About xp

[Humanas]

So, I just finished running the first book of the AP and my 4 man party of characters are still mid lvl 3. They explored the whole region, they didn't miss a single encounter, they even had some random ones and still they didn't make it to lvl 4. I don't really want to start adding personal content yet and just saying "here are some xp because u need to be lvl 4 for the second book" sounds kinda lame. :(

[Orthos]

What 90% of the people running this are going to tell you is "stop using XP, level the party up when it's storyline appropriate to level up".

With that out of the way, I'd personally just roll with it. The first couple of encounters in Rivers Run Red can be done by a 3rd level party - perhaps with a bit more challenge, but still doable unless you roll a really nasty random encounter - and you can fix up the gap with random battles in the meanwhile.

[Humanas]

I can do that true, but you know how players are... They love getting xp. Maybe I will throw them some "random" encounters to get them beefed up a bit.

[Duskrunner1]

What I did to adjust this is instead of awarding 100 xp per hex exploration divided among the party was to simply award 100 xp per character. That seemed to resolve the level issue, as well as keeping everything in line.

[Fig]

Similarly, you could play the Pathfinder version Whose Line Is It, Anyway? and tell the "(Experience) Points Don't Matter." Then, feel free to just hand out experience points. Heck, allow your players to hand them out.

[Chernobyl]

Fig wrote:

Similarly, you could play the Pathfinder version Whose Line Is It, Anyway? and tell the "(Experience) Points Don't Matter." Then, feel free to just hand out experience points. Heck, allow your players to hand them out.

+1 for the "Whose Line" reference!

[Hassy]

Humanas wrote:

So, I just finished running the first book of the AP and my 4 man party of characters are still mid lvl 3. They explored the whole region, they didn't miss a single encounter, they even had some random ones and still they didn't make it to lvl 4. I don't really want to start adding personal content yet and just saying "here are some xp because u need to be lvl 4 for the second book" sounds kinda lame. :(

Did you use the correct advancement track (medium)? Did you remember the 100 XP per hex mapped?

Although you don't really need to, you can easily fix it in-game, since RRR starts with kingdom building. Just let them build the kingdom in peace until the awards from that take them to 4th level.

(As an aside, I still use 3.5e XP tables; one advantage is that they "fix" such discrepancies much better since the party will simply gain more XP from the encounters if they are behind.)

[DM_Kumo Gekkou]

Don't forget they get xp for founding a kingdom for reaching size 5 for building buildings etc. They'll be 4th before any combat if u give them tine to build.

[Touc]

Before I switched to story-driven XP, I used medium advancement and found that without a decent number of random encounters, there were not enough "staged" XP events to reach 4th level. Besides kingdom building and random battles, you could have the Swordlords send for them and a retelling of their adventures to justify their investments before an audience. Could be a great way to introduce NPCs, get some roleplay, and even foreshadow some of the political rumblings in Brevoy that will be more visible in later books.