Awarding XP

New to D&D Beyond campaigns. Instead of failing my party again, I must ask: 

How does the DM award XP to the players? I've had to manually go in and raise their levels. Any tips or advice is appreciated! 

I just tell them how many XP they get and let them add it manually.

Exactly what BioWizard said, the players are meant to know how much XP they need/how to level up. All the rules are in the Players Hand Book. You should also check out milestone leveling in the DMG, it's pretty cool! 

New to being a DM

My question re: awarding XP...

Does the PC who strikes the killing blow get all of the XP for taking out the foe or is it dispersed amongst all who contributed in fighting the defeated creature?

Normally the entire party gets XP for the entire encounter, divided equally among them, provided that they succeeded at their goals/task and that they all contributed in some way. Usually this does not have to be monitored. There is no "kill shot xp" in D&D.

Typically you build the encounter, and you know it is worth, say, 1,000 XP. There are 5 party members. If they get past/defeat/succeed at the encounter, whatever it is, however they succeed, you give them 1,000/5 XP each.

Thanks for the tip 🙏🏾

Quote from eightyocho >>

New to being a DM

My question re: awarding XP...

Does the PC who strikes the killing blow get all of the XP for taking out the foe or is it dispersed amongst all who contributed in fighting the defeated creature?

 

 Additionally, if you monitor your game, you will notice some PC getting more "kill shots" than others. If xp were distributed this way, support/healer PCs would have a very difficult time leveling. It would also influence player choice if they knew this is how your game was being run. Helpful actions would happen less often and more people would try to get that "kill shot".

Thanks for this added insight

This makes a lot of sense 👍🏾

Firstly, did you really win a Grammy? That's awesome! 

As DM you have all authority. DnD is not a democracy. That said, most DM"s i've come across divide XP evenly for all combat participants in the party regardless of who does the killing blow. Milestone leveling up is good too.  Then you don't have to calculate experience points for anyone. Just play two or three sessions and level everyone up.  Increase the number of sessions between leveling up as they get higher. 

It keeps things a lot simpler if the whole party always has the same amount of experience points. Some players will clap back if you try to give experience points to one guy and not somebody else. And that's fine too.  Let them clap. The DM still has final say. Good luck. I think you will make an excellent DM. It's all about fun. 

Thanks for the advice & it will be used for sure

Yeah... I was nominated for 2 or 3 Grammys but only won one (so far)

I produced a song called "No Church In The Wild" for Kanye, Jay Z which featured Frank Ocean (w/ additional vocals by The-Dream)

The song was nominated in two categories & Rihanna beat us out for Best Video or something like that

Then another nomination after that for a song called "All Day" by Kanye as well... I had very little to do w/ this song as he literally used a joke I told in the studio on as lyric on that song & he wound up giving me credit for "contribution" 😅

Congratulations on your music success.  That's rare.  I'm so happy to live in a time when cool people are playing DnD!  It's not just for nerds anymore. lol

Oh... I'm still a "nerd" by almost every definition

Sorry to burst your bubble 😅

And I'm pulling Kanye into it... He & I have been best friends for the past 22 years & counting

He's literally waiting for me to have my first (official) game before he dives in so I could tell him about my experience

I went through the preliminary stages of helping him create his character: he chose to be a Dragonborn Monk

Then rolled THREE 18s when we did his ability score rolls using the 4d6 method

Like this guy literally can't lose in life 😅 Wild...

Wow.  Ok I went and listened to Death of Adam. Good stuff man! Many good grooves. You're gonna make a kickass DM.

At the risk of being gauche, I'm going to give you my top DM advice as someone who’s played the game on and off since the mid-eighties. How often does one get the chance to share DnD thoughts with the guy who's probably going to end up being Kanye West's Dungeon Master? So forgive me, it's an opportunity I can’t let slip by even if it is bad form.

Every DM has a different style so better DM’s than me on here may have wiser shit to say. Also, creative types like you make good DM's and DMing is an art form for sure.

1) The DM is not responsible for bringing any snacks. The players bring the snacks.

