EXP Breakdown

This is a completely unnecessary article for anyone to read, but if you're wondering about anything related to exp progression in this campaign, this is a complete breakdown of how it works. This is subject to change at any time if I feel that progression is ocurring too quickly or too slowly per character, but I do not anticipate that happening to any major degree in either direction.
Starting Level: Every PC begins play at level 1 with 0exp. This may change as the campaign progresses in regards to PCs that are created later down the line, but for now there is no plan to make this the case. It should theoretically be easy to quickly level up a lower leveled character if they tag along with higher leveled characters, provided the higher leveled characters bother to protect the weak greenhorn.
Level Up Milestones: Milestones for exp are set at the official Paizo standard for slow campaigns, the chart you can find here. I chose the slow progression because of all the additional little boosts to exp players get from sources that Pathfinder does not officially use, all of which you will find in this article. While this is a "slow" campaign, it probably won't feel very slow after adding up all the extra bonuses.
Banking EXP: As mentioned in Character Creation/Advancement , characters do not officially gain EXP until they return to Krakonia City and spend a day of rest there. This means that characters must spend 8 hours sleeping in town, or in the case that they do not need to sleep, they must spend 8 hours "resting" by not engaging in strenuous activity. This 8 hour minimum cannot be negated or lowered by effects that limit the time spent needed to rest for other effects, such as regaining daily abilities or removing fatigue (I.e. the Recuperation mythic ability; the Nap Stack spell, etc) .
This means that characters cannot level up until they bank their exp. Since leveling up is something that occurs between sessions, and exp is calculated between sessions, exceptions may be made to this rule if it is readily apparent that a character would have leveled up after resting in Krakonia City, but they did not only because the session continued after that rest occurred. I will be paying attention to such occurances, but feel free to point out what you believe to be a mistake and I'll let you know if it was indeed a mistake or not. For the sake of ease, I will consider exp obtained via quest completion (see below) as before the rest regardless of whether or not the party actually turns in the quest before or after they rest.
Losing EXP: As a general rule of thumb, characters do not lose any exp that they have accumulated except under a single circumstance: They die. In such a case, the exp that they have accumulated leading up to the next level up is removed, starting them fresh at the beginning of their current level. This calculation is made before negative levels are calculated from spells and abilities that resurrect dead characters (i.e. Raise Dead, etc).
In very rare circumstances, however, a PC may lose EXP if, and only if, I, as the GM, determine that the player connected to that PC is disrupting the campaign in ways that cannot be resolved more amicably. Consider it a warning before being kicked from the campaign entirely. I do not anticipate such problems arising, particularly since everyone involved in this campaign has known each other for quite a while now, but this is still something that should probably still be said ahead of time just in case.
Tracking EXP/Leveling Up: Also already mentioned in the Character Creation/Advancement article, players must level up between sessions. You are not allowed to level up during a session, so any stats on your sheet that haven't been updated will remain that way until the end of session. Because of this, it is my responsibility as GM to calculate exp after a session in a timely, efficient manner, so that players have ample time to level up before the next session. EXP calculation for the session can be found at the bottom of every session summary, and there will be a google sheet tracking specifically the most recent, relevant numbers for players to glance at and find out if they leveled up.
Ok you prolific lil shit GM, how do I actually gain EXP though??? Good question, here's how:
Completing Encounters: The main way PCs gain exp is through completing encounters. This does not necessarily meaning routing the enemy through combat, but it pretty much does. However, as long as you can get beyond a particular encounter successfully, it does not matter how you do it. If you get past a possible fight with a good bluff check, for example, you will still get exp. Calculations for this may vary, however. I will not pretend like a single bluff check is valued the same as taking down an entire military just because you were allowed inside the fort and left unscathed. Realistically this exp would be calculated as if you bypassed, say, the one or two guards stationed by the gate. Encounters do not only refer to enemy NPCs, however. "Encounters" refers to any obstacle in the party's way, including creatures, traps, and other hazards.
EXP earned in this manner is flat, based on the stat blocks of the obstacles within the encounter, then divided among the number of active party members involved in the encounter. If the effective CR of an encounter is significantly lower than a single PC's level, that PC may earn less exp, if any at all, depending on how great the discrepancy is, which will be noted in the exp calculations.
Completing Quests: The AGK assigns quests to its members in order to advance the kingdom's prosperity and well-being. This will be the main way the party will obtain quest hooks, driving the story as a whole in however many directions the players choose. Completing these quests will earn participating members additional exp, a flat number determined by the difficulty of the quest. Personal quests that are not sanctioned by the AGK or other organizations may also grant exp as a reward, again depending on the difficulty of the task as a whole. I should note that this is also the best way to keep up with the wealth progression of the campaign, as official quest rewards will be weighted based on the difficulty as well. Also notably, if I feel a particular PC did not participate enough to earn the same flat exp rate as the rest of the PCs in the party, that may be reflected through that PC only receiving a fraction of the exp. This will really only happen in situations where a PC technically was part of a quest but only showed up to a small portion of it.
