I ran the first act of my first real game last weekend - we're only a third of the way through the entire adventure - and someone in the group pointed out the text in the Handing Out Experience section (around page 301) that said the GM gives out the experience every session with a bonus at the end of the actual game.

And I'm thinking how very odd - I've been gaming for years, and this is the first time I've ever seen where the players get paid in the middle of a story arc. At the very least, handing out 10-ish experience points a week, doesn't it dramatically shorten the campaign's shelf life?

How does everyone else do it? Or am I the odd man out here?

***edit***

And no - the title name didnt have a bad swear word in it. Who knew that the board's software would filter the other term for "odd".

I do it per session, but it doesn't have to be done that way. Whatever makes sense for you and your group.

Well, that depends upon your group's personal tastes, but most RPGs award XP at the end of every session. A few, such as Aberrant, suggest doing so at the end of every adventure but then go and say that they expect a single session adventure. I find that rarely has enough time to provide a fun story arc.

I would suggest that you give XP based upon the developer's suggestion on the Order 66 podcast (ep14/15). 5 XP for every hour of dedicated gaming, his group is 25% chatter and 75% game. So for his standard 4 hour session he would award 15 XP plus any bonuses.

I personnaly do this at the end of every adventure.

If the adventure took several session they will have a small compensation bonus. But that's it.

I hand out every session, as I want to reward players with "good rp" xp in the session that elicited the reward. When I have skipped sessions in favour of adventures, I find it difficult to recall exactly what each player did to deserve their individual reward.

But bottom line: to each their own. 10xp per session sounds about right, if the session is chock full of encounters. 15xp if its the end of the adventure arc. And then, if they arb around and do nothing... why 0xp is a great motivator.

I've been dm'ing and playing for almost 15 years now and most of the time we've done (in 3rd and 4th edition dnd and various d20 spin offs) xp per combat. Obviously that wouldn't work so well in this game as then people would be wanting to spend xp in the middle of the session all the time (although we often leveld up mid session in dnd games we've played). It really just depends on how you allot time. I've never been in a group that does leveling between sessions thats always an at the table kind of thing.

In the case of D&D in pretty much every edition, XP is handed out during each session, or at the end of a session. However, because they work on a level system, the XP accumulates until such time as they level up and therefore can benefit from it.

In EotE, XP can be spent immediately upon earning it, improving their characters in slow increments every session. I suppose it what makes the difference. Players have the choice to spend it or bank it as they see fit... It is different, but not really all that odd.

I do it per session. Straight up 10 xp per session. Bonuses paid for interesting solutions. I don't do any extra at the end as they will already have 10 coming for that session.

I've always handed out XP/Character points after each session. I'm not fond of the "so and so much for every session"-model, though. I have goals that need to be accomplished during the adventure, and each goal is worth a predetermined amount of XP. At the end of each session my players get rewarded for the goals they accomplished, if any, plus any for good roleplaying and the like. But they have to wait until the adventure is over before increasing skills and the like.

I know some games award XP per adventure, which can be 1 session, or as many as 3 or 4 (depending on length of sessions and adventure of course), possibly even longer. I always had a problem with that, because it (like the whole notion of levels really) doesn't really give the impression of gradual change, growing and such in a good way.

I've been generous so far in our campaign, but I'm going to get more stingy in time. I do - sometimes - hand out bonuses, but coming from an egalitarian culture and nation, its bad form to give one person a boost and not another (I know, I know, its crazy speak!), so I hand out bonuses based on the whole groups performance, if they played well in-character, followed motivation, did good stuff, performed well... and then that boosts them, on the other hand I remind myself (quietly) if someone performed poorly and against what they can and usually do. This will subtract slightly. Per session I usually hand out 15, I've once given almost 25 xp due to length of session, performance and everything included. It was such a joy that I felt it necessary to award them handsomely

Thus far my 3 games have netted the party 15, 20, and 10 xp at the end of the night respectively. I find that 15 is the happy medium for us. and reward at the end of every night.

I figure all said and done, I am aiming for about a year with these characters, and assuming we meet every weekend and a 15 xp average, they will accumulate around 780 xp. Depending on their habbits, that is enough to flesh out 2 specializations and leaves some for skill increases as well.

Ultimately, character advancement is allowed at the sole discretion of the GM, and how much / how often is up to the expectations of the group.

I know some games award XP per adventure, which can be 1 session, or as many as 3 or 4 (depending on length of sessions and adventure of course), possibly even longer. I always had a problem with that, because it (like the whole notion of levels really) doesn't really give the impression of gradual change, growing and such in a good way.

