Steven Barker
First Post
The Advancement section of N.E.W. (and the other WOIN rule books) suggests that GMs should give out XP in multiples of the character's current grade (when using "fast" advancement mode at least). For instance, a hard fight (or two medium challenges) should reward everyone involved with double their grade in XP. I think this is slightly problematic if the characters end up at different grade levels.
I would suggest that rewards for any given encounter (or session of encounters or milestones) should be based off one grade level for the whole party. It doesn't really matter if that's the highest grade level among the characters or the lowest, or some kind of median or average. Just so long as the party-wide XP rewards are the same for everyone.
Here's my reasoning:
Under the current system, if one character is ahead of another character by one session or more worth of XP, they'll tend to stay that same number of sessions ahead forever, even as the amount of XP per session increases as the party gets to higher grades. The reason is that the character with more XP will tend to level up sooner, and so by the rules in the book, they'll also earn more XP in the sessions where the two characters have different grades.
For example, if one character has just advanced to level 6, they'll earn 18 XP from a session that included 3 medium difficulty challenges (or the equivalent). Another who's one session behind them will only be at grade 5, so they'll only earn 15 XP (and level up at the end of the session). But there's a difference of 3 XP between what the two characters earned. That's exactly the difference between one session at grade 5 and one session at grade 6, so the two characters remain exactly one session apart.
On the other hand, if the XP reward was the same for the whole party, the grade 5 and grade 6 characters would both get either 15 or 18 XP, and so the difference in XP between them would remain the same in absolute terms. As the characters level up though, that constant XP difference will shrink relative to the XP reward per session. By the time they reach grade 10, what was a full session's difference at grade 5 will have been reduced to half a session, and the two characters are much more likely to advance at the same time (i.e. at the end of the same session).
What do you guys think? Should their be even more mechanical effort to make parties spanning several grades better able to converge? Or should it just be left up to the GM to fudge things to make it better?
I would suggest that rewards for any given encounter (or session of encounters or milestones) should be based off one grade level for the whole party. It doesn't really matter if that's the highest grade level among the characters or the lowest, or some kind of median or average. Just so long as the party-wide XP rewards are the same for everyone.
Here's my reasoning:
Under the current system, if one character is ahead of another character by one session or more worth of XP, they'll tend to stay that same number of sessions ahead forever, even as the amount of XP per session increases as the party gets to higher grades. The reason is that the character with more XP will tend to level up sooner, and so by the rules in the book, they'll also earn more XP in the sessions where the two characters have different grades.
For example, if one character has just advanced to level 6, they'll earn 18 XP from a session that included 3 medium difficulty challenges (or the equivalent). Another who's one session behind them will only be at grade 5, so they'll only earn 15 XP (and level up at the end of the session). But there's a difference of 3 XP between what the two characters earned. That's exactly the difference between one session at grade 5 and one session at grade 6, so the two characters remain exactly one session apart.
On the other hand, if the XP reward was the same for the whole party, the grade 5 and grade 6 characters would both get either 15 or 18 XP, and so the difference in XP between them would remain the same in absolute terms. As the characters level up though, that constant XP difference will shrink relative to the XP reward per session. By the time they reach grade 10, what was a full session's difference at grade 5 will have been reduced to half a session, and the two characters are much more likely to advance at the same time (i.e. at the end of the same session).
What do you guys think? Should their be even more mechanical effort to make parties spanning several grades better able to converge? Or should it just be left up to the GM to fudge things to make it better?
