Erik Mona's Lo-Fi Experience System

[Nightfall]

math = sucker born every time they try go beyond 2+2.

 

[ashockney]

Math is for suckers! *is kidding*

Ash,

So how do you fight fiends then? With sticks?

Really, really big sitcks.

For purposes of overcoming DR, it's a "power" or ability that overcomes DR based upon adding this to an item permanently, through a spell, or an ability.

Everything else is "good guys" and "bad guys".

In theory, you could say that everything in the game has an alignment, but we just don't pay any attention to it...and it doesn't change.

 

[Blue]

XP takes about 30 seconds to do for a session. I did a little excel sheet to do the math for me.

I give XP for three main things - encounters, RP, and story awards.

I run a very RP heavy games and have "codified" RP XP - any good RP moment (very defining, doing the in-character instead of the smart thing, etc) any player (and I) give a chip. At the end of the night, I record them. I award a pool of RP XP, depending on how much RP there was. Everyone gets 2 shares of the pool, plus a share per chip. Yes, this is "complex math", but it was just a few minutes to set up once in a spreadsheet. Okay, the chips are also worth a little bit of "straight XP" also - this encourages people to give out chips. It not just a share of the pool they aren't getting. If everyone RPs well and gets 5 or 6 chips in a night, they're getting a bonus above just getting 3 or 4, even though the shares break out the same. If you have players that woudl abuse this, then you need to watch out.

As a side note, if the players split, groups I'm usually not active with are RPing among themselves, and they still give out chips.

Story awards are given based on what I think. Yes, it isn't quantified. If it was, who needs a DM?

Encounter XP is dirt easy with a spreadsheet. I normally halve it so I don't have super fast progression with this other XP, but I did a campaign reset earlier in the year and am currently leaving it at full until they reach 3-4th level.

There are minor other things - adding stuff to the campaign (stories, fleshing out the world, etc) gives a bonus. We've got a wiki, but even before that one player ran with my goblin-kin pantheon and fleshed it out wonderfully. (Joys of running a homebrew - there is always more to detail.)

To sum up, math is quick with a spreadsheet, and I've enlisted the player's aid to track RP XP.

Cheers,
=Blue

 

[der_kluge]

It is interesting to me how many posters here and on my blog have scrapped the experience system entirely.

Is there any other "foundational" part of the third edition rules that you have also scrapped or modified to this extent?

--Erik

Good lord. I've _NEVER_ used the 3rd edition XP system. In fact, I don't recall ever using the one in 2nd edition either. I don't even remember how it worked. It's not rocket science.

I just level the players whenever I'm ready for them to level. I've got no complaints from my players.

I've houseruled magic item creation and those spells which use XP to not require XP. It is a completely superfluous part of the game.

 

[Nebulous]

Here is what I do in M&M, and what I'd do if I ran D&D:

Every few sessions, when it felt appropriate, I'd say, "Ok, everyone goes up a level." I'd also keep track of -xp from crafting and spellcasting, and inform spell casters if they dont level.(Iow, I'd probably just throw those penalties away, unless they were going hog wild crazy.)

That's what i do in CoC d20, and what i would do in D&D if i were running it. I, like Erik, HATE calculating experinence points. I've hated it since 2nd edition. It just seems so pointless to me. I calculate how many average adventures a party should take before they level up, and then level them up. I like to reward action points too.

Ideally, the whole XP system should be reduced to little numbers, like Erik's example.

Conversely, i also really like the way games like Warhammer does experience points: you leave it up to the player to buy skills, attack bonuses, talents, etc. They have to tactically decide if they want to save and buy something later, or splurge now. The end result is that they improve in stops and start incrementally, rather than all at once.

 

[Kestrel]

*still like to know how in a world without alignments, how spells, item effects and especially outsiders would work in such ways.* But that's just me.

Darn good question. In the case of outsiders, I usually consider them by the alignment in the MM, because they are representations of those alignments (imho). The same applies for undead. For divine casters, since they channel the power of thier faith, they use the alignment of the higher power, regardless of thier own personal alignment.

For everyday humanity, I usually just consider them Neutral in respect to those spells.

Is it a nerfing of a cleric's power? I guess...but since I don't have any clerics currently, its not that big of a deal.

 

[Pbartender]

*still like to know how in a world without alignments, how spells, item effects and especially outsiders would work in such ways.* But that's just me.

Simply put, the spells and items still work. But they only work on creatures, spells, events or items that have an [ALIGNMENT] type or subtype. The [ALIGNMENT] tag essentially denotes a creature, spell, event or item that is purely Good, Evil, Lawful or Chaotic... The apotheosis of that particular alignment.

So, while an orc might be evil because he kicks puppies and steals candy from babies, a demon is Evil simply because he is. An Holy Sword would deal +2d6 damage against the Evil demon, but not against the evil orc. The detect evil spell would alert you to the presence of a devil, but not to the presence of the cruel landlord who uses the children living in his tenement orphanage as slave labor.

Clerics, being divine conduits of their particular god, and metagame-wise gain the Aura special ability, are also affected by appropriate alignment-based effects.

 

[Nightfall]

I was more asking Ash, but considering other people answered too, thanks!

Ash, well just hope you know how to use those really big sticks well. In any case something to keep in mind for later. Thanks.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I think Diarmuid os'Oisin needs more XP.

Undoubtedly he does, but by your act of posting here, he automatically loses one level.

Bummer.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Excrutiating detail is built into an overly complex system for determining xp awards for killing monsters, but achievement of non-combat goals is given, at best, a hand-waving "drop them a few xp to shut them up" sort of cursory attention. Figuring it all out at the end of a fun session of D&D necessitates a lot of calculation for an extremely limited reward.

One thing I used to do was to have all the players write down at the end of every session what they thought they did to earn XP, including mentioning what other players did. I did the same and as we read our lists I awarded XP. Monsters were calculated but modified quite a bit based on context.

I also gave out more XP for successfully "defeating" a monster encounter without combat. So if the PC's talked their way through the gnoll guard room instead of killing all the gnolls, they were rewarded.