Every once in a while I realize that I read something in the books quickly the first time I read the book and rolled a Despair with my reading comprehension. My mea culpa here pertains to XP awards, which I had previously understood to basically just be a participation award for time served in a campaign.

But the book slapped me up the head on this one.

Pg. 301 of the EotE book actually describes the base 10-20 XP per session as being made up of what seem to be 5 XP increments that are defined as being some significant action or event the character experiences in the session. Furthermore it says that you should tell the players what they actually earned XP for by describing it to them. I find this to be a good thing.

Ok Bob so you evaded that group of swoop gangers so that was 5 XP and you sold that Hyperdrive part to the reluctant Fence so you get another 5 XP for that.

In games I have watched and played in I never had my XP broken down like this at the end of a session. I was wondering what your XP awards look like in your games and if your GM, or if you as the GM, actually break down the increments?

No.

I don't follow any written rules when awarding xp, and I don't justify the amount given. I usually give 15-20 per session, a bit more if they have done a lot of things, or if I want them to be ready for what comes next.

Our GM does base xp plus extra for cool stuff done by individual characters.

I usually write my own modules and I assign xp values to particular things. Often is a discretional xp range.

At the end of the session, or the episode usually - maybe multiple sessions - I tot up the XP and award it to the players as a group, detailing where it all came from. I enjoy it, and my players seem to like it. I think it makes their actions feel like they had meaning.

Helps that I am writing the modules myself so I can set xp as per my understanding of the group and pace modules accordingly.

I do it for table play and pbp. Hopefully it's fun for my players!

1 hour ago, BadMotivator said:

Our GM does base xp plus extra for cool stuff done by individual characters.

That's how I do it normally!

I usually give out a basic 10-15 XP for the "main quest" and bonus 5-10 for unexpected, or hard earned "side quests".

I usually prefer sandbox style gaming, so they have to work for those bonus XP

For me it is usually based on what they have done in the session. Typically they do 10XP worth of things during session time.

I've gone as low as 5xp for shopping sessions (yes we have spent 4 hours roleplaying shopping, but it was good and I created some of my best NPCs at the drop of the hat for it).

I've had dense combat sessions were it's been 4 or 5 fights so have gone up to 20xp.

I only explain xp when it is given to individuals.

I beleive that is in the books the same way the "how to roleplay" or "how to gm" sections are in it. If you have been doing either for any length of time you should feel free to explain or not explain your XP distribution.

I do this sometimes and especially call out bonus XP for good RP or an unusually creative actions to resolve an issue.

I do break it down. I tend to give 5 XP per scene, a bonus if they complete a story arc or adventure. I don't roleplay out mundane shopping trips and the like and instead abstract those down to Negotiation or Streetwise checks versus rarity (as per the CRB). But, yeah, a social scene counts just as much as a chase or a fight in my games.

In general I'm just awarding 15-25 Exp as a base depending on how well the group worked to advance the mission objectives.

There is one exception to my rule. Since we're running a game with FnD elements, if a character spends down time learning a new force element with the trainer (no spoilers here ) then I have them add Exp to match what they would have "spent" acquiring the new power.

But I'm doing it this way to incentivize the players to pursue Force powers.

It is nice to see that we do have a healthy number of people still playing the FFG Star Wars RPG.

My feeling is that the breakdown is better used for session planning. Actual outcomes will vary because you can't really be sure what the PCs will end up doing, but if you're looking ahead to a session (or set of sessions) you can use it as a measuring stick for whether you have enough for the players to do generally and enough potential front-stage moments for each character specifically.

It's not really all that difficult, as (a least from my certain point of view) it's just saying to explain how the XP award system works and relate it to the activity the players performed. Essentially another "plot this way" sign of sorts.

I mean

"You get 15 XP for playtime and another 5 for completing this leg of the Adventure"

can just as easily be worded as

"You all get 5XP for the protesting of the blockade, escape from the ship, and meet-up in Oota Gunga. You get another 5 XP for liberating the Queen's entourage and pilots in addition to the Queen herself, and another 5XP for escaping Naboo. You also all get another 5XP for completion of Act 1."

Both are essentially just saying "Here's XP for adventuring instead of sitting at home trying to craft the perfect suit of armor for 5 weeks."

I dont give them any XP until they have finished a "mission" where I give them 15-40 XP depending on the mission (15 for a milk run, 40 for hijacking that gladiator class star destroyer and sending it hurtling toward that massive Tie fighter industrial complex) with a free talent or rank increase as well.

21 hours ago, AbsatSolo said:

I don't follow any written rules when awarding xp, and I don't justify the amount given. I usually give 15-20 per session, a bit more if they have done a lot of things, or if I want them to be ready for what comes next.

Any insight as to how you arrive at the award you come up with?

21 hours ago, BadMotivator said:

Our GM does base xp plus extra for cool stuff done by individual characters.

Any idea how the base XP is calculated?

20 hours ago, SanguineAngel said:

I usually write my own modules and I assign xp values to particular things. Often is a discretional xp range.

