D&D 5E XP for Gold (without the XP)

[Charlaquin]

My experience with training costs, however well intentioned, is parties forever in debt to generous patrons, and an attitude to dungeon exploration exemplified by questions like, "How much are those curtains worth, do we think?" I know (and play with) DM's who still enjoy this mode of play, but it's not for me.

It is a mode of play I’m interested in exploring. But it’s understandable if it’s not to your tastes.

 

[iserith]

Oh, interesting! I would have expected them to prioritize leveling up first, and gear after. I also suspect since I’m going to be running this campaign open-table style that my players will be less inclined to lend each other gold given that they won’t be able to count on always being with the same party.

So far as I can tell from their discussions, they look at what a class may get next level and, if it's not very exciting, they're likely to put that money elsewhere. They also spend it on leveling up backups to 3rd level since that's only like 900 gp each.

 

[Charlaquin]

So far as I can tell from their discussions, they look at what a class may get next level and, if it's not very exciting, they're likely to put that money elsewhere. They also spend it on leveling up backups to 3rd level since that's only like 900 gp each.

That makes a lot of sense.

 

[James Gasik]

Charlaquin, did you attempt this experiment, and if so, what were your results? I've been debating a "gp for xp" campaign for a future 5e game, and I really don't know if it's viable or not.

 

[Charlaquin]

Charlaquin, did you attempt this experiment, and if so, what were your results? I've been debating a "gp for xp" campaign for a future 5e game, and I really don't know if it's viable or not.

Not yet, sadly. I still think it has a lot of potential, and intend to try it when I have the chance. Sadly, big sandbox campaigns take a lot of preparation, which I have little time for, especially with having recently committed to getting in better shape. Between my job, house work, maintaining some kind of social life, and now exercising regularly I struggle to find the time to do much D&D prep work. I’ll certainly post here if I do get a chance to try it, and if anyone else gives this idea a spin, I’d love to hear how it goes for you.

What I will say though is that I’ve heard from a number of folks who have done traditional gold-for-XP instead of this gold-for-levels approach say it has worked well for them. @iserith mentioned having good results with that in this very thread.

 

[James Gasik]

Not yet, sadly. I still think it has a lot of potential, and intend to try it when I have the chance. Sadly, big sandbox campaigns take a lot of preparation, which I have little time for, especially with having recently committed to getting in better shape. Between my job, house work, maintaining some kind of social life, and now exercising regularly I struggle to find the time to do much D&D prep work. I’ll certainly post here if I do get a chance to try it, and if anyone else gives this idea a spin, I’d love to hear how it goes for you.

What I will say though is that I’ve heard from a number of folks who have done traditional gold-for-XP instead of this gold-for-levels approach say it has worked well for them. @iserith mentioned having good results with that in this very thread.

Thank you, I was about to make a thread for this, and then I remembered you'd written this one. What I'm thinking about doing is allowing players to "spend" treasure in a way appropriate to their character (donate to their church, acquire training from a swordmaster, access to a wizard academy, et. al.) to gain xp.

Then make magic items available for commission. I expect to see what adventures they choose to go on be more based on "what will give us the biggest score"...which may be a problem in of itself, but I am curious to see what percentage of money will go into levels vs. acquiring magic.

The only problem is I may need to do something about the Wizard, who is the only class with a real "gold piece to power" process built in.

 

[iserith]

Thank you, I was about to make a thread for this, and then I remembered you'd written this one. What I'm thinking about doing is allowing players to "spend" treasure in a way appropriate to their character (donate to their church, acquire training from a swordmaster, access to a wizard academy, et. al.) to gain xp.

Then make magic items available for commission. I expect to see what adventures they choose to go on be more based on "what will give us the biggest score"...which may be a problem in of itself, but I am curious to see what percentage of money will go into levels vs. acquiring magic.

The only problem is I may need to do something about the Wizard, who is the only class with a real "gold piece to power" process built in.

If your group is anything like mine, they'll share the wealth and the wizard will be allotted more to account for any expenditures they will have to make to add spells or for component costs. It's to their own benefit as a party that their spellcasters have what they need. Leveling up will also tend to be prioritized over acquiring magic items, since magic items (other than a magic weapon) aren't really necessary in D&D 5e.

In a different campaign than the one I mention upthread - one that was based on the PCs being street level superheroes - they got XP by completing "good deeds" (quests, essentially) and for donating gold to the local orphanage, "Children's Home for Future Adventurers." Often they'd spend the gold to push past into the next level when they got close by doing good deeds.

 

[el-remmen]

Back when I used training rules, there was an option for self-training at higher levels that took more time but slightly less money - though alternatively I can imagine it taking both more time and more money.

 

[Distracted DM]

Has anyone tried this or something like this out yet? It definitely hearkens back to old-school sword and sorcery play- but I guess one should consider the kind of behavior you're incentivizing with it.
I've been looking at different downtime/carousing rules from other systems to have some fun with "between adventures" and where you spent a bunch of your coin.

 

[Lanefan]

Inspired by old-school XP-for-gold systems and the leveling mechanic of the Soulslike family of games, I’m looking to try out the following mechanic in my next campaign in place of XP.

Training
A character can spend a downtime training to gain a level in a class. Doing so requires a suitable instructor. The training takes one week and costs an amount of gold determined by the level to be gained, as shown in the table below:

Brilliant stuff.

The only quibble I'd have is that training from about 12th-level and upwards shouldn't need an instructor but instead be self-directed, in order to avoid having to have that many high-level NPCs floating around in the setting if you don't want them.

Level Gained	Cost
2	50 gp
3	100 gp
4	200 gp
5	300 gp
6-11	3,400 gp
12-17	18,000 gp
18+	168,000 gp

By this table, the cost to level up is about 1/4 the average GP value of a tier-appropriate treasure horde, multiplied by the number of treasure hordes you can expect to gain after the number of Medium encounters it would take to level up (assuming hordes are distributed evenly).

The intended effect of this is that basically all of the monetary treasure acquired from hordes goes towards leveling up, leaving individual monster treasure for spending money. Magic items are not factored in, so you can keep any that you find, or sell ones you don’t want for extra cash or to hasten your progress towards your next level. If you find a bigger-than-average horde, you might be able to level up a little sooner than “expected,” or have some extra pocket money to put towards some plate armor or whatever. If you find a smaller-than average horde, it might take you a little longer to reach the next level unless you dip into your savings. Likewise, if you have a larger-than-average party, it will take you longer to level up, and if you have a smaller-than-average party, you will be able to level up faster or have more spending money for adventuring gear. And of course, you have the option of prioritizing upgrading your gear over gaining levels.

It’s worth noting that this is intended for use in a sandbox campaign, where players have some ability to choose their level of challenge. In that context, going into higher-level areas to try to nab some treasure from higher-tier hordes has the potential to rocket you ahead if you can pull it off successfully, whereas sticking to lower-tier areas could slow your advancement to a crawl. But as long as you’re taking on level-appropriate challenges, you should level up at approximately the same rate as you would with XP in a game run strictly by the adventuring day and encounter budget guidelines, with some natural wobble due to the randomized nature of treasure hordes.