Experience Points and D&D Economy - What I'd Like To See

[Lanefan]

1. I'd rather see ExP be more granular than simply 25 per level. I'd also prefer to see bigger numbers at higher levels, rather than every level requiring the same amount; it gives a feeling of having *got* somewhere to get as many ExP for one high-level encounter as it took to get through the first two levels combined.

2. A non-monetary and non-quantified wealth system is fine *if* you assume your PCs will only ever "buy" (either from party treasury or externally) magic and self-improvement items. But if they want to interact with the world in other ways e.g. build a stronghold, donate to a temple, pay taxes, etc., that goes beyond what DM fiat and-or dice-rolling can handle...and this is coming from someone who usually argues for more DM fiat.

Lanefan

 

[tsadkiel]

Can we make the gaining of these simpler and less cumbersome? Ie. Every level you get a total of 25 XP to aim for in order to "level".

Peryton, which is a nifty rules light d20 variant that almost no one has heard of, does something vaguely similar. Doing something "remarkable" (and it's left up to the individual GM to determine what qualifies as remarkable) earns you one experience point. You need two xp to become second level, three to become third, and so on; naturally the total resets every level.

 

[The Little Raven]

4E won't involve "spending" XP on anything at all, ever. And I for one am grateful for it.

True dat. I love piecemeal advancement systems to death, but I like my D&D to have levels and I seriously dislike things that reverse your advancement.

 

[BASHMAN]

I like this xp system, but I would have the amount increase based on level.

Level-----XP Required to reach next level:

1. 10
2. 20
3. 30
4. 40
5. 50
6. 60
7. 70
8. 80
9. 90
10. 100
11. 110
12. 120
13. etc

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Not a fan of the wealth system. It works for d20 modern. Well kinda, too many players want to know exactly how much that is.

As for your XP system. I like it. Im sticking with what I do, but yours is good too.

 

[Treebore]

XP is all a matter of scale. Personally I would be happy if players were fine with me just deciding when I want them to level.

As for the gold system, I like it. At least some system. I like working out economic systems and have bought a lot of great books to help me do this. Plus its an aspect I like to use to bring the world alive.

So it is a rule I would keep. I do agree with changing to a "silver based economy" though. Which is something I have seen mentioned in other recent threads.

 

[skullking]

I do agree with changing to a "silver based economy" though. Which is something I have seen mentioned in other recent threads.

This I totally agree with. I remember it being suggested in a magazine article way back when (something like 15-20 years ago). Makes silver worth collecting rather than just small change when you reach mid level +

 

[loseth]

Makes silver worth collecting rather than just small change when you reach mid level +

I'm with you.

Maybe it's just because I'm a BECMI player, but it always seemed to me that silver became small change (and not worth keeping track of) as soon as the PCs had finished their very first adventure, whether or not the characters had reached level 2.

 

[Goken100]

4E won't involve "spending" XP on anything at all, ever. And I for one am grateful for it.

As Andy Collins said at the GenCon seminar, and as I've always felt: "XP are a measure of advancement, not a resource to be spent."

QFT

 

[Plane Sailing]

I don't think we are going to see a change to xp on the scale you suggest. I think that you are still going to want to accumlate thousands of xp and I think the amount you need to level up is likely to increase beyond the 3e scale.

Why?

Because I think they are planning to use xp as the means for balancing encounters. It seems that monsters are going back to the days of having fixed xp values, which makes it easier for a DM to say "hmm, I want this to be a 3000xp fight so I'll have 3 of these brutes, 2 of those skirmishers and 1 leader".

Fixed xp values means that it will probably be necessary to expand the xp range for going up each level in order to maintain a similar number of encounters to increase in level (the Unearthed Arcana rules explain this in somewhat more detail IIRC).

I don't have a problem with this. It seems as though it will simplify prep and awards, and D&D has had thousands of xps since it's very beginning. I'd almost say that is one of the defining aspects of D&D for me.

Wealth system - I also don't see this happening. I've used it, played with it, and although it is clever there are a number of corner cases which it becomes quite contorted to account for - and basically just using 'money' does the job fine. It is conceptually much easier for people to get their head around.

Regards