If you go through the history of Dungeons and Dragons to some of the earliest game design, you can see that the incentive was not only to go into the depths of underground catacombs, but to get all that sweet loot out again. This is the point of calculating coin weights, the existence of Tenser's Floating Disc, and the DM dick move of making all the Dragon's hoard in Copper Pieces; the gold doesn't matter if you can't get it back to somewhere you can spend it. It also requires you to find a large enough economy in which you can convert your treasures into more usable coin. You can't just get to the local one horse, three pig, nowheresville and expect the local tavern owner to have enough money to give market value for the emerald encrusted idol of the elephant god (although it could make a very nice addition to the common room, maybe bring in some of that noble trade... something to think about).
"You only get XP for the gold you get back to town" is a pretty standard practice, and I don't think I am breaking any new ground in suggesting it. However, I am suggesting one step further; killing the Beast of Gévaudan doesn't matter if no-one ever hears that it was you that did it.
You only get XP for monsters you have defeated if you get to tell the tale. This is distinct from getting to a town with gold (although you can certainly roll them both into one), but even if you get to a lone trading post, out of the way inn, or meet a travelling singer on the road as long as you get the stories of your adventures told that is when you get the XP.
It requires a little extra bookeeping, but a little that can easily be handed off to the players! After all, it is they who are telling the story. If they keep a tally of all the things they have killed, all the monsters defeated, and have to retell the stories of (or at least relist) the adversaries they fought to the audience they are telling the tale to then you can be sure they will be doing this for XP.
If you use this format as the only way to get XP, you can probably use the standard formula for the system. However, if you are using it as a sort of bonus (ie: in conjunction with rules that allow a bonus for gold brought back to town such as carousing/philanthropy) then you can probably stand to modify the calculus somewhat. Only one XP dip for each type of enemy per story (unless there's a particularly cool kill, or story about tricking or otherwise defeating them), and maybe an exponential increase in XP based on hit dice (incentivizing hunting the biggest monsters for the best stories).
Alternative XP mechanic: XP as Class
This is a mechanic to incentivize particular behavior for particular classes. A rogue wants to steal gold and treasures, a fighter wants to fight the strongest opponents, and a wizard wants weird magical crap.
So, in this XP is as normal, however bonus XP depends on class (figured as Fighter, Thief and Wizard). The fighter gets bonus XP for every creature fought and successfully bragged about. This incentivizes the fighter to fight things and to throw their lives away in death or glory charges. Alternatively, if using the unique creature limit and exponential hit dice increase, it makes fighters into dragon hunters wanting to find the biggest coolest nastiest thing to kill. You of course need to find an audience for this, so you need to find somewhere with a tavern, and preferably a bard to whip your story up into something really cool.
You only get the bonus for treasure brought back to town if you are a thief. You have to fence the treasures through the local mob syndicate or thieves guild or what have you, so you need to find a town which can support such an economy. It also means you want to hoard and transport wealth, every single copper is a bonus bit of kudos with your fellows. Probably best that the fenced loot can be converted into goods and services as well (it's not the miser class after all), but it does mean you don't want to waste money throwing it away on tacky shows of ostentation in the boonies.
So where does this leave our poor Wizard, sitting out in the cold with no bonus XP to warm them? Well, there are a couple of possibilities: firstly, you could leave around Wizard Rare Candies that immediately grant a level (such as the Treasures in Lair of the Lamb), or determine that Wizards get the gold value XP of any magical items found lying around. However, both of these depend a little too much on GM fiat, tend to seesaw more extremely than the above two, and don't require the loot be taken anywhere.
An alternative is: no cost for spell scribing. You just need to get a spellbook or scroll to a scriptorium, or lab, or other reasonable studio and you have that spell! It means that Wizards will be even more eager to seek out spellbooks and scrolls, and happy to trawl around the lairs of evil liches looking for somewhere with a bench and some writing implements. If you have a standard medieval fantasy world, you can make the places where you can set up to write even more idiosyncratic than the locations for fighters and thieves! This also levels out the XP progression for Wizards against thieves and fighters, if they are getting bonus stuff more often, but bonus XP less.
You could expand this to other classes based on what you think they should be incentivized to do. Clerics getting XP for conversion and healing for example, but only when they return to a temple of their god. Mixed classes getting half the bonus for a mix of tasks such as Bards getting half the rogue XP for treasure back in town, and half fighter XP for monster hunting stories spread.
XP as Class: Hard Mode
Bascially, as above, but it is the only way to get any XP is for the actions of your class. It might be an idea to nix the "take it somewhere" element of the above. It also makes characters much more in competition and uneasy allegiance, so it may not work too well. However, it does lead to definite character incentives linked to their archetypes.
However, this in conjunction with the Wizard's spell copying means that Wizards would not get any XP. Which, in this instance: Wizards do not level. Instead, they can always cast all of the spells they know, all the time. As soon as you find a new spell, it's yours and you know it. It makes Wizards glass cannons even more so, as they never move beyond the "get one-shotted by a goblin" stage. If you need to limit this, you could say that every spell gets a "once per day" fire and forget, or you could say that Wizards level up by number of spells known. However, this would really drive the magic users to be looking out for sites of ancient mystery and forgotten lore.
Anyway, that's my alternate XP system. Mybe there's something useful in there, let me know if you think you could use any ideas from it.
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