OSR/older D&D and XP from gold - is there a "proper" alternative?

[Tony Vargas]

I think I have an acceptable solution.

The system I'm looking at (GLOG - rat on a stick edition) - proposes 1 xp per gp, and 200 xp to reach level 2.

So what I would do is that I would give XP per session, based on the rate of leveling up I want to see (say, 5 sessions) so 40 XP. A session where not much was done would have less XP - and a dead PC gets no XP, of course. There would be small bonus given in game for good role playing or great ideas.

I would *also* give XP for gold but at a reduced rate - say 10 or 20% of the 1 per 1 rate. This would still motivate the PCs to go get the treasure, but it wouldn't have such a big influence anymore. It seems best of both worlds.

Sounds workable, you still have to scale treasure to the exp progression table, though.

Here's a thought: You could give exp for the challenges overcome/avoided (monsters, traps, puzzles), and for the /percentage/ of possible treasure recovered. (I know: gamist.)

So if the only treasure in the dungeon is a copper bowl worth 5 gp, and the party leaves with it intanct, full treasure XP. If the treasure is a 12-ton dragon horde and they only get away with 1 ton of it, 8.33% of the possible treasure XP. Thus the XP can be pegged to level while the treasure is pegged to the campaign norms and/or story.

 

[pemerton]

I thought the point of playing OSR systems is to have the classic D&D experience - and XP foe gold is pretty central to that.

Otherwise, why not play DW?

 

[Ancalagon]

I thought the point of playing OSR systems is to have the classic D&D experience - and XP foe gold is pretty central to that.

Otherwise, why not play DW?

What is DW?

Dragon Warriors?

I'm essentially trying to get the benefit of the gold for XP by having some XP for gold but not it being solely that.

 

[Ancalagon]

Sounds workable, you still have to scale treasure to the exp progression table, though.

I hope that by having only a portion of the XP be gold related that I will have more slack/flexibility/room for error.

[/quote]Here's a thought: You could give exp for the challenges overcome/avoided (monsters, traps, puzzles), and for the /percentage/ of possible treasure recovered. (I know: gamist.)

So if the only treasure in the dungeon is a copper bowl worth 5 gp, and the party leaves with it intanct, full treasure XP. If the treasure is a 12-ton dragon horde and they only get away with 1 ton of it, 8.33% of the possible treasure XP. Thus the XP can be pegged to level while the treasure is pegged to the campaign norms and/or story.[/QUOTE]

It's a bit more complicated than what I had in mind but it would work.

 

[pemerton]

What is DW?

DW = Dungeon World.

 

[Les Moore]

Sooo, let me be the Devil's Advocate, here. You are adventuring along, and you happen across Smaug's hoard of treasure, in his absence.Under strictest
"GP for XP" rules, this treasure trove would drive you and your 3rd or 4th level party well over the 20th level, and by virtue of finding his stash,
when Smaug showed up, breathing fire, you and Thorin would suddenly be powerful enough to easily defeat him?

 

[Mordorandor]

Hello

....

one of the (to me) striking elements is that you don't get XP for killing monsters, but from gold. The logic is that your characters aren't going in the dungeon (or other adventurish things) to kill monsters - they are going in there to get treasure.

....

buuuuut

I'm kind of bothered by gold as the source of XP, because it too can distort the game!

....

And what you learn from an adventure isn't just about the reward.

It can also lead to logic-defying situation.

....

This isn't right.

....

thanks,

You made such a number of interesting points and claims, I can’t begin to express all my thoughts.

As many have noted, how you decide to reward players determines the style of play. Early war gamers were eager to build armies and kingdoms. They needed money.

Also, referees were eager for people to explore their dungeons. And gold became a proxy: “did we find all the gold?” “I don’t know, maybe there’s more dungeon to explore.” “Yeah, we didn’t take those stairs down on level 2 because it smelled like Troll down there.” “You smelled Troll, I smelled Gold!”

And finally, it enables a referee a semi-objective way to measure player-learning. Such as when an astute player realizes she should take the not-so-nice looking pewter, hand made urn dedicated to Morgoth the Mighty, to find it’s a +5 mug of drinking for Giants. Or worth 10,000 go. Etc. thus the cursed items. Are you astute to take the right items, and it not, wise enough to be cautious enough?

It definitely encourages and rewards a type of play.

 

[reelo]

Sooo, let me be the Devil's Advocate, here. You are adventuring along, and you happen across Smaug's hoard of treasure, in his absence.Under strictest
"GP for XP" rules, this treasure trove would drive you and your 3rd or 4th level party well over the 20th level, and by virtue of finding his stash,
when Smaug showed up, breathing fire, you and Thorin would suddenly be powerful enough to easily defeat him?

Nope. The rule is you need to haul the gold safely back to civilisation. You get the XP when you put it into a "virtual bank account".
It's a bit like "milestone levelling": with XP for kills you don't level up in the middle of a fight with a big baddie, just after you downed a henchman (even if that kill would push you over the threshold), you level up after the fight during downtime.

 

[Mordorandor]

Nope. The rule is you need to haul the gold safely back to civilisation. You get the XP when you put it into a "virtual bank account".

And the value is based on the difficulty of the challenge. Haul all that gold out, and it will not be worth 1 xp to 1 gp. The ratio changes.

 

[reelo]

And the value is based on the difficulty of the challenge. Haul all that gold out, and it will not be worth 1 xp to 1 gp. The ratio changes.

Not the way I see it. 1 gold = 1 XP. It's just that you don't find much gold lying around in unchallenging places. Dragons DO guard their hoard, and if they don't guard it personally 100% of the time, they make sure there are other effective intrusion and theft countermeasures they can rely upon. No party of beginners will blindly stumble upon an unguarded dragonhoard just waiting to be hauled off.