Hi Guys,

I've recently had two separate players, in separate games, mention how they'd like the experience award guidelines at the end of FFG's printed modules to be provided to the players before a session begins.

For example, if in the GM section of an adventure the experience award guidelines read;

Award the players 5 XP if they save the villagers.

Award the players 5 XP for defeating the boss or 10 XP if the players dispose the boss without killing him.

Guidelines such as these the players would prefer to know before the adventure begins, I'm guessing to help them make better decisions to maximize their XP awards, etc. Now, this could be problematic if you have a guideline such as; 'discover Joe is not a lonely janitor, but actually an undercover boss'. But in principle, what do you guys think of this idea? Could it also help a game stay on track?

Semper Fi.

No way. Those awards are based on if they are clever enough to think of certain solutions or whether or not they even need to address something.

I agree with 2Pirate51. Knowing your "Objectives" sounds very gamey. However, you can offer minor hints to some of them through clever dialog and story points. But, I recommend against being direct about it. Let the players play their characters as they are.

No way. Besides, they may side track or derail the adventure any way, and there may be other reasons to award extra XP other than those offered in the module. Tell them to stop whining and have fun.

No way. Those awards are based on if they are clever enough to think of certain solutions or whether or not they even need to address something.

Plus, you know, spoilers. "5 XP if you save the villagers, 10 XP if you take down the Main Bad Guy and 20 if you Blow up the Death Star."

"Wait - we're fighting a Death Star? Cool!"

No. Tell them to figure it out like normal players.

***EDIT***

Oooh, here's an evil idea. "I will be more than happy to tell you the experience point awards for each chapter. It will cost you 50% of said experience to find this information out."

Because this isn't a game, but a role-playing system with some mechanics to help drive the narration along. The exp guidelines are just such; guidelines. These guidelines also spoil the plot ahead,

One thing I wished they did was install an EXP cap for each section; Which usually can be 20/30 or something (I don't recall the chapter amounts personally), the amount earned can't exceed that number. Why? So players don't feel cheated on a track of perfection.

No way. Those awards are based on if they are clever enough to think of certain solutions or whether or not they even need to address something.

Plus, you know, spoilers. "5 XP if you save the villagers, 10 XP if you take down the Main Bad Guy and 20 if you Blow up the Death Star."

"Wait - we're fighting a Death Star? Cool!"

No. Tell them to figure it out like normal players.

***EDIT***

Oooh, here's an evil idea. "I will be more than happy to tell you the experience point awards for each chapter. It will cost you 50% of said experience to find this information out."

I haven't had a single module go "according to script" anyway. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The books are still great source material, and we are still having fun adventures. Besides, the guidelines are more what you call..er.. guidelines than actual rules. I'm surprised 2P51 didn't latch onto that one.

But: like Desslok, I came up with an evil idea.

5xp for evading capture

OR

15xp for breaking out of the detention block

Don't tell them before the session; tell them afterwards, when you're handing out the XP. "So, you guys saved the villagers... that's 5XP. Oh, and you managed to beat the boss, but you had to kill him, so that's only 5 XP".

Do this for a couple of sessions to let the players know the sort of things you award XP for, and they'll start being alert for those opportunities when they show up in a scenario. Just make sure you're consistent about the sort of objectives/behaviours you reward.

Personally I just give a fixed amount per session and don't get into breaking it down or using XP as some kind of behavioural beat stick. Maybe I'm lucky to have good players. I suppose if I had to deal with murder hobos or something I might change my tune.

For the most part I give an amount based on the session length (5xp per hour) but with Chronicles of the Gatekeeper I have given a bonus based on the objectives. Not the full amount suggested but 1xp per completed.

I would never, ever, ever give my players a list of bullet points that say, "Do this, get this." That doesn't feel right at all to me. As a player I would never want that. As to why your players want it, I can only imagine it's so they can "win the game by doing everything " so that the don't miss a single drop of XP.

