When Is A Good Time To Hand Out Experience Points?

Use experience points to motivate
Many games use experience points, and if you game master such a game, you might wonder when the best time is to handout XP – before, during, or after? I’ve done all three, and there are pros and cons to each approach. Here are a few tips.
Character wants
Characters live for experience points. They want to improve and increase their odds of surviving, beat their opponents, win their struggles, and get the loot. Characters also want to learn, as everyone does, what works and what doesn’t. They need feedback. A delay in feedback, as in real life, creates a disconnect between the action, its results, and the reward. This slows learning down.
My current system of XP is to hand it out after each battle, skill check, trap, or puzzle during the game. I try to squeeze these in immediately, while the numbers are still flying around, before another encounter starts. This method doesn’t impair roleplaying or immersion, and gives characters short term feedback.
I’ve also noticed handing XP out after encounters tends to get the energy and excitement flowing again if an encounter was tense, stressful, or fatiguing.
For roleplaying encounters and story-based XP, I hand these out during sessions too, but I wait for the correct moment. A good roleplaying scene gets damaged if you throw XP numbers out there. It forces players to break character as they confirm, “Was that 100 XP Johnn just said?” or chatter about how close they are to leveling up.
This means one or more encounters could play through before a natural, numbers-friendly time occurs where I can toss out roleplaying or story experience point rewards.
As far as the PCs are concerned, life experience gained through interaction and experiencing things is more subtle than swinging a sword and knowing instantly if you should duck in return.
Player wants
Among their many motivations, all players want reward. Even if they don’t want their character to advance quickly in experience (I’ve always liked to stay in the low to mid levels without advancing fast – gotta live in your character’s shoes for awhile before hitting the Big Time) they are always pleased with reward, which sometimes will be experience.
The players I’ve met prefer to level up their characters between sessions. This gives them time to think about their options. It also lets them show up to the game with character already modified and set to go.
So, I advise against giving experience points out just before sessions. I’ve done this, but it’s not optimal. Recently, I got behind on game admin, and gave out XP at session start, and a couple PCs leveled up. The players were gracious about it, but it made them rush to make character updates.
Game master wants
What do I want as GM? I want as little math as possible. Math isn’t bad, and XP math is simple, but it’s one more To Do and another potential point of error.
I also want to be organised. I don’t want to backtrack through monster entries or encounter write-ups to remember all the factors that went into an experience award calculation.
I also want my players to have fun and to feel rewarded. I want to give them feedback about intangible aspects of the game, and I sometimes use experience points to indicate whether something was handled optimally, just ok, or poorly.
After years of handing out XP at different times, including before, during, and after, I’ve found it easiest to hand XP out during sessions. Best case, as mentioned, is right after an encounter if it’s not intrusive.
I’ve also found that group-based experience points is easiest. I used to give out XP bonuses or calculate XP based on actions-per-PC and given each character an individual XP award. This took time, was trickier to organize, and sometimes hurt player feelings.
Nowadays, everybody gets equal XP. If an individual generated XP by his actions, I add the XP to the pool and divide it equally amongst the party.
This method makes calculations easier. It also makes record-keeping easier as everybody will have the same XP awards. Players often help balance each other’s XP accounting because of this, so that’s one less admin task for me.
It also increases teamwork. People are emotional – especially in a gaming environment where there might often be serious stakes. Some players might take an XP award, exclusion, or omission the wrong way and get upset. Equally distributed XP prevents ruffled feathers, and if your group doesn’t mind this method, I highly recommend it.
The problem of mid-session experience points = mid-session level up
If you hand out experience points during sessions, then you’re going to have PCs who level up during sessions. We already discussed how many players prefer to take their PCs home and ponder their options before committing to levelling the PCs. So, there’s a potential issue here.
My answer is to keep a current gauge on how close characters are to their next level, and to use delays when the PCs are close to going up a level.
Do this with quick notes made at the end of each session. Get experience totals from the PCs. Then note the XP characters need to make the next level (calculating the difference ahead of time gives you a faster measure during games).
If the PCs are close, here are my tactics:
- At end of sessions: warn players their characters will likely level up next session and to prepare their choices ahead of time. When the characters level up mid-session, the players will already know what to update.
- Between sessions: send out XP reminders when you send out your game confirmation notices, session logs, or general chatter.
- In-game: delay XP awards for one or more encounters if you know a break is coming up. Then you can break, hand out XP, and the players can level up while the game is paused.
- In-game: if the session end is near, I’ll also delay XP awards by an encounter or two so the game ends with a level-up.
Between session periods also allow players to make changes to their PCs’ powers and abilities. It’s a house rule we’ve had for years and my players love it.
The spirit of the rule is to allow players to change things they are unhappy with about their PCs. The restriction is to not cause continuity or consistency issues with the story told so far. My group doesn’t abuse this, and most changes are based on players’ concepts for their characters and not power-gaming. Your mileage will vary.
The great thing about this rule is hasty decisions made during mid-session level ups can be corrected after the game. This reduces the stress of making such character choices during games, and speeds up the mid-session levelling process a lot.
