A Completely Unbiased XP System

[GMMichael]

I need a new XP system, gang. The kind that awards XP for different activities, not just killing monsters. Allow me to set some expectations. Experience Points (XP) are a metagame feature that characters (generally) earn for doing things in-game, and contribute to level-ups which players use to upgrade their characters. The character levels are tailored by players for characters - so a warrior could get better at fighting with a new level, or an innkeeper could get better at inn-running. However, it's generally a system for adventurous types.

So what are the things that adventurous types do, which of them are worth XP, and how many are too many? (One, monster killing, is obviously too few.) If those questions were too easy, chew on this: what are the relative weights of each of those activities? I.e. is killing the boss worth half as much as rescuing his victim? Is finding a statue worth more than finding coin?

Ideas, please!

 

[Morrus]

I think it's called milestone levelling! 1 XP = 1 level, awarded at the GM's discretion.

 

[Minion X]

The obvious solution is gold for experience. If any activity is worthwhile, it follows that it must yield a financial reward. Naturally, this will greatly favour bankers and merchants.

 

[Scribe]

XP for Gold -> Drives going out to get Gold, and return with it.

XP for Exploration -> Grant x XP for each hex entered, explored, and Encounters within.

XP for resolving an encounter or scene. -> Drives characters into scenes and rewards for engaging the fiction.

Carousal. The best option, no notes.

 

[500 Toads]

Milestone. At a finer granularity beyond significant mission objectives, encounter XP (whether monsters, hazards, or skill challenge) can be awarded for resolving the encounter to reasonable satisfaction regardless of means. In some cases, this might mean a partial reward if it were only somewhat resolved. For systems with explicit adventuring classes and levels where player characters are Not Normal People, I'd keep the focus on adventuring activities for earning that progression. Investigating a serial killer and tracing it to a demonic cult is going to be worth XP by itself; but I'd be disinclined to reward a D&D 5E party for instead trailing and surveilling random people about town just for kicks.

That said, I do like how skills-based systems can handle this without having generic XP at all. For Call of Cthulhu 7E, for instance, skill progression happens each Investigator Development Phase. Skills can increase if they were successfully used since the IDP and if they fail a skill test during the IDP (or if the IDP test >= 95), with a 1d10 increase (percentile system) being standard. Investigators may also seek to increase skills (including gaining new ones) given long enough downtime (generally 4+ months), and access to appropriate training or self-study materials. Its relative Delta Green does similar things, with skills increasing if they were meaningfully failed during the scenario and with training and/or studying to improve skills and stats during Home Scenes.

 

[Theory of Games]

D&D Rules Cyclopedia, Chapter 10 (Experience).

 

[Tonguez]

The 2014 Traits System could have been useful if it was better designed, first to generate regular Inspiration (ie remove the cap) and then to allow unused inspiration to be converted to XP.
It still requires the DM to recognise use of the trait/ideals/flaws etc but at least gives a mechanical hook for the player to invoke for Inspiration/XP rather than being fully arbitrary.
I'd do that while still keep overcoming obstacles and reaching goals as XP sources too

 

[Tigris]

I am all for milestone systems, but if you want to have it more granular how about just quests?


Helping people with their problems give experience points.


A general small sidequest gives 1 point. A hard tasks up to 8 points. A multistep quest might give XP several points.

Fighting a real fight (appropriate difficulty) is 4 points.

A skill challenge resolving something important Is also 4 points.

 

[Scott Christian]

I need a new XP system, gang. The kind that awards XP for different activities, not just killing monsters. Allow me to set some expectations. Experience Points (XP) are a metagame feature that characters (generally) earn for doing things in-game, and contribute to level-ups which players use to upgrade their characters. The character levels are tailored by players for characters - so a warrior could get better at fighting with a new level, or an innkeeper could get better at inn-running. However, it's generally a system for adventurous types.

So what are the things that adventurous types do, which of them are worth XP, and how many are too many? (One, monster killing, is obviously too few.) If those questions were too easy, chew on this: what are the relative weights of each of those activities? I.e. is killing the boss worth half as much as rescuing his victim? Is finding a statue worth more than finding coin?

Ideas, please!

Break the skills and class abilities into experience. Three successful stealth attempts (in a setting that actually requires stealth) gives them a point in stealth. Understanding that religious iconography, and then doing it in three different settings? Get a point in religion. Successfully cast that spell five times, maybe if it levels, you can level it. If not, maybe the player chooses a new, higher level spell, from the same school of magic?

 

[aramis erak]

For Class and Level, I find the Palladium list surprisingly good:

25 Performing a skill (successful or not)
25 Clever, but futile idea.
100 Clever, useful idea or action.
100 Quick thinking idea or action.
200 A critical plan or action that saves the character's life and/or a few comrades.
400-1000 Critical plan or action that saves the entire group or many people.
100-300 Endangering the character's own life to help others.
500-700 Self-sacrifice (or potential self-sacrifice) in a life and death situation (like leaping in front of a fireball meant for someone else to save that person, even Though he/she is likely to die, or offering his/her own life to save the group or another)
50-100 Avoiding unnecessary violence.
100-200 Deductive reasoning and/or insight.
50 Good judgment.
50 Playing in character bonus.
50-100 Daring or heroic (whether clever or not).
25-50 Killing or subduing a minor menace.
75- 100 Killing or subduing a major menace.
150-300 Killing or subduing a great menace.

It is, however, full of subjective elements. What constitutes a minor/major/great menace is in fact supposed to be relative. I've used it in Palladium Fantasy and Robotech in the past.