Experience Points with Kingdom in the Background

[Kortal Loon]

I'm running Kingmaker with the kingdom in the background. So what do I do with all the experience they are supposed to gain for building their kingdom?

There's a chart on page 61 of Rivers Run Red that has a ton of experience I'm supposed to deal out for reaching certain kingdom sizes. If I don't award this xp the PCs will end up under powered. So should I just give them the xp even though they aren't running the kingdom?

If I do give them the xp, how do I know when? Since the awards are based on the kingdom reaching a certain size, and you don't track kingdom size with "kingdom in the background" rules, how do you know when to award xp?

[Touc]

I wouldn't award the XP. The XP reflects the time spent "managing" the kingdom and hours of building it up, all of which are gone if you push it to the background.

If your party is still "ruling" without the mechanics of building, you could turn random kingdom events into role-play opportunites. Do not recommend this with the basic Module's list. If you get your hands on the River Kingdom's Guide or find the forum post that had a balanced, expanded XML for kingdom events generated off people's feedback, these have far more detail.

Alternately, this is also a great chance to slip in a side adventure or module.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

My recommendation is to remove XP entirely for Kingmaker, it becomes more of a hindrance than a help when players want to beat a new path or you want to insert an adventure here and there. Instead the book tells you roughly when the PCs should level up and where, just use that as a guide.

Otherwise I'd probably just throw in big story xp or bonus adventures to keep your players caught up.

[DMFTodd]

Each adventure gives a general outline of what level the PCs should be at each point. If your PCs are falling behind, hand out a XP bonus at that point.

[Rickmeister]

Give none, or give some.
Really doesn't matter, you are the DM.. Simply keep an eye on the "Players should be level x" at the beginning of each booklet. :)

[Touc]

Agreed with recommendations to do away with XP. We stopped after Book 1. Oddly enough, my players weren't keeping track of XP that much to begin with.

If your players are sticklers for XP and love numbers like 5,635, then just give story XP for accomplishing goals as noted.

[Duskrunner1]

I agree with Story XP myself. After having a couple of gaming sessions grind to a halt due to "Building" I discussed with my group that we should go on auto. What is going to occur is they are giving me the game plan of what they want to do and I'll simply do the kingdom building, etc. I however am not going to be as precise and as detailed as it could be, but that way I can pace the XP and such. To help explain the sudden XP rewards will be rewards for handling certain situations that I am throwing their way with diplomats and the various plans each of them has for developing their kingdom.