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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5325482" data-attributes="member: 22424">Surely that's no more absurd than the notion that fighting orcs somehow makes you better at picking locks?Firstly: the DM allowed this because...? (If it was so easy to set up such a trade, everyone would have done it. If it's not easy, the DM should be assigning appropriate challenges, and those 1st level PCs are unlikely to be able to face off against the obligatory pirates/dragons/agents of Takhisis.)Secondly: in 2nd Edition, not only was XP-for-treasure optional (and, indeed, not recommended), but the DMG also explicitly stated that PCs could not gain more than one level at a time. (I can't comment on 1st Edition, but Spelljammer was a 2nd Ed setting.)The beauty of the Arneson system (as opposed to BD&D XP-for-treasure) is that you gain XP only on money spent in achieving your goals, not just for getting the treasure, nor for spending it on that +5 sword. In fact, buying that +5 sword slows your progression, because all that gold has now not been spent on buying XP.There is a certain heroic logic to the system: if we assume that heroes feed off the reverence of the masses (in the same way that some settings have the power of a deity dependent on their number of followers), then it makes sense that by spending their money on temple donations/having statues to their glory put up/hosting a major party for the great and good/hiring minstrels to sing their praises, the characters could become the major heroes they want to be.Of course, that does make the PCs into their setting's equivalent of Britney Spears: they're gaining prestige off the power of marketting, and not because of any actual quality. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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