Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

I think smoot has it right for your situation. In the game I'm running I give larger amounts of XP for monsters killed than what is listed (lots of my monsters come out of the compendium that came with the dungeon) as well as XP for the gold found and the amount of an items worth whether it's sold or kept (only give the XP once for items though and not for the gold they earn from selling it if that makes sense). The reason I do this is that the campaign that the characters are in is pretty tough and death is very very easy even for characters over level 10. I need to ensure my players are prepared and with the deaths they've accrued so far they are still very cautious even at 6th level. To be honest though my players have been playing for over a year in the PbP and even at the accelerated XP gain only getting to level 6 or 7 in a year is slow.

Yeah we have got to level 4/5 in like a year but that is with really short sessions (honestly I would prefer infrequent but longer sessions). Also gonna start with gold for xp so that will speed up things somewhat.

If you want to increase the leveling ratio on an X% without using extra XP sources you can increase all XP gain by that X%.

A second person who can host at their house has joined our group so hopefully he can host once a month. Our hour sessions are 100% supplementary at this point (gonna be milling about in stateholm until they are ready to kick green dragon butt).

Hopefully

I don't think anyone has mentioned giving XP to an individual PC for particularly good roleplay or a interesting and/or unique action by the player. I am not talking about funny voices and such.

For example, in a game I was in we had just fought our way through a tough room and it was filling with smoke and flame from the consequences of a thrown torch and we rushed into the next room to get away. Here we found a group of bandits (we were in their lair) setting up a barricade to block the passage opposite of us from a rival bandit gang also attacking their lair while we were down there. They turned to us as we came and their weapons already ready. I and most of the rest of us was getting ready to fight it out again, but our wizard instead through himself into the room to help man the barricade. he matter of factly looked at the bandit and said "We're your reinforcements. No one else can be spared. How many of them are out there. " The bandit did a double take, looked unsure while the dice rolled on its edge then turned and said, "At least 6. Glad you guys could get here in time."

Now that is good roleplay and a unique action deserving of extra XP.

I tend to give a base exp awards for each day in a dangerous area (I am running wilderness games at the moment). That speeds things up a bit.

I tend to set fairly tough monsters and give awards for avoiding them too. Because they are tough, I give a few more exp than the core rules say. There's no set formula, I just try to go case by case.

I give some exp for treasure when it is spent, and only if it spent on adventuring gear. I give small exp bonuses for magic items when the party start using them. This is all divided equally.

All these things hasten the progression a bit. But I like to think that the party have completed at least one successful mission or objective, gained new information, and had at least 4 decent fights, before I will level them up.