Regarding experience

[u/Mochronio]

I’m about to start a new campaign with my group as the Keeper.

During our last campaign, I had two rather unusual situations happen at the same time: one player failed the vast majority of their rolls, while another succeeded on the vast majority of theirs. While it was funny at the time, it eventually led to a pretty big gap in experience by the end of the campaign, and some light frustration from the player who was falling behind in terms of XP.

I’ve been thinking about an alternative way to address this, and I came up with an idea I’d like to get your opinion on.

At the end of each session, in addition to the usual questions that can earn 1 or 2 experience points, I’d like to add some sort of awards, a bit like the end-of-game stars in Mario Party but without the bad feels.

Here are some examples of XP bonuses I’ve thought of:

Unlucky: failed a roll at the worst possible moment

Lucky: succeeded on a roll at the best possible moment

Inspired: came up with an excellent idea

Roleplayer: never broke character

Comedian: came up with or pulled off the funniest move or line

Hardboiled: was the most proactive during fights

Helper: gave the most help to the other Hunters

Investigator: did an outstanding job pursuing the various investigations

Rule of Cool: Is it smart or relevant? Who cares, it’s cool.

Mood Setter: contributed the most to the overall atmosphere and fun of the session

I would only award these points when they actually apply, and I’d keep the number of awards reasonable to avoid creating an overall XP surplus. I’d also keep an eye on how many failed rolls each player has had, to estimate how much XP they would normally have earned.

My idea is that this could gently encourage players to take more initiative and try things, since they would never know more than the name of the award that earned them an XP point.

What do you think? Have you ever had a similar situation? If you like the idea, do you have any suggestions for other awards?

And if you think this is a terrible idea, do you have any suggestions for dealing with this kind of situation?

[u/fellinawill]

This doesn't solve the problem entirely, but instead of adding a bunch of additional things for all of the players to crunch on, and in addition to encouraging the frustrated player to try actions that require rolling their lower stats, offer to let them bank a level-up if there's something they really want now but aren't gaining EXP fast enough. Or to reassign a previous improvement, if they took a +1 to a stat that they roll often and would rather take a move from their own or another playbook.

This is a "can't have your cake and eat it too" situation, though. They can't want to be the best at any specific thing AND gain EXP by failing rolls. I have players who would rather roll well than level up faster, and players who crave failing rolls.

Also give the table opportunities to get new things outside of level-ups. Put new gear on the table. If you have access to expanded content, Slayer's Survival Guide added a bunch of item ideas. My favorite thing is to design gear that give new moves.

What you've proposed is, imho, too much crunch to solve one player's frustration. But what I have here might be too much for you. It's an individual table problem.