Recent Experience

What I Learned on an Adventure with Friends
I am back from a nearly two week vacation, much of it spent gaming with my oldest and dearest friends. These are gamers I grew up with and who now live several states away, so it is only a couple of times a year that we get to see each other. I met these guys through gaming, but they have become my best friends. I guess that is part of the magic of the gaming hobby. It is certainly one of the best perks of the hobby.
We play a lot of boardgames these days. Games played this trip included Dungeon Run, Heroes of Terrinoth, The Witcher, Legends of Andor, Advanced Squad Leader, Folklore the Affliction, Call of Cthulhu, Four Against Darkness, Arkham Horror, Mage Knight, and The Fantasy Trip. It was our first time playing some of these and The Witcher, Legends of Andor and Mage Knight stand out to me as games I definitely would like to play more of.
Of particular interest this trip was Steve Jackson Games' new Legacy Edition of The Fantasy Trip. We spent our last Saturday playing through the old MicroQuest module The Grail Quest, which is a knights of the round table, King Arthur programmed adventure for solo or group play. We have all played The Grail Quest many decades ago (long ago enough for me to forget all the encounters, etc.) using the original Melee and Wizard rules and there may have been a bit of nostalgia involved, but we all three greatly enjoyed the game.
One take-away from our play of The Grail Quest is the experience system used. Knights (that is what you play in The Grail Quest) receive experience for each point of damage they score during combat and the figure (what The Fantasy Trip calls your PC) that deals the "killing" blow also receives experience points equal to the adversary's Dexterity score. Additionally, time spent gaming earns experience at the rate of 5 points per actual hour of play. Additional experience may be awarded (or deducted) by a referee based on playing your knight "in character".
Awarding experience points based on points of damage scored during combat seems like a mechanic that I could "borrow" for use in other RPGs, including White Box. I do like awarding experience for treasure as it encourages getting the loot rather than killing the creatures, but awarding some experience for combat seems appropriate.