Awarding XP

This is mostly based on the advice of the Angry GM on Awarding XP.

XP is "encounter-centric." There is no need to calculate the value of every orc and goblin. Use the table on p 82 of the DMG for calculating XP budgets for encounters and give out the XP after each encounter. Create the encounter by assuming the level the encounter is intended for (which might not be the same as the average party level). Use the calculated XP for the difficulty rather than the individual monster XP, which will mean most encounters will be worth a lot more than normal.

If the party succeeds in the encounter, they get the xp for it. If they partially succeed or bypass the encounter, give them half. They only get the other half if they defeat the encounter, not bypass it multiple times.

Non-combat encounters / role-play encounters also reward XP based on how serious the possible consequences are. Give each character XP for an easy or medium encounter.

Objectives and milestones are awarded as encounters, usually easy to medium encounters.

From the Angry DM:"Look at the basic unit of XP as “the encounter.” That is, whenever the players are faced with a challenge or obstacle – a fight, a negotiation, a trap, a river, whatever – rate that in terms of easy, medium, or hard. If the players succeed at overcoming the obstacle, give them XP for a combat encounter of their level for that difficulty. If the players barely scrape by, take a lot of damage, or suffer substantial losses, but still manage to succeed, give them half the XP. If they lose and have to retreat or get captured or have to go another way or they all die, don’t give them any XP. Easy peasy.""Ideally, you should dole out the XP during the game. Seriously. Appoint a player to keep a running tally of the group’s XP. At the end of an encounter, very briefly say “you won, you get 400 XP” or “you barely scraped by, you get half XP, that’s 200” or “you lost, you get no XP.” Be simple, brief, and direct. But make sure they know that their losses cost them XP.""That’s the basic system for encounter XP. It’s easy to keep track of. It’s easy to design around. It rewards the players for their actions. And you can stop there if you want. But let’s say you want to go further. Okay. Let’s talk about Milestones.""A milestone is a particular accomplishment in a story that ISN’T an encounter. If the goal of the adventure is to recover the Gem of MacGuffin from the Cave of Dungeoncrawl, getting the gem is a milestone. In fact, it’s a major milestone. And the players should earn an XP reward for that. I would suggest treating that the same as a medium encounter.""And that’s also enough. Again, I could stop here. You certainly can. But if you want, even more, you can have that too.""For example, a minor milestone is an incremental, non-optional accomplishment. Let’s say the Cave of Dungeoncrawl is hidden and the players have to find it. Locating the cave, then, is a minor milestone. It’s a step that they have to perform along the way toward a significant milestone. But it’s also not a step that can be accomplished in one encounter. If the party gets directions to the Cave of Dungeoncrawl though a single social interaction challenge with a grumpy, retired adventurer and there are no challenges between the town and the cave, that ISN’T a milestone. It’s just the encounter itself. A minor milestone should be worth as much XP as an easy encounter.""An optional milestone is an accomplishment that isn’t required to complete the adventure. You can think of like a sidequest or bonus objective or whatever. If the party hears rumors about an adventurer who died exploring the Cave of Dungeoncrawl and they locate him and bring his body and equipment back to his family, that’s an optional milestone. An optional milestone should be half as much XP as an easy encounter.""What you end up with is either a list of encounters and milestones and an XP value for each. And also a simple system for assessing XP values on the fly when you add a milestone or encounter or whatever. And you reward those as they are earned. Thus, you don’t have to do any hard math. The players see, on an encounter-by-encounter basis how they are progressing, which is important. And you only have to add up a bunch of stuff at the end of the session. Or rather, the players do."