Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleanCutRogue" data-source="post: 5773818" data-attributes="member: 51922">First off, let me say that I'm one to claim there are certain sacred cows to D&D... things that have just always been there.  For instance, ability scores should be 3-18, even though we only use the modifier for things now.  Spells are memorized or prepared in a "Vancian" system.  Halflings are a core race.  Things like that. But even though we've always had similar scale to XP-per-level and awards, this is one thing I've never considered a sacred cow.In all editions of D&D we had this problem.  The rate of level acquisition doesn't really change, despite artificially appearing to.  It takes more XP to gain a level when you get higher level... but everything you do is worth more XP at that level.  I even remember one edition of D&D stating quite clearly that "players should expect to raise a level every 3-5 sessions after the first few faster-obtained levels" or something to that effect.  So why all the complexity??Cases in point: In 2e they gave XP bonuses for doing class-like things.  In 3e they offered bonuses for role-playing and story progression.  In Basic/Advanced/2e they gave a bonus to earned XP for having a high ability score (as if that wasn't its own bonus)... there's always some construct around XP acquisition to try to make it function in a less munchkin way while still making it seem to scale and fit with the early edition's progression concepts.  Basically, it all got silly.  Why would a magic-user who is 11XP away from next level suddenly advance to next level because the fighter in the group let him keep three platinum pieces extra loot??  Who says one encounter with four goblins is worth the same experience points as another four, with different conditions and situations?So here's my suggestion.  I've used it for years and I give it freely to the forum and hopefully to WotC:Each level costs 10XP + desired level, period.  That's right, level 2 costs 12XP.  Level 3 costs 13XP, easy as that.  After each session go through the following checklist for each player.  The most you can get is 10XP in one session but I've never had any player get all ten:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">SURVIVAL: +1 XP just for living through the session.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">ABILITY: +1 XP for making one or more ability checks during the session (successful or not).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">SKILL: +1 XP for making one or more Skill checks during the session (successful or not).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">DISCOVERY: +1 XP if the player can state one previously unknown thing about the setting, story, or people of the setting.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">ROLE-PLAYING: +1 XP if the player role-played exceptionally well, especially if his character endured losses by making choices that kept him in-character.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">INNOVATION: +1 XP if the player showed innovation overcoming one or more non-combative obstacles.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">NOTORIETY: +1 XP if the character's deeds were witnessed by anyone who will help tell the tale of his activities - whether fame or infamy it doesn't matter.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: +1 XP if the story involved something personal to the character, or if the character's background story evolved and he took part in its evolution.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">VICTORY: +1 XP if the session included one or more combative encounters which posed a reasonable challenge to the characters (whether it ended in victory or defeat).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">SUCCESS: +1 XP if the session ended in success of the character's imposed or assumed mission.</li> </ul>Simplifies things... no munchkinism... no unrealistic constructs or scaling to deal with... no record keeping... no lists of XP values for activities or items... and - one of my most prominent complains about modern editions - leaves the DM as authority over how they're dolled out without rules lawyering getting in the way.</blockquote>

Verification