Three-Pillar Experience

From the introduction: Back when we were designing fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, we talked about the game’s three pillars: exploration, social interaction, and combat. By thinking about social interaction and exploration as foundational aspects of D&D, we made sure we were always looking beyond combat when designing the game. Fighting easily draws the most attention in terms of rules and game balance, but the other two elements are just as important in making each game session exciting and unique. This article presents an alternative way to award experience points (XP) by focusing on the three pillars. It also seeks to simplify XP tracking by incorporating elements inspired by the milestone system of awarding experience.