The Politics of Hell	Evil: Law vs. Chaos	A short course on D&D	GITE: Eric John Stark	GITE: Welleran
Potions of Forgetfulness	Rings of Silence	Horn of Hadies	Chime of Warning	Apparatus of Spikey Owns
Book of a Magic-User (UA)	Leomund's Plate and Cup	DB: Slinger	FN: Painting Tutorial	-
Elvish Battle Tactics	Level Progression for Players & DMs	DMG: Developer's Notes & Interview with Gary Gygax	Monty Strikes Back	Dragon

Level Progression for
Players and Dungeon Masters
Jon Mattson

“So you play D&D too?”
“Yeah, I’m in a games club back home. We play D&D all the
time.”
“What level is your character?”
“Well, let’s see. I’ve got an eighth level elf magic user. Then I’ve
also got a six level dwarf fighter . . .”
“Hmmm, pretty good, but I. . .”
“. . . then there’s that fifth level halfling thief . . . and my tenth level
human cleric - can’t forget him. I used to have a druid but he got stoned
by a basilisk. Then there was . . .”
Not an uncommon conversation overheard at gaming conventions
or any other place that avid D&D fans meet. Though there are those
one or two particular characters of which you often speak, that you like
to represent you as a D&D player because they are high in level or are
especially favoured, there are always those half a dozen or so other
characters that never quite made the grade. There was that one who
made a tasty dessert for the tribe of Orcs, or that one who tried to move
the log that was blocking a doorway only to find out that the log was a
red dragon’s tail. Then there are those which were simply forgotten,
never to complete their daring exploits, or all the others that came to
such untimely ends. Surely they ought to be worth something, but, by
the time you’ve told a person about all these characters and their various
deeds, you might just as well have read him an autobiography of
your life from the time you began playing D&D to the present. There
must be a quicker way to prove yourself a worthy adventurer and give
yourself a slight pat on the back at the same time.
Considering this, I offer this system of player and dungeonmaster
level progression. Rather than get experience points for killing
monsters, looting treasure, and other such deeds as characters do,
players and dungeonmasters get experience points for the various D&D
campaigns they have played. Below are listed the different level titles
and experience required per level for players and dungeonmasters.
Thus a player can keep a sheet with his total experience in each category
(player experience and dungeonmaster experience), checking
every so often to see if he has advanced a level in either category. In this
way, the gamer will always know what level he is as a D&D player and a
dungeonmaster.
 
 

Game and Situation	Player E.P.	Dun. Mas. E.P.
Metamorphosis Alpha:	-	-
Per campaign you play: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	700	70
Per campaign you gamemaster: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	100	1000
Per adventure your character survives: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	125	0
Per character of your own killed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	-50	0
Per device you find and learn how to use: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	20	5
Monsters! Monsters!:	-	-
Per campaign you play: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	650	65
Per campaign you dungeonmaster: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	100	1000
Per level your character progresses above 2nd: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	75	0
Per adventure your character survives: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	75	0
Per character killed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	-50	0
Dungeon!:*	-	-
Per game played: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	200	0
Per game won: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	50	0
Per magical treasure owned at the end of the game: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	5	0
Microgames:	-	-
Per game played: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	175**	0**
Per game won: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	50	0
Kingmaker:	-	-
Per game played: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	350	0
Per game won: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	50	0
Per noble controlled at the end of the game: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	5	0
Per royal heir controlled at the end of the game: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	10	0
Games of the Starforce Trilogy (Outreach, Starforce, etc.):     Per game played: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	400	0
Per game won: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	75	0
Per technology level achieved above one (for some games): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	10	0

*Note that experience points for playing Dungeon! can be put into
either D&D experience or general gaming experience — your choice.

**Note that some Microgames will be worth more or less than 175 E.P.
depending on their complexity and playability. Also note that some Microgames
(i.e. Melee and Wizard, both in the Fantasy Trip series, which
can be played with a gamemaster) will be worth dungeonmaster experience:
generally 25

Below are listed various situations in D&D and their experience
point value in each category. Note that some will give you experience as
a player and as a dungeonmaster. For instance, if you were to play a
game of D&D, you would get 800 Player Experience Points and 80
DM XP (this would be for OD&D).
You can also get DM experience because
when you play a game of D&D you are also getting some insight into
the DM's job, what with killing various monsters (thus finding their
strengths and weaknesses) and so on. When you DM a game,
you also learn a bit about being a player, which explains the XP
earned in the player category for DMing a game.