I've been generous so far in our campaign, but I'm going to get more stingy in time. I do - sometimes - hand out bonuses, but coming from an egalitarian culture and nation, its bad form to give one person a boost and not another (I know, I know, its crazy speak!), so I hand out bonuses based on the whole groups performance, if they played well in-character, followed motivation, did good stuff, performed well... and then that boosts them, on the other hand I remind myself (quietly) if someone performed poorly and against what they can and usually do. This will subtract slightly. Per session I usually hand out 15, I've once given almost 25 xp due to length of session, performance and everything included. It was such a joy that I felt it necessary to award them handsomely

Being from the same egalitarian nation as you, I agree with you on group rewards - that's how I normally do things. But I thought that in EotE I'd be a little more selective in handing out bonus XP. Not huge amounts, but 1 or 2 extra for someone who comes up with a good plan or does something awesome in a combat scene, and the like.

I've always given out XP on a per session basis, so this seems perfectly normal to me.

Hell, I also let my PCs buy stuff with XP during a session. If they succeed or fail on a check and describe something with enough narrative flair (and get some success or advantages that would let me consider it) I let people, if they want to of course, spend their EXP to increase their skills or buy relevant talents mid game.

For example, if someone was fixing a speeder bike, and they failed, but rolled a bunch of advantage and triumph, and wanted to increase their Mechanics skill and had the EXP for it, I would let them do that as a part of their Triumph or Advantages, since their failure taught them some important stuff about how you have to approach such a situation.

I do it at the end of every session, however sometimes we run long and forget at the end. Plus, we like to tip back some adult beverages on occasion.... I give the players the opportunity to spend XP at the beginning of the session while we're all sitting and chatting, before the opening crawl - IF it's a skill that makes sense to increase.

My group plays around 5 to 6 hrs per session, so 20xp is my standard award, with +5 for role playing motivations, clever ideas that save lives or Mile-stones within the campaign. There are plenty of things to do with the points, since mostly everything can be modified: Attributes, skills, talents, specialization trees, plus these days campaigns hardly pass the 6 month barrier due to the extent of games that are out there. This will allow the players to actually feel their characters growing, which is one of the biggest payoff's of playing an Rpg.

That said I'm crossing my fingers that we are still enjoying Star Wars past the six month barrier, and with the Age of Rebellion hopefully coming out around that time, Star Wars might just be the game that makes it all year round.

Run it both ways. It depends on the game and how XP is handled.

...also:

We're here! We're *****! Get used to it!

oohhhhhhhhhh...... I thought you meant "wierd" was what got blocked.

No it makes perfect sense for that particular piece of language to be blocked, given the derogatory use ascribed to it a few decades back.

I've been playing RPGs for 30 years, and in almost every game I've ever played we've done experience points at the end of every session. Your mileage may vary.

This is my guideline:

Gamemastering:

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.

· 5-10 XP per session

· +10 completing a major story arc/adventure

· +5 XP accomplishing key milestones

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

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

We are going to play weekly and I would like to roll these characters into AoR and F&D, so I am concerned about the pace of leveling...

I've been playing RPGs for 30 years, and in almost every game I've ever played we've done experience points at the end of every session. Your mileage may vary.

I've only been doing it for 10 years, but I'm in the same boat, 99.9% of them awarded XP at the end of each session.

I'm not sure which games might be being referred to when the XP is only given out at the end of an adventure

I give out XP at the end of each session, with the RAW but, i also award any player a 2 XP bonus per triumph he/she might of rolled during that session.

I've been playing RPGs for 30 years, and in almost every game I've ever played we've done experience points at the end of every session. Your mileage may vary.

I've only been doing it for 10 years, but I'm in the same boat, 99.9% of them awarded XP at the end of each session.

I'm not sure which games might be being referred to when the XP is only given out at the end of an adventure

Lets see - off the top of my head: Star Wars (both D6 and D20), Ghostbusters (both editions), Paranoia, Hero, Toon, the old FASA Dr Who game, Gurps and probably a couple more I've forgotten about over the years. In all that time, I've never seen it advised to pay the characters in the middle of a story.

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Just for fun, I grabbed that old red box AD&D that's been on my shelf since 1981 - you know, the one where you had to fill the dice in with a crayon to be able to read the numbers - and even there, it says in the section "ending the adventure" that you hand out the XP after the game (well, the wording is a little vague since an adventure meant "Go kill as much stuff as you can until the DM gets bored" and not a linear series of events that culminates in a climax to a story).

Remember also that super powerful people in Star Wars (Jedi Masters and Sith Lords, for example, with Force Ratings of 6) would need to (provided there's no other way to increase Force Rating besides buying tier 5 talents in a bunch of specializations) would have to spend about 200 Exp on Specializations (provided there were a bunch that you could get, say, in F&D, that had Force Rating boosts) and then spend a minimum of 75 (though more likely close to 100) EXP on each specialization to reach that bottom rung Force Rating. That means that someone like Obi-Wan Kenobi has 700 EXP spent JUST to get a Jedi Master level Force Rating. Then, they have their actual Force Powers, Skills, and other talents to worry about. You can dump EXP on your players and never worry about them running out of things to buy, even if they aren't Force Sensitive. There's always another spec...

I try to average 5 XP for every 2 hours spent gaming. I then award bonus (usually 5xp) for good RP and playing to your motivation. This is all awarded at the end of every session. I'll also provide additional XP for completing a story arc (when we do...eventually).