Try GP for XP to Stop the Endless Combat Slogs in Your Game

In Old School D&D, you got most of your XP for treasure. Not for kills — for gold. You leveled up by dragging loot back to the village, and it changed everything about how your 5e D&D sessions actually played at the table. In this video I make the case that GP-for-XP is the single most underrated rule in Old School D&D, why 5e D&D's milestone and combat-XP systems quietly trained your players to fight every encounter, and the exact rule you can drop into your 5e game this weekend to turn your dungeons from combat slogs into actual puzzles. If you're a 5e DM whose sessions feel like one fight after another with nothing in between, watch this video.If you want to see what's coming next in the D&D game I'm building, my Patreon has all the work-in-progress: patreon.com/Joethelawyer📍 Substack (weekly companion essays): Discord (community): Podcast (Spotify, Apple, Rumble — all platforms): search “Joethelawyer's Analog Mancave"Channel membership ($0.99/month for early access and members-only updates on the game): the channel I cover D&D 5e, OSR, old-school D&D, tabletop RPG advice, classic dungeon design, and what makes great sessions actually feel great. New long-form video every Monday at noon Eastern.#DnD

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Try GP for XP to Stop the Endless Combat Slogs in Your Game is an episode from Joethelawyer's Not-So-Wondrous Imaginings by Joethelawyer .

This episode is 00:06:51 long.

This episode was published on May 11, 2026.

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