how do you manage xp in your DnD campaigns? do you only give

>>51309424
Milestones, really. For the first few levels, make milestones an automatic levels, then reduce them to halves, quarters and eights of a level. Easier than trying to count exp in thousands, just write the fraction you have got until the next level.

>>51309424
I don't use XP systems anymore, I usually just give the PCs a level once they reach story milestones. Otherwise you get that cunt who buys 5,000 chickens to kill for the XP he needs to level up.

>>51309424
There is only one correct method:

By not playing D&D

I do it by number of sessions.

>>51309544
>XP is a D&D only problem
>no problem in any other system, ever
>nope, every other system uses other stuff for character growth
>yep
>sorry, I'm retarded

>>51309485
>>51309491
this
>>51309606
for non-DnD systems I still do exp only at milestones, sometimes this is inherent in the system sometimes it's not.
If the system allows for smaller scale xp buying rather than levels, I use smaller milestones and hand out total xp at the end of session, though I restrict spending to when characters would have downtime in most cases.

>>51309424
I give xp for milestones and roleplay. If a character tried doing something interesting and more than "I hit it with my sword" by pursuing personal goals I'll give them some xp for their trouble.

I also give xp for encounters they don't kill but cleverly deal with like rockfalls. Book be damned.

>>51309485
This.

Though since I've switched to Fantasy Craft, I haven't minded using actual XP accounting so much. The XP reward for defeating an NPC (which can include "defeat" in the sense of overcoming them in some kind of non-combat conflict, if they're built for that sort of thing) is built right into the NPC design system itself, and there are pretty clear guidelines for story-based objectives.

But even there, if you're playing a campaign where you want to make sure the players reach a certain level by the end of it (or at any given point in the campaign, for that matter), you can't beat milestone-based leveling.

>>51309424
Shadowrun only gives it for doing missions. It helps keep people focused on getting stuff done instead of murdering every single enemy.

Even in old dnd, players got most of their experience for bringing treasure back to civilization, and the share from defeating monsters was relatively small.

Awarding points per monster slain is a comparatively recent concept with its own set of flaws. I'd only use it in a roleplaying game if I wanted my players to fanatically murder everything for advancement points. Most likely, I'd only award it for a subset of NPCs that the PCs are supposed to really want dead, such as demons, saxons, heretics, blood-mages, and so on. That way the players would feel compelled to destroy those characters.

Though in my opinion character advancement mechanics are overrated in roleplaying games, at least in the way they're usually presented. They tend to force a specific kind of challenge-scaling that doesn't always fit with what you want the game to be about.

>>51309424
In my dungeon crawling game i give it out per session, roughly based on number of encounters, but with a consideration for role play, tactics and overall game flow.

And for the encounters i don't divvy it up to the last creature, but just use an average for level-appropriate encounters...