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So once upon a time, back when I ran Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook, I used an excel program that allowed me to enter in exp for the party. It allowed a dated block, character participation, extra stuff and how much general xp was given.
I am not an excel guru, or even newbie. I am less than that. :(
But I miss that program, and was wondering if anyone had anything like that for their pathfinder game(s)?
I found a xp tracker in excel format, but alas it was set up for the PF Society and had little tweaks that I don't know how to alter.
Regardless, how do you keep track of it? Do you keep it posted on a forum? Emails? A spread sheet? Note cards?
Inevetitably, someone will not write down the xp given, and will ask for it later. And quite honest, I don't always write it down.
So I'm looking for ideas, suggestions, solutions? You name it.
So how do you do it?
I have designated a player as XP-tracker. Since I dish out XP to all characters, even if a player misses an evening of play, they'll all have the same amount of xp.
So the designated XP-tracker is the only one bothering with keeping track of XP, and informs everyone else when it's time to level.
I also have a party-quartermaster, who's responsible for tracking loot and the partys shared ressources. Another guy is responsible for their followers, henchmen and crew (since we're running a Skulls and Schackles-campaign). A fourth guy keeps track of their ship, their stores of ammonition and ship improvements.
Having divided responsibilities works really well. Since each guy is only focusing on one task, all information is allways up to date.
I tell my players how much XP per party member they just got from the encounter and they track the total, comparing it with each other to keep it in sync.
This works for me as I don't do much ad hoc xp, it is always the entire party. I also trust my players to keep things in line and honest because I'm sure not going to help them if they forget (one or two might not write it down, but two or three others certainly will).
If you want more detailed "2200 xp came from the dire rats" and "1500 came as a quest reward to clean out the rats" and "player John got 500 xp for his clever role playing", you'll want something more advanced. Also if you only reward players who are at the session and the group composition changes every time, then you'd want better tracking too.
Perhaps a spreadsheet that has a title, a column for each player, and one for notes. A row represents an XP event. So you put the title "Encounter" in column one, the per-player xp in the corresponding column for each player who was involved, and notes about where, when, what, etc in the final column. Then for individual awards, you do it the same way, but most cells would be blank (except for the one player who got the award). Then just have a total row at the bottom that sums the XP for the column using the Sum Range command (for example: =SUM(B2:B16) would add the values of rows 2 through 16 in column B)
Example (formatting may be a bit nasty)
Title | John | Chris | Sara | Ben | Notes
=========================================
Fight | 350 | 350 | 350 | 0 | Goblin ambush (Ben absent)
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RP | 0 | 0 | 500 | 0 | Convinced priestess to give info
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Fight | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | Dire rats in the cloister
-----------------------------------------
Total | 850 | 850 | 1350 | 500 |
I just use a word document to keep track of each character's totals at the end of each session after it has been given out. The players recently decided that they'd like the XP rule to be that anyone that isn't present at a scheduled game day does not receive XP. Unscheduled game days or ad-hoc sessions don't count; everyone gets XP for these sessions.
If you can explain in more detail what your excel sheet did, I'm sure it would be fairly easy for someone else to replicate for you.
Once upon a time I used to use a spreadsheet to track all my player's XP.
Then I started running adventure paths, and since they tell me the level people are supposed to be, I just level the party at the appropriate time and forget about XP altogether.
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I drug it, then smuggle it onto my private plane where I fly it to an uninhabited island where we leave it on the beach with the word "run" written in sharpie on it's hand.
The hunt is of course rigged, we implanted a RFID chip into it's back. The thrill is in the chase, but we can't allow any survivors either. We make pretense, using dogs, helicopters, etc, but we ensure our hunters are pointed to the right portion of the island.
Well, as long as the dogs don't know it is fake. That would break their little puppy hearts.
I just tell the players to level their PCs occasionally.
Yup, I also got rid of exp and just level at appropriate times, Keeps the players playing smart rather than just playing for exp optimal gains.
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President of the good bye experience points club chiming in here, feel free to let loose the chains of experience and enjoy your gaming to its fullest.
with that said if experience points are part of the experience for you and yours I may have some rusty old tips for you. Make sure you know what your encounters are going to offer. If you use a random table make sure to have the experience points done with your game prep. I used a simple notepad to track experience when I bothered. Its not that difficult to split the total at the end of each session or whatever milestone you choose to use.
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My players get this gleeful gleam to their eyes when I tell them the XP they gained. It is like kids seeing the presents under the Christmas Tree. How could I take that away from them?
Previous homebrew I ran I gave out experience at the end of each session as given by the monster stat blocks. Was not a heavy roleplay group so XP for that was unnecessary.
The Rise of the Runelords game I ran I just leveled players up as per the "recommended level" for each chapter.
In the 3.5 game I am in we get roleplay and monster XP at the end of each session.
In the homebrew pathfinder game I am in we just level whenever the GM feels like leveling us.
Seems I have most bases covered.
