Experience Points are also known by the abbreviation: XP.
An experience point (or XP) is a unit of measurement used to quantify a player character’s life experience and progression through the game. Experience Points are generally awarded for the completion of quests, missions, overcoming obstacles and opponents, and for successful role-playing.
During tasks, quests, adventures, wanderings, obtaining treasure, defeating foes and resolving puzzles and a lot of other different situations, player characters gain experiences that help them to do better at what they usually do or learn new things. In other words, advance their level.
The GM can also reward players with XP when they come up with clever thoughts, or when they follow the narration.
Player Characters start out fairly weak and untrained. When a sufficient amount of experience is obtained, the character “levels up”, achieving the next stage of character development. Such an event provides various bonuses and rewards for the character.
As the difficulty of the challenge increases, the experience awarded for overcoming it also increases. As character’s gain more experience points, the amount of experience needed to gain further bonuses increases.
XP is awarded each turn. The new XP gets applied to the character’s total XP from which the character will level up upon reaching the next required XP amount.
The Experience Points received each turn is also used to determine the amount of Minor Ability Points that are awarded that can then be distributed amongst the player character’s minor ability scores.