The D20 system reference document doesn't include an experience point chart or character advancement rules, so you have to add your own. Of course, I have my own provisional system (which I might more about later sometime), but my system can always be improved. One of its problems is that it relies heavily on DM's judgment when to roll.
So I got to looking at the Sweet20 experience system. Have you heard of that? It moves beyond free form experience points by creating rules for when the DM should hand out experience, not just vague suggestions about moving up after a fixed number of sessions or encouraging good roleplaying. It's an interesting system that seems vaguely familiar, like I've encountered something similar before.
The way Sweet20 works is that each character is customized with a list of goals, or "keys," as they're called. These keys describe what each character is trying to accomplish. Every session, each character receives experience points for accomplishing these goals. The more difficult or dangerous, the more experience you get. You get extra points for progressive character arcs (changing your goals over time). Another twist is that you can temporarily lose experience for violating your keys.
It sounds good, but I've never play tested it, which makes me a little wary. Also, it seems to me it could use some tightening up. It needs a wider variety of keys, and I tend to think it should integrate with character classes and alignment somehow. Loyalty and law-abiding keys should really only be used by lawful character, for instance.
More than this, there's something gnawing at me about a system like this, but I can't quite think what it is. But I've got a lot of ideas rolling around in my head for improved social mechanics, and it's hard work. Maybe if I let it germinate something clever will eventually pop out.
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