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I like giving out experience points. Sometimes, I don't do it because of the hassle of keeping track, but it is something I enjoy doing as a DM. I like telling the players WHY their characters are getting the rewards they are getting.
And that way, if Awesome should happen, I can reward it appropriately.
Of course, I don't always use the XP reward scheme set forth in the core rules. In fact, I very rarely do that. I find that if characters are rewarded for killing things, then that becomes their goal. And the goal of most pulp fiction heroes is not to kill things. Defend their towns, sure. Get back the long-lost artifact of Trumbala or whatever, yeah. Restore their family's honor, find out what happened to their cousins... but just plain "killing things" is not on the list.
Even if they do have the goal of killing something, it's "kill the dragon that's been terrorizing us" and not "kill something we don't care about". The goal isn't to make stuff dead. At least, not when I'm the GM.
So what is the goal? The goal is for characters to advance their character goals. This might include finding treasure, completing goals... sometimes monsters will stand in the way of this. Sometimes, fighting the monsters will be completely unnecessary. Or even detrimental to the heroes' efforts.
This is why I never give rewards for killing things, unless they're related to the plot or they have stuff that the PC's want. And even then, they can be 'defeated' without being killed, more often than not.
What do you give XP for? Do you give standard XP rewards for killing things?
As far as I'm concerned, monsters/enemies don't have to be "killed" to earn the exp for them. As long as you defeat them in some form or fashion I'll usually give you the experience for them. I also give bonus exp for very well-played encounters, whether it is exceptional roleplay or exceptional game play/tactics/solutions. /salute!
Interesting concept. I'd never really considered whether the act of winning a random combat encounter justified experience points or not. As a GM, I do give out the standard amount of experience when it comes to combat. This does encourage players fighting a lot, but a large part of most roleplaying games is combat and tactics, so it kind of makes sense. The characters themselves would probably learn quite a bit (hence experience points) in nearly every life-threatening battle.
This is why I never give rewards for killing things, unless they're related to the plot or they have stuff that the PC's want. And even then, they can be 'defeated' without being killed, more often than not.
I've never run into a situation where my players say, "I go into the woods alookin' for trouble," but I imagine if I did, I'd react in a similar fashion as you, and not reward the mindlessness of a player's choices (unless, of course, the character in question is prone to mindless destruction, in which case this would be good roleplaying, and would function as advancing the character's goals).
The entire concept of experience points is very arbitrary and difficult to define. I'm curious as to how other GMs feel about it. Good thread.
I'll usually give double xp for encounters (set piece or random) where combat is not the forgone conclusion but is certainly possible. If the party can negotiate through an encounter without having to come to blows, I'll certainly reward interesting alternatives.
I also give xp for things that also offload my in-game workload like keeping the initiative or tracking the party experience, things like that.
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Bottom line is, reward the behavior you want to see. You want the party to hunt down every last copper piece? Give XP for every gold earned. You want outrageous A-Team plans? Reward creative solutions to problems. You want the party to exterminate every monstrous race? Give experience only for killing creatures.
This is why I never give rewards for killing things, unless they're related to the plot or they have stuff that the PC's want. And even then, they can be 'defeated' without being killed, more often than not.
By the rules, you don't actually give XP for "killing things". You give XP for overcoming the encounter. The rules do not care one whit how the encounter was overcome; killing the troll, diplomancing it into being your best buddy, tricking it into turning itself to stone when dawn breaks, whatever, it doesn't matter, you get the XP as long as the encounter is overcome.
It just so happens that killing things is the most common way of overcoming encounters dealing with hostile NPCs.
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I tend to give XP based a sliding scale using the established CR:XP values. Basically, I give the party the standard XP if I feel they were properly challenged by the encounter, but I'll give them more or less if I feel they either scraped or breezed by a monster. For instance if a rogue's Disable Device and Perception modifiers are so high he can't fail a check to find and disable a trap, I may not award any XP at all since the rogue isn't going to learn anything by performing a trivial task. Likewise, I'm not going to award full or, perhaps, any XP to a fighter who so woefully outclasses a monster as to make dice-rolling superflous. This also reduces my need to engage in an arms race with any munchkins at the table. Powergaming can take a lot of the suspense out of the game and I don't want to encourage the behavior with rewards of full XP.
In the past, if there was time at the end of a session, I might let players present their case for more XP based solely on role-playing or coming up with clever plans. Everybody would get a few minutes to explain why they deserved bonus points for specific actions and I'd take notes and add some individual bonuses to anybody who made a good case. It was fun and it seemed to encourage role-playing over just throwing dice.
Perfect example of this
our group walked into the top floor of a barn. Bottom half was covered on thick web.
at the back of the barn is an item we need to get
group starts talking about how we're going to kill it/ burn down the barn etc etc.
I cast summon monster I in the web, giant spider comes out and captures and summoned critter. while its busy doing that I go over and grab the item and then convince the group we can just leave no need to acutally kill the Neutral Spider.
and lo and behold the GM gives us full XP for the encounter, lesson learned for the rest of the group. ;)
Depends on what kind of game it is.
Old time Hack and Slash = Use to give Exp.
But now a day, to encourage people to show up every time, i tend to use the following system
1st level = game start
2nd level = After players play first adventure.
3rd level = +2 more game session.
4th level = +3 more game session.
5th level = +4 more game session.
6th level = +5 more game session.
ext ext ext ext = I like 1-5th levels to fly by quickly so the players can have fun growing, getting the skills they want, or spells. This also slows down the level advancement at mid to high levels, where you want them role-playing and trying to change the world.
I also like this because it encourage people to show on a normal schedule, as missing a game session puts them slows down there advancement.