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<blockquote data-quote="Korgoth" data-source="post: 4740393" data-attributes="member: 49613">I'm perfectly happy with having no advancement. Others have mentioned Classic Traveller: it's the textbook case. You start as an experienced (often retired) adult professional... you're about as good as you're ever going to be (maybe you've already peaked) and now you're independent and bored. A perfect time to become an adventurer! You know, after you've already socked away some money and learned how to take care of yourself, rather than beforehand (as is the usual scheme in the bildungsroman).The eternal problem of experience points is that whatever method you assign for gaining them is what you are essentially telling the player characters to do. If you get XP for killing monsters, then they will want to open every closet, latrine and chifferobe in the dungeon in order to waste every Tom, Dick and Sleestak who lives there. If you get XP for nabbing treasure (the old classic approach, and my favorite) then the player characters will become venal land pirates who will gleefully risk life and limb for a shot at a treasure cache (you can see why I like this one). If you get XP for completing quests then that's what they'll always try to do, etc.If, on the other hand, there are no advancements outside of &quot;virtual-tangibles&quot; (money, gear, castles, political faculties, etc.) then the players can basically decide what it is they want to do. This again was the genius of Classic Traveller. Wanna become rich? Pay off your ship? Get a better ship? Carve out a little empire? Become tycoons? The players (assuming you didn't set it up as a &quot;story game&quot;) got to pick, and that is very cool.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Korgoth, post: 4740393, member: 49613"] I'm perfectly happy with having no advancement. Others have mentioned Classic Traveller: it's the textbook case. You start as an experienced (often [I]retired[/I]) adult professional... you're about as good as you're ever going to be (maybe you've already peaked) and now you're independent and bored. A perfect time to become an adventurer! You know, after you've already socked away some money and learned how to take care of yourself, rather than beforehand (as is the usual scheme in the bildungsroman). The eternal problem of experience points is that whatever method you assign for gaining them is what you are essentially telling the player characters to do. If you get XP for killing monsters, then they will want to open every closet, latrine and chifferobe in the dungeon in order to waste every Tom, Dick and Sleestak who lives there. If you get XP for nabbing treasure (the old classic approach, and my favorite) then the player characters will become venal land pirates who will gleefully risk life and limb for a shot at a treasure cache (you can see why I like this one). If you get XP for completing quests then that's what they'll always try to do, etc. If, on the other hand, there are no advancements outside of "virtual-tangibles" (money, gear, castles, political faculties, etc.) then the players can basically decide what it is they want to do. This again was the genius of Classic Traveller. Wanna become rich? Pay off your ship? Get a better ship? Carve out a little empire? Become tycoons? The players (assuming you didn't set it up as a "story game") [I]got to pick[/I], and that is very cool. [/QUOTE]

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