One recent idea I had regards experience progression and leveling. I was thinking why not get rid of XP all together? I mean, I get it, XP works really well to let you calculate exactly how many goblins you need to kill to level up. In my experience though experience points sometimes just get in the way or are redundant. You don't need to be totaling experience to realize the 10xp a level 5 Fighter gets from a lone goblin is pretty insignificant. Another problem I have seen is some players doing stuff specifically to try to get XP, like killing hobbit children (sure we were like 13, but still). The challenge and difficulty of rising through the levels definitely needs to increase, but nowadays I'm not so sure that crunching numbers is the best way to do it.
I would rather ask my party to come up with a goal, a quest worthy goal, which is informed by their exploration of the game world. We would discuss the goal, the players and I, and try to come to an agreement about what type of goal would be suitable for the party level and their current situation.
If the party is able to achieve their goal, or make some other significant accomplishment then the entire party can level up.
In this model leveling up entails:
a hit point increase,
a increase in renown and prestige in the game world,
and possibly some incidental benefits,
NO new abilities or powers would be gained.
To gain new class abilities, powers, feats, or skills, the player and I would have to set a character goal relating to the desired ability.
Example: Snagg the Barbarian wants to learn how to perform a mighty cleave attack with his great axe. We decide that to learn this Snagg must strike with his great axe and roll the maximum result on the damage dice 10 times, only worthy and dangerous opponents will count (no hobbit children!).
So that's one quick example but hopefully it gets my point across.
More on this later...
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