What I do (or try to do) is drop hints, subtle or not, during the game that certain actions might have greater rewards. Like, hey, "Go find out what happened to my sister." This is a basic quest. Usually, there will be some inferences as to what to do with said sister when the party finds here. It might be to bring her home. Or make her disappear. Or a moral quandary dealing with her running away from someone not nice, but you have a duty to complete your contract. Oh no! Either way, giving the players a list that says: Locate sister: 10 xp, return sister to sibling: 10 xp, excorsice the dark side spirit possessing her: 10 xp, defeat dark side force spirit possessing the sister permanently: 15 xp, really can ruin any surprises. In addition, it enables some over preparation that, in my head, ruins some of the fun of playing through a story.

It's like when you play video-games...they usually list the main objectives and as you played through you may finish a minor hidden objective. Normally you don't know that you even finished this hidden obj. until it shows up at the end of the level rewards screen (ex: finished in a certain time, saved x number of people, collected x coins, etc.). The players don't always know what the hidden minor objectives are until they have actively completed the mission and learn about it afterwards.

Echoing a few comments from above: I give 5XP per hour of focused play*. My players know this and focus on playing an entertaining game, and staying in character as much as possible for as long as possible. It works super great for us.

*If a new player comes in, I make them start at regular character creation level, but give them double XP until they catch up.

^^^ I am *ok* with this. But I was always of the mind set that all players at the table (new and current) get/start with the same exp regardless of when they come in. Except for those that have exp for doing something special like RP or character driven. If that is the case, then I would give the new player the average exp of the group.

Our GM gives a base amount of 15exp per session. And if we get into a fight were we get our teeth kicked in does he then give us more. We typically get no reward for successfully BS our way through something. And then he wonders why everyone makes munckin gimky characters. With inept social skills.

But in principle, what do you guys think of this idea? Could it also help a game stay on track?

In principle, I don't like the idea, and I seem to stand with the majority on this one. Could it keep the game on track? Sure!

Seems like the vestiges of an RPG video gamer, so translating that to the table is definitely a shift in the mindset of the player(s). Are they there to level up, or to have fun?

I do a little narrative recap at the end of the session. I essentially lay out the major plot points and ascribe 5 or 10 xp for each depending on how much time they spent doing it. Then I have each player re-tell a thing they did that session that they particularly liked or felt they had accomplished and that character gets an additional 5 xp.

But no I would not give them a checklist ahead of time.

I left out a critical reason I don't chunk out the XP, which mostly centres around avoiding railroading and letting the players drive the narrative somewhat. It doesn't matter to me *at all* if the players achieve certain arbitrary goals or not, half the time the session gets derailed anyway and I'm improvising barely a couple of steps ahead. The players might accomplish their goals in a completely different fashion, or create new goals for themselves that derive from previous interactions. That last bit is kind of key given how the narrative dice lend themselves to this kind of thing. So it's a bit of a mystery to me why the published modules for this game have the XP chunked by goals, it feels like it goes against the whole purpose of the narrative dice.

Agreed. I dont have a script before game that I am expecting the players to follow.

In my last session I had a senator hire the group to abduct his daughter off of Coruscant. The only things I had planned out ahead of time were that the daughter was going to be at a gala (the group was told that this would be the best time for them to do the job because there would be the least imperial security) and that their ship would flag an unofficial bounty notice when it was registered entering Coruscant orbit. (They "sort of" stole their own ship)

The plan the players came up with for getting into the gala and getting the daughter out was not at all what I expected them to attempt, but It went off fairly well.

At the end I gave the players 10 xp for coming up with the plan, 5 for executing it and adapting when it went sideways, and 5 for smoking the hunters waiting at their ship.

The TwiLek Mystic/Defender really liked the part of the story where she had to pose as an irate ex girlfriend to get into someones private suite. 5 xp for her

The Human Pilot/Quartermaster was able to smoothly steal some caterers uniforms from the dry cleaners delivery truck. 5 xp for him

The Chiss Gambler/Rigger partictularly enjoyed when he cleared out every last apprentice hunter when he remotely activated the recently installed "Ground Buzzers" he had just installed on his ship. 5 xp for him.

The Togruta Ataru/Hunter thought his timely use of the Misdirect power to hide the daughter from the hunters was perfect. 5 xp for him.

So in the end everyone got 25 xp and I was able to re-cap the adventure and got everyone to feel out their character a bit more. I think it works.