2) The DM should know the rules but you don’t need to know them all. Appoint a rules checker from among the players who will have the Players Handbook and do the actual looking up of any rules if there’s a question and there will be. If you are playing with people new to the game have the rules checker read the rule aloud so everyone is learning it together, but then you get to make the call since you’re DM. If no one volunteers for this duty rotate it each session. And don’t let too much rule checking slow down the play. Sometimes it’s better to make a call and just keep going.

3) So when you prep to DM you generally maybe read the whole adventure you are doing once through but then for any one particular session you will only be preparing a few different encounters that might arise in that session.  Inevitably the party will go in directions you didn’t expect or plan for. So when you prep you want to try to be aware of everywhere they might end up so you have somewhat of a grip on the different places or scenarios that could arise. You don’t want to try to plan or force where they end up. You may direct them some but generally you want them to decide where to go.  Don’t railroad them. So that means you gotta have the various possibilities mapped out in your prep work a little and then you’re sort of ready. DMing is like having kids. You’re never ready. And you probably won’t get as far as you think you will in one session.

4) Get them rolling the dice. Little ability checks here and there help involve them when you are narrating. And try to narrate only as much as you need to and no more. Get them talking.

5) You can appoint someone else to write/handle the initiative order for combat ( a dry erase board is good since it changes every fight). If everyone you’re playing with is new to the game you wanna have the initiative order displayed for everyone so they know to hurry back in from getting their cocktail or whatever in the kitchen when its about to be their turn and it might encourage them to try to figure out what the hell they want to do before it’s their turn.

6) Herb and alcohol go great with DnD but for a DM I’d say too much herb is better than too much alcohol. DnD is social first and foremost. And women like playing DnD if you are worried about it being a sausage fest. And I wouldn't have guns near the table either. I've almost had fights break out twice while playing DnD.

7) It’s a fantasy game but you can and should still apply any kind of realism to it that you can. For instance, when a party I was DMing was fighting a green dragon I had some ammonia in a shot glass and got them each to take a little whiff once the dragon breathed on them so they’d get a little taste of what the poison gas might be like if it filled their lungs. Or another example is that on Youtube you can find recordings of what a Gibbering Mouther might sound like. Using pictures on screens or recorded sounds can both quickly describe something to the players way better than the DM talking and talking can. But be careful not to overdo it if you do use pictures from the internet to show them. It’s easy to go overboard with too much imagery. Still a picture is worth 1000 words.

8) If the fight is dragging on increase the amount of damage the villains do but lower their hit points. This is a well-known trick to make the fight real serious, desperate and fast. 

9) Heroes die. If the dice kill a character so be it. It’s nothing personal. You’re not really a seasoned DM until you’ve presided over a Total Party Kill in my opinion. TPK’s can sneak up on you. One dies, then two and then soon oh shit. Everyone’s dead. It happens. And it’s sad sometimes.

10) Finally, don’t film it. DnD is one of those things that’s coolest when you are actually in there playing it in the moment. You can learn good stuff from watching Matthew Mercer’s Youtube stuff or people like him, but generally DnD doesn’t translate well to being filmed because most of it is going on in everyone’s minds. People who don’t get it don’t get it. They just see nerds around a table with books and toy figurines. It kills the mystique to film it in my opinion.

Ok I’m done hogging your feed man. I really hope you guys enjoy the game and win more Grammy’s.

PS Here's a good little detail about metallic dragonborns . They sometimes like to snack on their treasure like gold and silver and jewels. It makes their scales shinier. I guess it makes them shit gold too. And if anyone’s DnD character should be able to shit gold it probably should be Kanye West’s character.

Quote from eightyocho >>

Oh... I'm still a "nerd" by almost every definition

Sorry to burst your bubble 😅

And I'm pulling Kanye into it... He & I have been best friends for the past 22 years & counting

He's literally waiting for me to have my first (official) game before he dives in so I could tell him about my experience

I went through the preliminary stages of helping him create his character: he chose to be a Dragonborn Monk

Then rolled THREE 18s when we did his ability score rolls using the 4d6 method

Like this guy literally can't lose in life 😅 Wild...

 me and this man are both at the beginning stages of our dming career except I'm dming for a my dumb friends and THIS MAN is dming for KANYE

I should add a caveat for safety purposes. Make sure you tell them to inhale lightly if you give them any ammonia to sniff. We almost had one kid fall out when I did that.