XP pacing?

[vargrmoon 7]

How are GM's pacing their XP awards during a campaign?  My group plays every other Saturday for 8 to 10 hours.  So After 9 sessions the Players are sitting on 80 XP.  They are all solidly Rank 3.  We all agree that this feels accelerated and all decided to basically half XP moving forward, but I am really curious what other's experiences are.

[AtoMaki 1,431]

We have a similar ratio and in our experience, the game starts at Rank 3. That's when you start having enough dice to get interesting results and swap Rings to shake up your game. Techniques start to become nice and game changers like Heartpiercing Strike see play. I'm fairly sure you are supposed to rush through Rank 1 and 2 because Rank 1 is kind of a chore and Rank 2 tend to be fairly boring.

Edited December 20, 2019 by AtoMaki

[vargrmoon 7]

22 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

We have a similar ratio and in our experience, the game starts at Rank 3. That's when you start having enough dice to get interesting results and swap Rings to shake up your game. Techniques start to become nice and game changers like Heartpiercing Strike see play. I'm fairly sure you are supposed to rush through Rank 1 and 2 because Rank 1 is kind of a chore and Rank 2 tend to be fairly boring.

A very interesting observation!  All of the players at my table instantly felt overpowered as soon as they started using the techniques they had access to.  I assured them that it was okay, but we also discussed the concern about how the game seemed like it would cap out with them being school masters in another 9 sessions.  All of the players were uncomfortable with that idea, thus our deciding to cut XP back. 

[neilcell 252]

You are a good GM that you talked with your players and reached a consensus to slow down the advancement pace.  Regardless of what the XP hand-out rate going forward is, you wisely have chosen to put the entertainment value over and above the power gaming.  I salute you.

[vargrmoon 7]

6 hours ago, neilcell said:

You are a good GM that you talked with your players and reached a consensus to slow down the advancement pace.  Regardless of what the XP hand-out rate going forward is, you wisely have chosen to put the entertainment value over and above the power gaming.  I salute you.

Thank you for saying.  The players at my table and I, we are all in this game together with mutual enjoyment and great stories as the goal. 

[Kaiju 129]

We had a similar issue. I used a temporary slow-down, but by then players had become addicted to high XP, and it doesnt slow down after rank 3 - rank 4 and rank 5 follow rather soon in my experience.

Seeing how rank 6 is totally broken, I have come to the conclusion that the XP curve of L5R is not suitable for really long campaigns. Its a system that allows for people to grow from small fry to masters within a year.

[Harzerkatze 262]

We give 3-4 XP in our 4 hour sessions.

I would keep that pace up to rank 4. Then I'd either slow XP gain down if a long campaing is planned, or start casting an eye towards the grand finale.

No RPG can go on forever.

[T_Kageyasu 155]

The pace is fine if you include many downtime scenes with long lapses of time between pivotal dramatic moments. Personally, running from rank 1 to 3 in a matter of sessions (a few weeks or a month in game time?) can be jarring.. unless you're running a battle hardened campaign in the Shadowlands or deep intrigue Winter Court in which on the job training can justify that kind of rapid advancement.

I considered story point advancement, where PCs would gain XP after achieving specified goals, but that kind of approach can be troublesome if milestones are far apart.

In the end, after discussing with players we cut the rate by half.

[RusakRakesh 567]

I felt the same, and I followed the XP distribution from published adventures only... they even got the ring discount from the beginner game DLC.

But, we decided that its intentional that we'll get to high school ranks, and we plan to take new schools once we reach 6th rank.

It looks like we'll be heading into Anime/Exalted territory with our heroic strength/wits.

[DanGers 55]

On 12/20/2019 at 1:43 PM, vargrmoon said:

How are GM's pacing their XP awards during a campaign? 

Good question and I've enjoyed reading the responses.  I've been giving out about 1 XP per hour played, but with other bonuses.  Players get an additional 1 or 2X P for successfully completing a story or solving a major problem (like finishing the Beginners Game and saving Harukage).  Players can also receive 1 XP between sessions if they write up a good couple of paragraphs chronicling the last session on our group Discord.  Sometimes, I'll run between-session downtime activities on Discord as well and players can earn the occasional 1 XP that way.  For example, they all had the option of writing in-character "letters" (correspondence, journal entries, poetry, prayers, oaths, etc.) that gave some insight into their ninjos and giris.  All told, it probably adds up to about 1.5 XP per hour played in person.

That feels slow.  We aren't playing as often as you are so the players have more time to think about what techniques they want next and some of them already know how they would spend their next 10 XP or so.  One of the players felt that his character was under-powered at rank 1 and another wanted to set up some cool technique synergies so I was glad they leveled up as quickly as they did.  Then again, this is everyone's first time playing with this system so letting them learn at rank 1 probably helped.  If we ever started a new campaign with the same players though, I would probably just ask them what rank we should play at or give them thirty to fifty XP to start with, but ratchet down the pace of advancement by about half.  

[Goken91 9]

The pre-made adventures like Mask of the Oni give experience based on achieving certain goals by the end.  Have GMs been typically just giving out that xp at the end or giving out time played xp as well?  If giving both have you been giving less xp for time than the recommended 1 xp per hour?

[The_Shaman 61]

It is interesting that the core book gives some benchmarks, and seems to think 30 is okay for proven retainers, with 50 being the benchmark of heroes. For me, 0-10 is good for new samurai mostly fresh from their gempukku, 30-50 is where people with some experience under their belt but no incredible feats (yet) go, and anything higher is serious samurai business.

For me, the important part is tailoring the narrative to the power level. A game where a couple of young samurai do surprising things and forge friendships or rivalries, making a name for themselves can be perfectly good with starting characters.

Edited January 24 by The_Shaman

[Tatoun 7]

I give them XP when the scenario ends. They receive it in the downtime, mostly when they come back to a place where they can train.

I give them 2XP for each sessions, with a bonus of two more when the player managed to be present for each sessions. 

So, as we just finished playing "Dark Tides", it took three sessions of 6h or more. Some of the players gained 8XP.

[Magnus Grendel 11,673]

On ‎12‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 8:17 PM, Goken91 said:

The pre-made adventures like Mask of the Oni give experience based on achieving certain goals by the end.  Have GMs been typically just giving out that xp at the end or giving out time played xp as well?  If giving both have you been giving less xp for time than the recommended 1 xp per hour?

I tend to give XP based on 'time playing' so players don't dramatically shoot ahead or drop behind - I prefer to reward achieving goals achieved with honour and glory.

[Garoath 1]

Just my two zeni, but I don't have a problem with putting players on track to complete an arc of some kind. For my friends and I we can only gather for 3 to 4 hours once a week. If we look at that as 1 XP per hour it would be a little over a year to hit rank 6, and that is only if every point of XP is put into curriculum advances. Advancing rings is important and only counts half toward rank increases since it is not part of the curriculum. So, with a few ring increases thrown in it can increase the time to rank up significantly. 

More importantly, I feel like it is okay to set an end point for a character. The last of the 20 questions is how will your character die, and that is an important consideration. I feel like characters are meant to meet their end at some point, and then a new story can begin. I know it can be difficult to lose a character that you've grown attached to, but I'd rather meet a meaningful conclusion (even if it does mean death) than have a game that fades away from real life interfering at some point (as it inevitably will). 

Bottom line, I deeply respect your dedication to reaching a consensus with your group about how they would like to play and progress. However, I would encourage you all not to think "am I too powerful" but rather "to what purpose will my power be put?"