Just Rewards

"But that's ridiculous, right? Yeah, you're the type of person who won't ever be happy."

I'm gonna throw this out there, most people hate experience. It can be a nightmare for GMs to math out proper rewards, and even veteran gamers get tired of the math/erase/math/erase mambo. This is why most games with roots not quite as old as Dungeons and Dragons use much smaller values: In Shadowrun, it's much easier to reason how much to dole out when a run is intended to give between three and five. The fact that the PCs can spend it on whatever they want also makes it way easier to predict their power levels. Even That One Guy in a World of Darkness game blowing every available point of experience on new powers isn't THAT much ahead of a guy who spreads theirs out. It's a weird combination of slower growth, but more meaty, impactful choices.

So obviously the solution is to never play D20 again. Nah. Nobody wants that. There are some things to know about experience and rewards that will make your D20 games smoother and feel better, and applying these to lower value games like WoD will probably make them run like a buttered mongoose fighting a popcorn snake. That, uh...that's a good thing, I promise.

The first thing you need to understand is a bit of an elephant in the room. It's your first hard lesson as a game master, and for a lot of people this is too much to wrap their head around, especially as beginners. As a game master, you are not the King. You are not the Master(I did notice the irony, yes). You are not the Boss. You are a storyteller. You're a concierge.  Your job is to make sure everyone's having a good time, to tell the stories, to help the PCs tell their part of it, and to make them feel like the badass heroes they are. A great game becomes something everyone will remember, maybe for the rest of their lives. A bad game does too, though, but not for the reasons you want. Trust me. Acting like King A-rab and saying things like "My way or the highway" will lead to a bad game.

I'm glad we got that out of the way. I'll talk more about it and Rule Zero soon, but for now, this is what you need to remember: When you give out rewards, you are not being gracious or magnanimous. You are handing the PCs something they earned through their actions. Withholding rewards or trying to weasel out of giving them is awful, and it's not helping anyone have a good time.

So, why do people do that? Well, a lot of the time they're worried they won't be able to challenge the PCs if they gain too many levels or get too much loot. I get it. This is basically a fear of failure and fear's not something I can give a whole lot of advice on. The only way to get good at this, a GMing in general, is to do it. You might screw up a bit, or a lot, but if people are having fun...maybe just chalk it up to experience and let it go. If not, you can discuss ways to fix the problem...but penny-pinching your players is a non-solution. You're punishing them for your own insecurities.

Course, the opposite sucks too. Rewards need to feel earned, and huge amounts of experience or big fat loot can quickly become devalued. To avoid being too generous with gear, hand-pick treasure troves instead of rolling them(Even the Pathfinder developers think the PF core random tables suck) and give 'unique' magic items or intangible rewards as well. A custom magic item, like a sword with a name and a neat ability or a talking book that can make skill checks feel awesome without really being very expensive. Intangibles like access to the Royal Wizard, a stronghold of their own or thieves' guild favors can be very useful and awesome...but not in combat, where you need to worry about the PCs and their stats.

So how often is often enough? with loot, eyeball what they've got every so often if you're worried and see if it's close to what your core book says a PC should have at that level. This makes it easier to curb a problem by being a little stingy or generous with their next few encounters instead of suddenly realizing the PCs have too much stuff after they ask you if 'teeth' is a valid magic item slot.

For experience values, my buddy Ray(Yes, that's Captain William) once said it should work like a curve, and that's a damn fine idea. Levels should come quickly when the PCs are below 10, and slowly drop off later. That's because a lot of builds feel like they're waiting to mature at low levels, but after about 8 or 9 most of them have their meat and potatoes. This is another big reason you don't want to be stingy: If your game is ending at level 10 or 12, it's possible there's PCs in your group that feel like they never got to really enjoy their character.

So, starting with 2 or 3 sessions between levels at 1 through 6 or so, slowly cut back on the experience until it's about four or five at level 10, and even slower going forward. I would say something as high as six sessions between levels is okay after level 15. So, if that's the case, why not just hand them the levels after that long without having to track the number? Well, if everyone's okay with that...sure. You can. Just remember to stay consistent and never let them wonder when their next level is coming. The excuse of "Well, you guys haven't done much" is kind of on you, buddy. YOU control the pacing of the game more than they do. This system doesn't always fly with PCs though, because seeing an EXP value means you know how close you are to a level: Even if they trust you with their lives and believe you when you say they'll get a level in three sessions, seeing the number and KNOWING that is nice. Imagine a program install bar, or download percentage bar. Would it be the same if you got absolutely no indication of how far you were, but instead got an implicit, trusted promise that it'll be done in three minutes? I can't imagine it would. If you don't believe me, think of how irritating those bust-ass programs with bad percentage values are, the ones that jump from 65% all the way to complete in the last few seconds of the install.

 Anyway, if they're NOT comfortable with a "no EXP values" system, it's perfectly okay to give experience based on an average and give bonuses for plot points. Calculating experience by encounters is something nobody, NOBODY likes to do. It's even okay if you work out exactly how much experience per session they need to fit into the above EXP curve...just don't do it in front of them and remember to mix in some plot bonuses, or else they'll see your Richard Pryor ass behind the curtain and think what they're doing doesn't matter.

That would be because, in this case, it kind of didn't. This is why you mix in some plot or 'boss encounter' bonuses. Even consider throwing them a bone for great roleplay.