Optimum rate to give out experience points

[Gregor Eisenhorn 139]

How much exp do you give your players per session/event?

 

So far I've been doing what the books have suggested and have noticed that the rates exp is given out isn't consistent. Not counting bonus XP, the suggested rates are:

 

Dark Pursuits: 300-450 exp each session

 

Desolation of the Dead: 400 exp for surviving the Gallowsway, 400 exp for surviving Gantry and 500 exp for the final confrontation

 

Forgotten Gods: 250-300 xp each session for the section on Desoleum, 300-450 exp each session onboard the Oath Unspoken and finally 300-450 exp for each session on Thaur

 

My group and I really got into Desolation of the Dead (which pays the least by a considerable margin) and we had the campaign run for approximately 13 sessions. Assuming the other ones, on the lower end award 300exp points per session, that's a difference of 3900 exp instead of 1300 exp. I'm more than capable of scaling the awards in the other two campaigns depending on the rate that they progress through the investigation, but if it trails off in unexpected directions it makes things more complicated, especially one FG is over and we start looking at homebrew campaigns and 'free play mode' where I'll have my players using the Inquests system to decide what heresies they want to investigate in Askellon.

 

What have you guys found to be a good rate which is neither too fast or too slow?

 

Thanks,

 

Eisenhorn

[MijRai 196]

Well, I tried to follow the '100 experience an hour of play' guide I saw mentioned, and that was way too much.  Now, I give out 350 experience per session almost always, unless something big has happened or an end of campaign reward has come up.  That gives them time to develop and grow, while not pumping the game up with too much experience points.  

[Alox 107]

We have a campaign where we meet at best once a month, and we run about 100 xp per hour, which seems to work fine for us.

[eltom13 34]

I also use the 100xp per hour rule. One session lasts about 3-6 hours and we play maybe 2 times a month (sometimes less). We have played 15 to 20 sessions so far (we started the group almost exactly one year ago and played Dark Pursuits, Desolation of the Dead, first chapter of Forgotten Gods [not quite done yet], and in between some home-brewed stuff). The PCs are currently at about 9,000XP each. They are sometimes hard to keep in check, but this is mainly due to the two psykers ...

 

Edit: Oh sorry, I forgot. I also have one of the players write up a summary of each session in turn (on a voluntary basis). Those write-ups I honor with additional 200XP. I very much like the summaries because with one month in between sessions I tend to forget a lot and besides GMing I don't find time to take a lot of notes.

Edited May 18, 2016 by eltom13

[MijRai 196]

Whereas my group plays weekly; the power can surge if you spend 6-8 hours playing one week, even when the average is 4.  

 

At this point my group is at 15,550 experience, with a good amount of combat-focus.  I've been having to scale up threats recently, which is fine by me.  

[Gregor Eisenhorn 139]

Well, I tried to follow the '100 experience an hour of play' guide I saw mentioned, and that was way too much.  Now, I give out 350 experience per session almost always, unless something big has happened or an end of campaign reward has come up.  That gives them time to develop and grow, while not pumping the game up with too much experience points.

Would you say a flat rate of 50xp per hour (which translate to about 200xp) per session sounds about right or is that too harsh? I could maybe go for 75xp/hour (300 per session). I'm not sure how relevant play time is, but we play about once a week during campaign time.

[Alox 107]

Do you hand out xp after each session, or accumulate them for later?

 

Getting 200 xp is kinda a turn off as you can barely buy anything, but 300 xp does give you some options.

 

Things are a bit expensive in DH2, I don't think you should go down to 50xp/h unless you guys have a lot of hours to burn on this.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Alox

[eltom13 34]

I also think that as a minimum a PC should get about 300XP per game session. Otherwise her/his options for advances are rather limited.

[MijRai 196]

75 experience an hour or so works, or just a flat 350.  I tried 300, I tried 400, 350 seems to get it right.

[Gregor Eisenhorn 139]

Okay I'll try 75/hr, maybe vary it with 350 a session and see which one I prefer.

When running dark pursuits I gave out XP at the end of each session. In desolation of the dead I handed out XP as the players reached certain milestones. So far I prefer the latter option.

[alemander 42]

The Seeds of Heresy adventure from the beta that was converted to DH2 proper notes 500 XP each session, with bonuses of 100-250.

 

It sounds like that is too much?

 

~ alemander

[eltom13 34]

I honestly think there is no "too much", BUT if you hand out XP very fast as a GM you could have a hard time challenging your PCs soon. It really depends on the needs of your group and your playstyle.

[Vorzakk 1,211]

It really depends on the needs of your group and your playstyle.

 

Pretty much this. 

 

My group is 28 sessions into what will hopefully be a very long-running campaign, so I only give out around 150 to 200 XP per session.  My players are all much more story/character-focused than crunch-focused, so this is actually plenty to keep them happy.  

Edited May 20, 2016 by Vorzakk

[InquisitorAlexel 244]

My campaign is a long run game, with players close to 15 000 xp.

 

I gave 100xp/hour at first (we run a weekly session of 3 hours), but now I dropped it to 200 xp the hour.

 

The progression is way smoother and gives place to a long character developpment.