Reply To: D&D help wanted: Milestones variant and how much should I tell the players?

[limburger 21709xp 2]

plans rarely survive contact with the enemy … and some don’t survive contact with reality.

@lawnor unless they have a really good motivation to do ‘save the world’ chances are they will ignore everything, unless you start railroading them.

I suspect it’s best not to plan too far ahead. Also consider rewarding players with things other than plain ol’ XP.
Give them contacts or responsibilities instead.

No one has to level up because the rules say that levelling up is a thing.
Think of what a given level means in your world.
If the king himself is level 3 then consider what it means if your players reach that level themselves.
Are they as powerful as the king ?

And remember that certain things may require help from specialist npc’s.
Wizards don’t get a free spell just because they reach the next level. They need to find and learn it from a wizard somewhere.

Priests and paladins that need to ‘level up’ will have to find a quest worthy of their god.

If the focus is on pure XP then you will turn your party into a bunch of murder hobos who strip every dungeon of its treasures room by room …
If you get them used to looking for new contacts to advance their personal goals the adventure will write itself.

Always remember that bad guys never wait for the good guys to stop them. They will advance their plans.