Drinking and Whoring for XP

[the Jester]

Hey y'all, a while back someone mentioned a game that gave xp for burning money on drinks and whores. This sounds like a very interesting way to inject a certain 'gritty fantasy' element to the game- if you get xp for spending money on stuff that gives you know material benefit, you sometimes have to choose between gaining xp and improving your armor!

Anyone know what game this is, or have any experience (ho ho) with this system for giving out xp? I'd love to hear some stories. (It might have been the Black Company game?)

 

[(un)reason]

Iron heroes, in the GM's guide. It also appeared way back in 1977 in The Dragon issue 10. It's pretty self explanatory. You only get XP for money that you spend in a way that does not enhance your adventuring effectiveness. As standard, it's the usual 1 gp=1 xp conversion, but it gives you licence to change that depending on the playstyle you want to encourage.

 

[Starglim]

Not so much XP (except to enhance a Carousing skill in the game, which can happen) but Dying Earth and several others refresh your character abilities at periods of 'relaxation'.

 

[Cyronax]

Not to derail ..... but that sounds like an interesting 4e skill challenge for a certain type of player character. It probably requires a group willing to focus on mature subjects (other than the intrinsic violence of most D&D games).

C.I.D.

 

[Baron Opal]

It was the Conan RPG, I think.

 

[the Jester]

Anyone tried this method of giving xp out? How did it work? How effective was it at encouraging pcs to burn up their money? How frustrating was it for them to spend their money on ale and whores vs. new gear and the like?

 

[Dyson Logos]

Anyone tried this method of giving xp out? How did it work? How effective was it at encouraging pcs to burn up their money? How frustrating was it for them to spend their money on ale and whores vs. new gear and the like?

I played in AD&D1e and BECMI D&D games with this rule in place.

It was there primarily in the BECMI game because money could be used to buy and build up a stronghold and territory which in turn allows you to collect XP from the taxes collected from said. So, in order to make it so not everyone would do this, the DM used the "spend it" rule - the two characters with strongholds earned XP from running their dominions during downtime, and the rest of us earned XP from partying during downtime.

In the AD&D1e game, it showed up because we had it in the BECMI game we had been playing at the same time. Different DM but he liked the rule.

Anyways, in older editions what "new gear" would you spend it on? Once you had an 1,800 gp jewelled scabard for your sword, and another 1,800 gp jewelled scabard for your dagger, and got around to buying four 1,800 gp horseshoes for your horse, you still had most of your adventuring money lying around. Except for vehicles and strongholds, the most expensive personal gear in those games wasn't over 1,000 gp. The examples of 1,800 gp items above are all max value jewelry in a B/X game.

 

[Chainsaw]

Well, back in the old days, gold not spent on equipment or adventure advancement (employing hirelings, bribes, whatever) counted toward XP anyway, right? Killing things and acquiring gold were the two ways to gain XP (apart from bonus points for thespianism). So in that world, if you wanted to color up your gold conversion to XP by saying you spent the gold on whores, drinking and opium, then have at it, heh. It's just flavor.

Assuming you were playing a newer edition, where gold didn't convert into XP, then you'd basically be adding that old rule back in by allowing the XP for spending gold on something that doesn't directly affect gameplay - like drinking/whoring/drugs, right? This is, of course, assuming that you don't already use some system to account for drunkeness, alcholism, addiction, STDs, etc that would create negative effects for too much of any of that.

I'm at work though, so forgive me if I've missed some obvious detail here, heh.

 

[the Jester]

Anyways, in older editions what "new gear" would you spend it on? Once you had an 1,800 gp jewelled scabard for your sword, and another 1,800 gp jewelled scabard for your dagger, and got around to buying four 1,800 gp horseshoes for your horse, you still had most of your adventuring money lying around. Except for vehicles and strongholds, the most expensive personal gear in those games wasn't over 1,000 gp. The examples of 1,800 gp items above are all max value jewelry in a B/X game.

IIRC, field plate was 2000 gp and full plate was 4000 gp. Not to mention strongholds, siege engines, ships, buying and running a tavern, gambling hall, or temple, great sacrifices to one's god, etc. Plus paying for a mercenary army with which to conquer the local lands and build oneself a small kingdom...

 

[Dyson Logos]

IIRC, field plate was 2000 gp and full plate was 4000 gp. Not to mention strongholds, siege engines, ships, buying and running a tavern, gambling hall, or temple, great sacrifices to one's god, etc. Plus paying for a mercenary army with which to conquer the local lands and build oneself a small kingdom...

Full and Field plate were from some supplement we didn't use I guess.

And I did mention strongholds and businesses. Those produce income and thus XP. That's why the DM added the rule in that spent gold garnered XP, not collected gold - otherwise the players that spent their money on "investments" like strongholds and conquests and such earned more XP than those who either held on to their money or blew it on ale and whores.

Oh, and sacrifices to one's god were in the same category as ale & whores. (And depending on the god, might involve ale and whores).