Tracking experience points during sessions
If you hand out XP during games you need to track awards carefully. Players will usually pay attention and track things well, but there’s always a time when the group needs to do a quick audit to confirm what XP has been handed out.
I track experience point awards by making bullet point notes in my session logs. I’ll note the XP awarded and the reason. All PCs get the same award, so I only record the per-PC amount, not a total for the group.
This is fast and simple, and record keeping takes almost zero time for me. Here’s a copy and paste of a snippet of last session’s log notes:
Guards - 114 XP
Fire ball trap - 20 XP
Archers - 75 XP
Villagers - 100 XP
Good tactics - 100 XP
Fomorian - 210 XP
The Tactics award near the bottom was given because the group displayed great teamwork in that encounter, and I wanted to recognize them for that.
Summary
My advice is to try handing out XP during sessions as the group earns them, when it isn’t distracting. Keep good roleplaying or storytelling going and wait for a numbers moment to catch up on experience awards. This keeps maintenance and admin to the minimum, and gives players recognition more frequently during games. They were going to get the XP anyway, but multiple awards keeps spirits up and energy levels higher.
When do you hand out experience points for your games?
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May 1st, 2009 at 7:57 am
My practice is similar to yours — I hand out XP immediately after most encounters, or whenever there is a natural “break” in the game-play during role-playing encounters.
I think I have a simpler solution to “mid-session level up.” I give out the XP on the regular schedule, but players can only level up between sessions. Someone who dings 10 minutes into the session continues to accumulate XP with the rest of the group, but doesn’t actually level up (or gain any of the associated benefits) until the end of the session. This way I don’t need to track “delayed” XP or worry about paying attention to how close people are to leveling up.
May 1st, 2009 at 9:24 am
There’s a lot of meat in this topic, and in this post. Some of it I’ll be addressing in a future blog post of my own on something called “Shadow Levels”, so I won’t talk about them at this point; instead I’ll stay on topic.
I normally hand out XP immediatly after the encounter concludes; with combat, that’s easily determined, with roleplay encounters (which I will assign a CR just as I would a trap or a creature), it can sometimes be trickier. My players know this and expect it. However (unlike the majority I think) my campaigns are played at a venue (currently a games store, but it hasn’t always been that way) that has a strict closing time; sometimes there simply hasn’t been time, it’s been a mad scramble to pack up because the encounter took longer to resolve than had been budgeted for. (Memo to self: add a post on time management during play to my list of things-to-do).
However, on the odd occasion, I have used XP to induce fear and paranoia amongst my players when that was appropriate – just withhold the XP and when they ask how much they earned, or why not, tell them “You’ll find out… eventually,” or “Because it’s not over yet…”
This gets them engaged in a mad review of the action, trying to figure out what they’ve overlooked!
Another option which you’ve only barely touched on is to withhold XP until the PCs are in a position to level up. That might be at the end of a session, or two sessions from now, or whatever. This is essential when you enforce roleplaying of characters gaining levels in some fashion, and especially when characters take prestige classes for the first time.
There is also more to be said on the subject of how many XP to award. Your post makes the point that putting XP earned into a pool and letting the players divide that pool up evenly between them eliminates hard feelings from characters not feeling their efforts have been recognised, which is true enough; but it can (and has in my group, in the past) cause hard feelings when the PLAYERS feel one of their number isn’t putting as much effort in as the rest. They will put up with this if it’s only occasional (everyone has a bad day every now and then), but if it becomes too regular, it can rip entire campaigns apart and cause lasting ill-feelings between former friends.
I’m also of the school of thought that holds that more junior party members learn more quickly than more senior ones, simply because they pick up lessons from the older members, so the XP calculation system that I use is inherantly an individualised one. Finally, because the Players drive the scenarios, making the decisions for the party most of the time, I award half XP to NPC party members (including any PCs whose players aren’t in attendance). (I also award 1/4 XP to sentient magic items and semi-sentient animals like paladin’s mounts and wizardly familiars, letting them become tougher over time – extra HD – and earn additional feats). A future blog post (already drafted) will give full details of the XP award system I use; it won’t be for everyone, but some might find it useful, or at least thought-provoking.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:07 am
I award XP at the end of a session, for two reasons, both of which you’ve addressed. Leveling up during a session doesn’t even become a concern if the PCs don’t hit the threshold until afterward. I also prefer to keep the flow of a game’s storyline moving, and stopping to hand out XP awards is a disruption.
Bookkeeping for this method can be kept to a minimum by noting the total XP value of the encounter ahead of time and simply checking off what encounters the party completed for that session.
I’m also a proponent of individual XP bonuses for good roleplaying. Nothing large, I’ve typically awarded a flat 25 or 50xp, depending on the system. It’s a great carrot for promoting the tone and flavor you want for the game.
Kameron’s last blog post..Designing My d00M
May 1st, 2009 at 11:55 am
Great post with lots of useful information. My group has moved away from direct xp. Instead we are going with a 10 encounter rule of thumb. After any 10 encounters (combat or skill challenge) the characters will level. However, there is no mid-session levelling unless we’ve been advised otherwise. Often when we would level mid session the DM will advise the players of this and we’ll prepare the character and switch to the levelled character sheet at the appropriate time.
