My players are XP junkies. I guess everyone likes reaping the rewards of - ahem - hard work. I found that calculating experience points from the tables in the Dungeon Master Guide is rarely representative of how difficult an encounter, game, or campaign was.

There’s probably a hundred different ways to award XP in a just and logical way, but here’s what I have found to work to best over time:

How often do you want to level up?

That’s what it all amounts to, right? There’s no limit to how fast you can level up your players. However, the faster the players gain experience points, the less they appreciate it. For me, the amount of experience points awarded has more to do with how often I can get together with all my friends and play D&D.

Right now, my regular party is split over 3 cities and 2 countries… in the real world! We’re having a hard time all being in the same place at once. Under these circumstances, I’ll be enclined to give a lot of XPs. Maybe the characters will level up every game, or every other game. If I played every week, I’d give less XPs.

How long should you play at low-level?

Playing and DMing low-level character (lvl 1-6) is very different than playing medium- to high-level character. It is just as fun to play low-levels, but it’s harder to plan for. The characters don’t have varied skills and resources and it can get boring if stretched too long, unless the game is all about role-playing. I like to breeze through the low-levels. One level per game for 6 or 7 games, then the rythm slows down and the players learn how to use their abilities to the fullest before leveling again.