For the record, I don't condone giving out 'tons of exp'. I've championed the cause of increased experience awards, but mostly for roleplaying, which I've often felt as a player was unappreciated by many moderators in their exp rewards.

I've played characters for months not to get a single exp point after having posted once every two days for three months. Not just two line posts, but posts that took time, care and thought to create. When questioned as to why I wasn't awarded an exp the answer was something on the lines of 'you haven't fought anything'. As a player, that is not entirely in my control, and I'm not going to start slaying just anyone for exp. Therefore, I had no control over such things. The bottom line was that I worked my butt off and got nothing back from it. In the end here, I was much happier when I withdrew my character and moved on to a moderator that appreciated my work.

Then in other cases where at least some small amount of exp was rewarded, combat would ensue at some point. When the smoke cleared, I was rewarded the same amount of exp for my two paragraph posts including OOC commentary to clarify as were those that posted two lines at best. You can hold your own opinion about it, but to me, that is the epitome of unfair.

These are of course worst case scenarios I've seen here, but illustrate the point a bit. This is a third edition AD&D website... but it is also an outlet for creative writing, characterization and all the other things that go with 'roleplaying' in a written environment. Those that put effort into it should be rewarded.

SGM Silverback mentioned either above or in another thread that 'why should a character level just for good roleplaying in a fight that only has 2-3 combats?'. I take the exact opposite end of the spectrum on that view and the above points are why. I have a character who leveled up on CORE before she ever had an in game fight. I think I posted for six months to get to that point, and in the end it was one of the most rewarding level ups I've ever had. I poured my heart into the character, used my skills at every opportunity... gave it my all.

My bottom line point is that you don't have to give out a 'ton of exp' as a moderator. Small amounts on a regular basis works well, but should also be adjusted for the level of the player group. Assigning a monthly bonus of 100exp for roleplaying to a 20th level group means nothing to those characters as far as advancement. I think deep down we all like to see our characters advance and grow, especially after we've put tons of work into them, right? :)