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My players get this gleeful gleam to their eyes when I tell them the XP they gained. It is like kids seeing the presents under the Christmas Tree. How could I take that away from them?
I got one player like that but hes easy to deny :) My players felt shackled by XP. They would do all kinds of dumb things to gain it. They often felt they couldnt go places until they achieved enough xp. They complained that their characters didnt get to explore what they like becasue the "XP" was in a different direction. They didnt realize the problem XP was to them and where a bit unsure when I ditched it. Now they dont look back for a second. Even my old school XP fan doesnt miss it.
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My players get this gleeful gleam to their eyes when I tell them the XP they gained. It is like kids seeing the presents under the Christmas Tree. How could I take that away from them?I got one player like that but hes easy to deny :) My players felt shackled by XP. They would do all kinds of dumb things to gain it. They often felt they couldnt go places until they achieved enough xp. They complained that their characters didnt get to explore what they like becasue the "XP" was in a different direction. They didnt realize the problem XP was to them and where a bit unsure when I ditched it. Now they dont look back for a second. Even my old school XP fan doesnt miss it.So you do what now? If the players want to go somewhere that's higher power than they are, you just level them up so that they aren't shackled by their character's power?
It seems that is what you are implying.
No thats not what I meant. Before the players would weigh options on what they felt were the most fruitful in gold and XP. They wanted to do things that interested them and their characters but often that conflicted with what they thought would pay out better. This was an artifical construct on their part because of XP. Without XP that meta is completely gone so the players are free to decide what they want to do and how they want to approach it.
When I run sandbox I tend to make the challenges fit the PCs. That means there is no level 3 forrest or level 5 bandit camp or level 9 mountain. If you are familiar with skyrim or dragon age I plan more like that. Most challenges are fit to the group with occasional monsters or groups that are over the PCs heads.
When I run traditional mega plots it tends to be modules or APs. The players buy into a certain amount of railway for those games. They still like XP being gone because they feel like its more up to them how to proceed.
Now I understand this is totally on my group and running XP doesnt have to cause meta-game for some groups. Hell some groups dont mind the meta-game even. For me though the game is not sometimes better, but always better without XP.
I don't use xp, just levels. My problem is always when to level. They've gone a couple adventures, they've defeated a few objectives but one's led right into another so at the end of the session they're right in the middle of a dungeon. Do I have them level Diablo-style, right where they're standing or do I make them push through, go back to town, and suddenly it all comes together?
@Pan - I noticed the same thing in my old players. They'd metagame terribly and weigh options like "if we head there its total wilderness so there might be a lot of gold, but nowhere to use it or sell loot. Plus there's a lot of vermin which are like filler and not much xp. What's our ROI if we head there..."
Now that they just level they pretty much blunder into any adventure I have.
I've never cared for tracking the large numbers involved with XP. My old GM ran the group on "session points". If you were there to play that night, you get a point. Once you reach enough points equal to the level you are trying to attain, you level up. If someone constantly flakes on the group, they fall behind, but as a player you still have a good idea of when you'll level up. Obviously it begins to eventually hit a plateau (we generally didn't play into high levels) but it was a lot easier to calculate "everyone take an extra session point tonight" than "everyone gets X amount of additional XP".
More seriously, we use our own XP scale, mostly just for the smaller numbers. One recent addition we've adopted is this:
1) If you attend a session (or just part of it) you gain all the XP earned during that session.
2) If your XP total is not tied for highest in the group, you gain double XP until you catch up.
This has worked well for us. We've been playing various games for over 17 years together and we've always had large-ish groups (recent campaign we had 2 GM's and 7 players, though years ago it wasn't uncommon for games to have 12+ players). Ever since high school we've always been a little informal, people had evening jobs, curfews, etc, so we got used to people arriving late and having to leave early. Now that people have kids, some still work retail, etc, we still aren't sticklers for perfect attendance, we just want people to show up and have a good time.
I don't.
PCs just level up on the basis of a number of factors, including story needs, player proficiency (aka 'do they understand their abilities now, before I drop more on them'), et al.
I have only run one campaign, and we didn't do XP. I made story arcs for the level they were at, and when they finished it (or hit a checkpoint where I was going to increase the difficulty), they gained a level. Well, sort of. To actually level up, they needed a full night's rest.
That has left me wondering how to give 'bonus XP', and I haven't come up with a solution to that yet.
I have only run one campaign, and we didn't do XP. I made story arcs for the level they were at, and when they finished it (or hit a checkpoint where I was going to increase the difficulty), they gained a level. Well, sort of. To actually level up, they needed a full night's rest.
That has left me wondering how to give 'bonus XP', and I haven't come up with a solution to that yet.
Don't ... give other bennies. Say, give the player a Poker Chip he can turn in for a bonus to a roll, or a re-roll or something like that.
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None of my groups use XP anymore.
If you want some kind of non-monetary reward for players, then the Pathfinder Hero Point System might be for you.
Using XP just seems like unneeded paperwork, and everyone in every group I play with agree with this view.