Experience points for what?
D&D needs experience points to truly and fully be a game in which player skill and choices matter. Rewarding skillful play and avoiding the subjectivity of DM fiat as much as possible make for a more rewarding gaming experience. But simply having an XP mechanic is not enough -- experience point awards must incentivize the right things to maximize the range of player choice and properly recognize its results. (What's "right" is a matter of debate, but DMs should at least be fully cognizant of what actions their XP systems encourage and discourage.) XP awards can be broken down into two broad categories: XP for accomplishments and XP for actions. The former is about broad objectives, with little or no regard for the strategies and methods used to accomplish it. XP for treasure is one prominent example. It doesn't matter whether the PC party gets loot by combat, by exploration and searching, by stealth, by negotiation and diplomacy, or by some combination of all. S...