopping and upgrading than doing something, I go for about 5 XP. Action and combat get 7 XP. I also include a floating XP bonus point that the players get to vote on.

Having said that, I think I'm going to start increasing it, and perhaps taking the XP award up to 10 XP per session--7 XP per night, plus 1 XP for good roleplaying, plus 2 XP for playing to their motivation or obligation/duty/morality. Then add on the floating 1 XP kicker.

Part of why I favor lower XP awards is because of the days of the West End Games D6 system. I found out after awarding the maximum amount of XP (or in WEG's case, character points) per episode, your players can get extremely powerful, especially during a long-term campaign.

Taken from my house rules doc:

I want the “leveling” pace to be slower than what is presented in the core book. Therefore I will use the following guidelines when determining XP at the end of each session.

· XP will be awarded at the beginning of each session

· 5-10 XP per session

· +10 completing a major story arc/adventure

· +5 XP creative storytelling/roleplaying/playing to a character’s motivation

· +1-5 XP for other creative ideas, in-character suggestions, or situations

I typically make the base 5xp, so awards range from 5-15 based on performance. For particularly exciting or fun sessions I'll make the base 10. So far it has been pretty good, we're sitting around 125xp so far.

Jay little suggests 5 XP of acactual gaming. Ie not side conversations.

I run my games about bi-weekly and we typically start around 1300, and can usually end end the adventure around 2100. So for my group, I'm lucky that we can devote a full day to the experience, which I know is odd for many. Also, most of my players drive about an hour just to get to my house. So in the roughly 8 hours we spend together, about an hour is taken out for diner, and about another hour or two for side/off topic conversation, bathroom, snacks, drinks...so I would say that we can "game" for about 6 hours. I give out 5 XP if the player uses a "character voice". That is if they use a unique voice, accent, or way of talking to easily tell what is said "in character" and what is said at the table by the player. Everyone in my group does this. I then award around 4 XP per hour of gaming. So my players can typically get about 30 XP per one of my adventures. I did this for Beyond the Rim as well. (Which worked very close to the module guidelines) each Episode of BtR took about one of my game sessions. I also award 5 XP if the players do a "Character Journal" where they relate the last adventure from their character's point of view. I also award 5 XP to anyone that will do an "Adventure Journal" which is a recap of the whole adventure from a third person point of view. I have one player who does both regularly, and one player who does a CJ from time to time, and others who don't do it at all. So the I have one player about 100 XP higher than the lowest XP character in the group.

We have been playing together regularly since the middle of August, and now have about 10 or so adventures behind us. My group is setting around 550-650 XP total, and they are not over powered super heros, or ultra death defying machines that can only take on " Vader" or stuff like that. They are getting well rounded, buying talents, Specs and skill ranks. My players will also buy a rank of a skill if I have them use it a lot in the adventure, and it is not very high to begin with.

I feel this game scales up pretty well, and many people harbor this "fear" of having players that are "too powerful!". In truth, if the game starts to break at around 600 XP, that is not a game mechanic problem, that is a human mechanic problem, and no system can rectify that. Some people will try to do ridiculous character builds just to see if they can break the game. Thank the Maker I don't have them in my group. Also I don't tend to make my adventures overly hard. I don't believe that an skill check should be more difficult just because someone does not have ranks in the skill, or that a check should inherently be made harder just because someone has more ranks in that skill.

As a little side note about my game "difficulty". I just beat Dragon Age Inquisition on Nightmare, and went back into the end game on Causual mode, and realized that I was playing MY Edge Campiagn. So yep, the difficulty level of my Edge game is on Easy mode.

Final note, I don't use house rules really and do as much by the book as I can, and my players love this! They all have the same book I do, and they know what to expect, and what the rules are, and know how the game works.