Roleplay: Probably the most relevant reason for why this is a typed campaign, roleplay is the other significant way to earn exp in The Hook. All actions, dialogue, and personal thoughts are tracked and weighted by the GM between sessions. A typical line of any of these things is worth 0.1% progression towards your next level up. This means that roleplay is weighted so that it does not matter what level you are, you are growing to the next level at the same rate due to it. Not all lines are weighted equally, however. A particularly creative choice may be worth up to 0.25%, and a particularly simple/repetitive line may be worth down to 0.05%. This may seem like a bunch of obscure numbers, but think of them less as percents and more as points. 1 point is worth .05%, 2 points is 0.1%, and 4 points is 0.2%. This calculation is perhaps the most likely to change as the campaign moves forward, as I get a better idea of how quickly/slowly roleplay grows your characters. Regardless, let's break these points down further:
Simple/Repetitive lines (1 point/0.05% progression): A line of simple or repetitive dialogue is one in which a character utters a single word or basic phrase, or a line that they have already said in the recent past. A simple line may also refer to one in which nothing is truly added to a situation to move things forward, either for plot reasons or for character development ones. A simple/repetitive action is one in which the player describes the bare minimum of their action, or does the same thing many times.
Progressive lines (2 points/0.1% progression): A progressive line of dialogue is one in which a character shows their personality and/or adds additional clarity to the situation at hand, moving things forward either for plot purposes or character purposes.
Creative lines (4 points/0.2% progression): Reserved for the coolest moments of the session, a creative line is one in which a character says or does something beyond the expected scope of the player.
Note that these points are assigned based entirely on GM discretion, so do not worry too much on trying to sound like someone you are not. I get that not everyone here is a dramatic storyteller with years of experience under their belts, so it is far better for you to stay true to yourselves than to try and emulate your best impression of a good writer. Having many simple lines is weighed the same as a few creative ones, after all.
I can all but guarantee that attempts to abuse this calculation system by spamming simple lines will be egregiously obvious, so don't even try it. You will get no credit for obvious filler and may even get a stern finger wag or two. At the end of the day, this is a collaborative storytelling experience, so keep that in mind before blatantly annoying everybody.
Exploration EXP: PCs gain a little bit of EXP for every tile that they explore on the map, depending on how effectively they explore it. See Exploring the Map for details on overland movement, but here's what you should know in regards to earning exploration exp. This is meant to be more of a cherry on top rather than anything else, as this is flat exp that will get increasingly less relevant as you level up. Each tier of exploration earns you 10exp per tile (Passing Through=10exp, Passive Exploration=20exp, Active Exploration=30exp, Dedicated Exploration=40exp). Dedicatedly exploring 75 tiles without doing anything else will level you up to 2, which would take the average PC the greater part of a year, and it only gets longer from there. If, for whatever reason, you wanted to rely solely on exploration exp, you would need to dedicatedly explore 133,750 tiles in order to reach level 20, which is notably 22,528 tiles more than the entire planet can spare, and it would take you over 1,200 years at a regular pace. Not impossible, mind you, but highly impracticle, and would make for a pretty boring campaign. Notably, whenever a party discovers a new, notable landmark that the NPCs at Krakonia City do not know about, they gain an additional 100exp.
Participation EXP: It is my personal motto that a player should benefit from showing up to session regardless of whether or not they actually manage to accomplish anything. Because of this, PCs receive 1% of the exp needed for the next level up for every hour their controlling player spent in session. This exp gets divided between multiple PCs if they're controlled by the same player at the same time. This means that technically all you have to do to level up is play for 100 hours without doing anything. I hope I don't have to explain why I don't recommend that strategy.
Passive EXP: Because there will be downtime for many characters by virtue of the nature of this campaign, it only follows that they would find ways to improve themselves in a safe environment (i.e. training swordplay at the barracks, researching new spells at the library, practicing new songs to play on the kazoo, whatever). For every in-game day a PC spends in Krakonia City, they earn 5exp. This will give a little push to the secondary PCs that don't go out on quests as often, as well as primary PCs for players that can't come to sessions often. Simply existing in Krakonia City will level an adventurer up to 2 after about a year and a half, but will take 2,547 years to hit level 20. This passive exp will only begin to accumulate after the PC first appears in the campaign, meaning you can't create like ten PCs on day 1 and have them all sit around gaining exp like some sort of free to play idle farming simulator. Passive exp will be calculated along with everything else after each session, but in the event that a secondary party forms some time in the past to do a different quest, I will remove any participation exp that has already been calculated. In the unlikely event that this would remove a level from a character, the character will get to keep the exp necessary to keep them at that level, if for no other reason than to prevent players from having to un-level their character. We'll just handwave it that something happened "offscreen," if you will, that resulted in the character growing at a faster rate than expected.
Bonus EXP: Considering how many other bonuses to EXP have been written out already, this may as well be read as "Other," and should really only refer to additional actions taken by players outside the realm of the campaign itself. Bonus EXP may be assigned to PCs depending on GM discretion, and may include things such as helping the GM with notetaking or otherwise keeping the GM on track, leveling up fellow party members that need assistance, or writing additional in-character roleplay between sessions (i.e. keeping a journal, creating a scene between PCs, etc). This section is intentionally left vague because there is much room for interpretation as well as abuse to the system, so even if you do something one time to earn bonus exp, that does not necessarily mean you'll earn the same exp when doing it a second time.
A Note on Mythic Tiers: Mythic progression is being left vague on purpose for story progression reasons. I am tracking potential milestones in a secret doc on my computer for each individual PC for methods of ascension and gaining additional tiers. Just know that the potential to ascend to mythic does not necessarily mean you even ever will actually ascend, even by the time you reach level 20 (although it is likely). Methods of ascending and gaining tiers will likely become more evident as the campaign progresses for PCs that wish to follow the footsteps of their peers that have already ascended.