At the end of the session, or the episode usually - maybe multiple sessions - I tot up the XP and award it to the players as a group, detailing where it all came from. I enjoy it, and my players seem to like it. I think it makes their actions feel like they had meaning.

Helps that I am writing the modules myself so I can set xp as per my understanding of the group and pace modules accordingly.

I do it for table play and pbp. Hopefully it's fun for my players!

Seems to me like this is aligned with RAW.

15 hours ago, Rimsen said:

I usually give out a basic 10-15 XP for the "main quest" and bonus 5-10 for unexpected, or hard earned "side quests".

I usually prefer sandbox style gaming, so they have to work for those bonus XP

Thanks Rimsen Could you maybe tell me how you arrive at the difference between 10-15? Is there any system to that?

7 hours ago, Varlie said:

I beleive that is in the books the same way the "how to roleplay" or "how to gm" sections are in it. If you have been doing either for any length of time you should feel free to explain or not explain your XP distribution.

I do this sometimes and especially call out bonus XP for good RP or an unusually creative actions to resolve an issue.

I think that it is not in a chart or anything so you are right and would be more counted as something in the spirit of the rules. But my point is that if you are not itemizing XP them how are you determining it?

4 hours ago, Garran said:

My feeling is that the breakdown is better used for session planning. Actual outcomes will vary because you can't really be sure what the PCs will end up doing, but if you're looking ahead to a session (or set of sessions) you can use it as a measuring stick for whether you have enough for the players to do generally and enough potential front-stage moments for each character specifically.

I would agree that if you are doing deterministic play like that then knowing what things are worth is a good idea. Working in the other direction, it seems like you could also say encounters are worth a base of 5 and so are Social Encounters or story milestones, etc. This way it's knid of known that XP is actually attached to something other than GM mood and largesse.

3 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

I think that it is not in a chart or anything so you are right and would be more counted as something in the spirit of the rules. But my point is that if you are not itemizing XP them how are you determining it?

Just experience really (no pun intended). I know I give 10-15 XP per session. Sometimes they get much less done that I had planned and it drops to 5 unless there was a lot of role-play involved and it stays at 10. Sometimes they get more done that I had thought or came up with a very creative solution (whether it worked or not) and I give bonus.

I've given as little as 5 out for a particularly slow game where we were distracted with non-game stuff and as much as 25 for one where everything just flowed.

3 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

It's not really all that difficult, as (a least from my certain point of view) it's just saying to explain how the XP award system works and relate it to the activity the players performed. Essentially another "plot this way" sign of sorts.

I mean

"You get 15 XP for playtime and another 5 for completing this leg of the Adventure"

can just as easily be worded as

"You all get 5XP for the protesting of the blockade, escape from the ship, and meet-up in Oota Gunga. You get another 5 XP for liberating the Queen's entourage and pilots in addition to the Queen herself, and another 5XP for escaping Naboo. You also all get another 5XP for completion of Act 1."

Both are essentially just saying "Here's XP for adventuring instead of sitting at home trying to craft the perfect suit of armor for 5 weeks."

Thanks Ghost. I think that having a breakdown of XP is actually kind of extraordinary for this system and its writers so part of this was just me being intrigued with this and how it might be received. But I also now embrace the XP and progression system of this game (where for like the last 6 months or so I had completely chucked it) because it's a bit more palatable to me if it's actually derivative of specific things instead of just the GM-Generosity-Participation award. Which based on what I have seen gets awarded to players staying home and making armor or otherwise not really doing anything. I think that XP for everyone thing comes from the idea that it's just something the GM gives out as a prize at the end of the session, so if it's not equal or not given out to absent people the only explanation is that the GM is bein a jerk or mean. But if XP is actually tied to stuff in the game then that is the general basis for its award.

5 minutes ago, Varlie said:

Just experience really (no pun intended). I know I give 10-15 XP per session. Sometimes they get much less done that I had planned and it drops to 5 unless there was a lot of role-play involved and it stays at 10. Sometimes they get more done that I had thought or came up with a very creative solution (whether it worked or not) and I give bonus.

I've given as little as 5 out for a particularly slow game where we were distracted with non-game stuff and as much as 25 for one where everything just flowed.

Thank you Varlie that is helpful to me.

2 hours ago, Archlyte said:

Thanks Rimsen Could you maybe tell me how you arrive at the difference between 10-15? Is there any system to that?

I gave them 10 xp for the main quest when we started, and +5 for the additional achievments they have worked for.

After they reached 100 - 150 earned xp (difference made by the frequency of participation) I felt I need an increase so that they can buy higher costed talents and skills with 1 session XP. I wanted to keep the feeling of progress for them, so I raised it to 15 base + 10 for additional.

It worked so far

6 minutes ago, Rimsen said:

I gave them 10 xp for the main quest when we started, and +5 for the additional achievments they have worked for.

After they reached 100 - 150 earned xp (difference made by the frequency of participation) I felt I need an increase so that they can buy higher costed talents and skills with 1 session XP. I wanted to keep the feeling of progress for them, so I raised it to 15 base + 10 for additional.

It worked so far

Makes sense. If you are looking to keep a constant rate of progression you would have to increase it.