So far the group has adjusted to this very well. We know that roughly every 3 or 4 weeks we will level based on the average amount of encounters we complete each session. Most importantly the system works for us.
Wimwick’s last blog post..Month in Review: April 2009
May 1st, 2009 at 5:26 pm
@Will – “I think I have a simpler solution to “mid-session level up.” I give out the XP on the regular schedule, but players can only level up between sessions.”
We tried that, but I have impatient players. :) Also, as a player sometimes myself, I know how much of a drag it is to have to wait until next session to use a new ability. If it works for your group though, that’s a great solution.
In the old days, back when cars had square wheels and metal lunch boxes also contained crayon-filled dice, leveling up required training to the tune of several weeks at higher levels. It’s ironic, but back then we often kept playing without updating characters who just leveled because it was a drag stopping an adventure for weeks.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:33 pm
@Mike – I know the feeling of getting kicked out at X o’clock no matter what. We used to play with curfews and at clubs where faciliites shut off the lights then sent in the security guard. :)
Nice trick withholding XP and telling players it’s not over yet. I’m going to try that one out.
Please don’t tell my players your NPCs get half XP. In my campaigns NPCs get full share.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
@Wimwick – that sounds like a great system. Congrats.
May 1st, 2009 at 7:07 pm
@Kameron – good call on rewarding for good roleplaying. We use pocket points (+1 to your roll when you cash one in). I used to use XP to reward, but with pocket points players get to reward each other, giving peer to peer kudos, instead of just GM kudos.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Use experience tokens that can be handled out silently without disrupting play. When someone is playing brilliantly, silently give them a token (but make sure it is noticed).
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Nice tip Tommi. Thanks.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:07 am
One word of warning, Johnn: When you use the “not finished yet” trick, you need to have some reason in your own mind as to why the encounter isn’t over yet. The PCs never have to know what that reason is, but you need to know. Options to consider are a sentient & malevolent scabbard (inciting the encounter with some form of enchantment), another enemy scrying the party with a crystal ball and directing reinforcements against the party, an invisible stalker amongst the enemy creatures, and someone watching the combat unfold from a hidden position – information which can subsequently be used against the party in a later encounter.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
@Mike – love the malevolent scabbard trick. Heh.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
In my 4e campaign we’ve decided to go for faster advancement. For the next little while, instead of giving out XP at all, I’m going to be giving out levels as “treasure” when the PCs reach significant
milestonescheckpoints in the overall campaign arc. For example, the PCs have recently learned that they need to find six scattered fragments of an ancient artifact and reassemble it. That’s seven checkpoints, and they’ll receive a level bump each time they complete one of those checkpoints. This will advance the PCs a bit faster than the standard ten-encounters-per-level progression in 4e, but this will allow us to move through the story arc a bit faster, so that the players can experiment with new powers, and I can experiment with new monsters. Everybody at the table seems happy with it.August 10th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Myself, I like to hand out XP immediately. Otherwise, it’s too much work for me, as the GM, to sit back after the game and remember who did what and for how much. When a player approaches level, I ask them to write up a “levelled up” version of their character, and bring it to the gaming table. When the character actually does level, the player simply whips out the new sheet (which as GM I have already reviewed) updates it to show new XP, hit points lost and spells/charges expended, and hands the old sheet over to the GM (who files it).
This minimizes disruption in play, and keeps the players happy.
And yes, players get their new hit points and spells immediately. It is “assumed” that they have been studying between adventures.
As a GM, I keep pretty close track of what encounters are available and how much experience I will be handing out.
This allows me to plan later encounters in a single adventure on the assumption that players will have leveled, and will have certain spells and abilities available to them. Further, as the players prepare their “leveled up” version in advance, I generally know what new feats, spells, or class abilities they will be taking – and I can work that into the game.
Nothing is more fun than a player who says “whew! I am so glad I trained xxxxxxx for my character! We would have been toast if I hadn’t!” The player feels good about himself/herself, the other players are happy with the levelled player, and the GM just keeps his mouth shut and DOESN’T say “I only put that in BECAUSE I knew you were taking xxxxxx.”
August 10th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
@ Pachristian: I have used a similar technique in the past. I found that there were distinct problems with the feeling of reality in the campaign when a player could simply announce that they had been studying “x” throughout the previous sessions. The final straw came when a player told me what it was that they were working on for next level, and I deliberately placed a situation into the game to give them a chance to ‘practice’ – and the player used everything BUT what they were supposed to be studying to try and solve the problem.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
@pachristian: I love the idea of players doing a new sheet for each level. Great for auditing and building up a stockpile of NPCs. Neat.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
That’s funny, Mike.
I remember playing a module (Treasure Hunt? I think it was part of the N series of AD&D) where we all washed ashore as 0 level PCs. We stated what our intended classes were going to be at 1st level and then started the adventure.
Well, we earned 1st level, but the GM had been tracking our actions and how they matched to PC classes. Turns out my priest was more of a rogue. The other players became either rogues or fighters too. Heh.
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