One topic of conversation I see over and over is character advancement. Some prefer Experience Points calculated based on challenge rating. Others use Milestones, where the game master decides when the characters advance, generally keeping everybody the same level.

I found both of these options to be lacking. How much experience do you award for roleplay encounters? What if your players take combat slowly? Managing experience points involves a lot of bookkeeping, but assigning milestones gives up the sense of accomplishment. Progressing towards a level is exciting! As is earning that next level before the rest of the party.

Something better?

Though I didn’t enumerate them when I was deciding which system to use, there were several qualities I wanted in an advancement system:

• Requires low or very low bookkeeping.
• Maintains the excitement of progressing towards a level.
• Allows PCs to be at different levels from each other.
• Higher levels are more difficult to earn than lower levels.
• Reaches max level in a reasonable amount of time.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything introduced a system called “Shared Campaign Character Advancement” that was based on “checkpoints”: You earn 1 checkpoint per intended hour of play, and you need a certain number of points to advance to the next level (4 points for each level 2-5, 8 points for each greater level). While I liked this, and it hit several of my points, it still left me wanting.

Instead, I’ve been using a modification of that system: a character earns 1 checkpoint per hour of play time, and each level costs a number of points equal to the level. New characters start at the total checkpoints of the lowest active player. Eg: If you are level 5, it will require 6 checkpoints, and thus 6 hours of play, to reach level 6.

The biggest thing I like about this over the XGtE option is that it leaves the onus of behaviour with the players. Instead of being tied to specific tasks, like slaying monsters, they get rewarded for playing however they find fun. We’ve had whole sessions spent playing drinking games in the local bar; if I were to disincentivize that it would be no different than telling them “your fun is wrong,” which is never okay

Further, players still get to track how close they are to a level, and they still get excited when they are approaching the next. Most importantly: super easy bookkeeping: “Today’s session lasted 3 hours, so everybody add 3 points!”

I also like to introduce extra opportunities to earn those checkpoints: writing session summaries for in-game journals, creating props, off-session roleplay in discord, one-on-one sessions, etc.

Inevitably though, a character falls behind. While I do like when there is some variability of character level, I don’t like too much: I generally ensure that the lowest and highest levels are only 1 from the median. If most characters are level 4, it’s ok if a couple are level 3 or 5, but nothing outside that range. If a character would fall below the low point, I just bump them up.

Sometimes, a character earns too many checkpoints, be that from always showing up, doing lots of off-session roleplay, etc. I don’t want to deprive the over-achieving player of their benefits, though. Instead of using their checkpoints on levels, I allow these characters to buy Feats and Ability Score Increases (ASI) with their checkpoints. The first Feat or ASI costs 3 checkpoints, and each subsequent one costs 3 more than the last.

But what about point 5: how long does this all take? Assuming the characters start at level 1, they will need a total of 209 checkpoints to reach level 20. Assuming the group meets weekly and plays 4 hour sessions, they will have earned 208 checkpoints after 52 weeks. In practice, this seems like it will take closer to 15 months, due to scheduling, etc. I feel like that’s a good rate, but the system is easy to scale for faster or slower growth, as your party needs!

Photo by Philip Mitchell.