Session Experience

There a few main drivers for session-based experience. The first being to allow sessions without combat to have just as much of an impact as those that are combat heavy. The second is to allow a DM to hand out experience at the immediate end of a session without needing to know how much each creature defeated is worth or determining how much experience to give for political maneuvering. The final driver for this method is to reduce the amounts of experience to more managable amounts.

Gaining Experience

At the end of each session the DM will give an amount of experience based on the events of the session and the average level of the characters. Add the given experience to the amount your character started the session at and use the following table to determine when a character gains a level.

Experience Table

Level	Required Experience
1st	0
2nd	5
3rd	10
4th	20
5th	30
6th	45
7th	65
8th	85
9th	105
10th	125
11th	150
12th	180
13th	210
14th	245
15th	280
16th	315
17th	355
18th	395
19th	435
20th	475

Handing Out Experience

At the end of the session the DM should give each character present the same amount of experience points based on the average party level and how much progress was made during the session. If more progress was made then anticipated or the party overcame a major goal an additional point of experience can be given out. If little to no progress was made towards a goal one less experience can be given.

An example would be a level 5 party would normally earn 4 experience points each for a session where they explored the local lair of a kobold clan or tracked down an antidote for a local debilitating disease. They might also only earn 3 experience points for a session where they spent most of the time haggling with local merchants and carousing about town trying to find more work. On the flipside of that they might earn 5 experience points for defeating a great beast that had being causing great trouble for the hamlet or overthrowing the local baron.

Additionally the amount given can be adjusted by one to allow for slower or faster leveling. Use the following table to determine the amount of experience to give.

Average Party Level	Low	Average	High
1 - 3	2	3	4
4 - 6	3	4	5
7 - 9	4	5	6
10-12	5	6	7
13-15	6	7	8
16-19	7	8	9

Session Zero

This method assumes a session zero where the DM and the players roll characters, invent backstories, and talk about what they want from the campaign. At the end of session zero the DM should give the characters 2 experience points.