"Oh, you play D&D too?"
"Yeah, I'm in a games club back home. We play D&D all the time."
"What level are you?"
"Well, I'm a sixth level player and a fourth level DM."
Heck of a lot easier, isn't it?
 

Situation	Player E.P.	DM E.P.
Per campaign* of basic D&D you play: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	600	60
Per campaign* of basic D&D you dungeonmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	90	900**
Per campaign* of Original D&D you play: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	800	80
Per campaign* of Original D&D you dungeonmaster: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	120	1200**
Per campaign* of Advanced D&D you play: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1000	100
Per campaign* of Advanced D&D you dungeonmaster: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	150	1500**
Per level each of your own characters progresses, 2-10: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	100	0
Per level each of your own characters progresses above 10th: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	125	0
Per dungeon level your 1st level character survives: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	150***	0
Per dungeon level your 2nd-4th level character survives: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	100***	0
Per dungeon level your 5th plus level character survives: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	50***	0
Per first level character of your own killed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	-25***	0
Per 2nd-4th level character of your own killed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	-50***	0
Per 5th plus level character of your own killed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	-75***	0
Per D&D miniatures game played: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	500	50
Per D&D miniatures game dungeonmastered: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	75	750
Per D&D miniatures game win: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	100	0
Per 5 points in value your army is above the enemy’s in      D&D miniatures if you win: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	-1****	0
Per 5 points in value your army is below the enemy’s      in D&D miniatures if you win: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	-1****	0

*In this case, a campaign is considered to be one full adventure, i.e.
if a group of characters set out to explore a five level dungeon, the
whole five levels (and only those five levels) would count as one
campaign.
**Two-thirds of this amount if you did not design the dungeon yourself
but used a borrowed dungeon, an Advanced D&D Module,
etc.
***If a character is killed but then resurrected, players lose no experience
for losing a character but gain none for having a character
survive that dungeon level.
****Up to a maximum of plus or minus 125 experience points.
Readers may notice that this system can be used not only for D&D
but for other games as well. Thus a person could keep either one experience
total in each category for both D&D and games in general, or
two totals in each. one for just D&D and one for other games. In any
event, various games are listed below with their experience point value.
Note that this list is by no means complete — it would take up far too
much time and space to list all the games that have been published at
one time or another, and it would have to be constantly revised to cover
all the new games that came out. I have merely tried to provide a broad
range of games, from fantasy role-playing (D&D and Monsters-
!Monsters!) and science fiction role-playing (Metamorphosis Alpha) to
various boardgames. For games not listed below, the experience point
value can generally be figured out by comparing them to similar games
that are listed. In cases where there are no similar games listed, simply
figure out the value yourself remembering that the more complex and
playable the game is, the more experience it will be worth. And be
realistic in assigning your point values — there’s not much satisfaction in
becoming a twentieth level gamer by playing only one or two games
that were given too much value.

LEVEL PROGRESSION: PLAYERS

Level	Title	Experience Points Required
1	Neophyte	0-999
2	Novice	1000-1999
3	Adept	2000-3999
4	Veteran	4000-5999
5	Campaigner	6000-8999
6	Adventurer	9000-11,999
7	Gamester	12,000-15,999
8	Gamester, 1st Class	16,000-19,999
9	Archgamester	20,000-24,999
10	Gamer	25,000-34,999
11	Gamer, 1st Class	35,000-49,999
12	Archgamer	50,000-64,999
13	Archgamer, 13th level	65,000-79,999
14	Archgamer, 14th level	80,000 plus 20,000 per etc. level after 14th

-

LEVEL PROGRESSION: DUNGEONMASTERS

Level	Title	Experience Points Required
1	Initiate	0-1499
2	Apprentice	1500-2999
3	Expert	3000-4499
4	Overseer	4500-5999
5	Supervisor	6000-8999
6	Moderator	9000-11,999
7	Mediator	12,000-17,999
8	Arbitrator	18,000-24,999
9	Referee	25,000-34,999
10	Referee, 1st Class	35,000-49,999
1 1	Judge	50,000-74,999
12	Dungeonmaster	75,000-99,999
13	Dungeonmaster, 13th level	100,000-124,999
14	Dungeonmaster, 14th level	125,000 plus 25,000 per etc. level after 14th

Note that a Dungeonmaster. 18th level (and higher is also called an “Overlord.”)