Suggestions for DM / Questions for DM

drasnordrasnor Starship OperatorHawthorne, CA Icrontian
edited May 2008 in D&D Supernerd Heaven
Midga brought this up with me after the game: why are we not all gaining the same amount of experience? This is bound to cause some friction and/or metagaming.

-drasnor :fold:

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Experience crunching mid-stream is a PITA. Just save it for the end and lump it all together.

    Also, players should not be told as a group what amount of experience they're getting, because players should be receiving differing amounts based on their actions, contributions and successes. It should be handled via PM or something.

    Lastly, just reduce the EXP rewards of future encounters until it's leveled back off to where it "should" be.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Characters do different things and get different amounts of XP for it. This is the system set-forth in the DMG. It would only cause meta-gaming if I start telling players exactly what they are earning more XP for, so they start basing their actions on it, and it will only cause friction if one or more of the players are asshats. :P
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Experience crunching mid-stream is a PITA. Just save it for the end and lump it all together.

    XP will be given at the end of an adventure, or at the end of a journey, if not in an adventure at the time. leveling may only be done between sessions.
    Also, players should not be told as a group what amount of experience they're getting, because players should be receiving differing amounts based on their actions, contributions and successes. It should be handled via PM or something.
    Players will know when the other characters level up anyway, so know how much XP was gained by the other characters really doesn't make much difference.
    Lastly, just reduce the EXP rewards of future encounters until it's leveled back off to where it "should" be.

    I already mentioned above how this was going to be handled.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Also: will a mod please break this thread for me starting at post 10? I want this thread to be a place where I admit the mistakes I made, and tell the players how I'm going to deal with those mistakes, responding to any questions directly related to those changes.

    Players volunteering things that they think I should be doing differently belongs somewhere else. :)

    thanks
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    I'm an asshat then :P. I played my character to the best of my ability so it was shocking at the end of the game, in a gut-punch sort of way, to discover I had received less experience than the rest of the party. Granted, I missed a bunch of rolls but I don't think anything I did was "wrong."

    Thrax is right. If you're not going to give us equal experience, I don't want to know what everyone else is getting. I do not want to get into a situation where I take out my frustrations on my partymates or take risks in-character that my character wouldn't take in the hopes of getting more XP.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    l2notmetagame.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    drasnor wrote:
    I'm an asshat then :P. I played my character to the best of my ability so it was shocking at the end of the game, in a gut-punch sort of way, to discover I had received less experience than the rest of the party. Granted, I missed a bunch of rolls but I don't think anything I did was "wrong."

    Thrax is right. If you're not going to give us equal experience, I don't want to know what everyone else is getting. I do not want to get into a situation where I take out my frustrations on my partymates or take risks in-character that my character wouldn't take in the hopes of getting more XP.

    -drasnor :fold:

    You didn't do anything wrong. Sometimes people get different experience because of the situation.

    Also remember that my math was way off. Like I completely fubared it. The experience you actually got was nothing like the experience you were supposed to get. not even relative to the other players.
    Thrax wrote:
    l2notmetagame.

    I don't know what this means...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Meta-gaming: Imposing your experience, worldly views, wisdom or virtues on your character, and making decisions based not on what the <i>character</i> knows and is privy to, but what you see happening.

    Example: I get less EXP than someone else, so I go out of my way to gain as much exp as I can, even if it means not playing how my character would play.

    Another example: The GM has foreshadowed a trap. You know it's there... Does your character even have the skills to avoid it? Can he detect traps? Disarm traps? Is it even a visible trap? Or do you just casually steer yourself around it, because as a player you knew it was there, even if your character couldn't possibly know?

    Meta-gaming is sucky.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Yes. I'm crappy at it. I need to NOT know these things. :(

    -drasnor :fold:
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Meta-gaming: Imposing your experience, worldly views, wisdom or virtues on your character, and making decisions based not on what the character knows and is privy to, but what you see happening.

    Example: I get less EXP than someone else, so I go out of my way to gain as much exp as I can, even if it means not playing how my character would play.

    Another example: The GM has foreshadowed a trap. You know it's there... Does your character even have the skills to avoid it? Can he detect traps? Disarm traps? Is it even a visible trap? Or do you just casually steer yourself around it, because as a player you knew it was there, even if your character couldn't possibly know?

    Meta-gaming is sucky.

    Jimminy Christmas, Thrax, I know what meta-gaming is... I even talk about it in The Book. What I don't know is what 'l2notmetagame' means. ell two not metagame? wut?
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    drasnor wrote:
    Yes. I'm crappy at it. I need to NOT know these things. :(

    -drasnor :fold:

    I've been thinking about this implications this would have on the game. At first, I was thinking that it wouldn't really matter, since you would see each other level up anyhow, but then I realized that that's not necessarily true. If no one knows what XP amount, or even level the other characters are at, it might encourage more role-playing along the lines of discovering the other characters new skills as they use them, instead of as they choose them at level up. It's an interesting idea, and I'll think about it some more...
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    CB Droege wrote:
    Jimminy Christmas, Thrax, I know what meta-gaming is... I even talk about it in The Book. What I don't know is what 'l2notmetagame' means. ell two not metagame? wut?
    It was advice for me: Learn To Not Metagame. Also, thank you for taking this under further consideration. I think I could "get over it", but having that feeling at the end of an otherwise pretty good session was awful.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    drasnor wrote:
    Learn To Not Metagame.

    Oh! I see. It's like '2legit2quit'.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2008
    Si.
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