next week, 3 years later...
- Thread starter alsih2o
- Start date
Do people who give "down time XP/Levels" to PCs give XP/Levels to all the NPCs as well? 
I occasionally give an NPC some levels if they've been off doing adventuring or other XP-boosting stuff offscreen, but I certainly don't give everyone XP for daily life, as some people do for the PCs. They advance quite fast enough already IMO!
Note that in 3e, encounters 8+ EL below the PC's level count as 'daily life' and shouldn't earn XP. So I see no justification at all for arbitrarily levelling up PCs above level 9.
I occasionally give an NPC some levels if they've been off doing adventuring or other XP-boosting stuff offscreen, but I certainly don't give everyone XP for daily life, as some people do for the PCs. They advance quite fast enough already IMO!
Note that in 3e, encounters 8+ EL below the PC's level count as 'daily life' and shouldn't earn XP. So I see no justification at all for arbitrarily levelling up PCs above level 9.
Berandor
lunatic
Well, I'm not sure I'd grant xp now.
I know we got some major benefits, but those days, we leveled up once per session mostly.
Otoh, if a wizard had a few years to study, he'd sure get to know new stuff.
How else can a smith gain levels in expert, if not by passing time and crafting items?
I'd also say the fighter who passes two years most likely got into a fight or two nonetheless, and the bard performed in front of an audience, etc. Enough to earn them some xp.
I know we got some major benefits, but those days, we leveled up once per session mostly.
Otoh, if a wizard had a few years to study, he'd sure get to know new stuff.
How else can a smith gain levels in expert, if not by passing time and crafting items?
I'd also say the fighter who passes two years most likely got into a fight or two nonetheless, and the bard performed in front of an audience, etc. Enough to earn them some xp.
I love doing this kind of thing, both as a player and as a DM.
Generally, I don't give or expect much XP from down-time stuff, the reward in my mind is having a more direct hand in deciding how the character develops. Sometimes, though, giving a bonus level is OK, especially if the campaign has been tough, or is about to become a lot tougher.
Of course, there are dangers to giving players this much freedom to tell their own sotries...one of my favorite episodes of "down-time" that I've been involved in was a 2E D&D game I was in a few years back (just prior to 3E). The party was told after a major story arc ended that a year passes in game, and to describe what we've been up to. I had a lyre of building, that had been pretty much forgotten about by the rest of the group. In the course of events, a city had been laid to waste by big bad supernatural beasties, so I went there and rebuilt it. Set myself up as guildmaster of a merchant's guild and a thieves' guild, built an academy as a front to train potential followers/henchmen, and opened up trade with nearby dwarves and hill giants (both of which we had befriended). The DM had never even considered anything like this happening, so he ran with it. I ended my year off by sending out invitations to the rest of the party to attend the inaugural ball at the new Stonehaven Academy. The looks on their faces when they realized what that lyre of building they threw away was cabable of was priceless...and the DM had more new story hooks than he knew what to do with.
That's the most rewarding part about "down-time" to me; when the DM lets you use it to help build up the world. It ties the players in to the campaign world a lot more, and lets the players help shape the game in the way they want to see it. I wanted more political maneuvering in that 2E game, and as the halfling Godfather of a budding mafia, I got all the politics I could handle...
(PS...through no fault of my own, my characters' criminal persona was dubbed "Mr. Big", being a halfling crime lord and all. I suppose I deserved that...)
Generally, I don't give or expect much XP from down-time stuff, the reward in my mind is having a more direct hand in deciding how the character develops. Sometimes, though, giving a bonus level is OK, especially if the campaign has been tough, or is about to become a lot tougher.
Of course, there are dangers to giving players this much freedom to tell their own sotries...one of my favorite episodes of "down-time" that I've been involved in was a 2E D&D game I was in a few years back (just prior to 3E). The party was told after a major story arc ended that a year passes in game, and to describe what we've been up to. I had a lyre of building, that had been pretty much forgotten about by the rest of the group. In the course of events, a city had been laid to waste by big bad supernatural beasties, so I went there and rebuilt it. Set myself up as guildmaster of a merchant's guild and a thieves' guild, built an academy as a front to train potential followers/henchmen, and opened up trade with nearby dwarves and hill giants (both of which we had befriended). The DM had never even considered anything like this happening, so he ran with it. I ended my year off by sending out invitations to the rest of the party to attend the inaugural ball at the new Stonehaven Academy. The looks on their faces when they realized what that lyre of building they threw away was cabable of was priceless...and the DM had more new story hooks than he knew what to do with.
That's the most rewarding part about "down-time" to me; when the DM lets you use it to help build up the world. It ties the players in to the campaign world a lot more, and lets the players help shape the game in the way they want to see it. I wanted more political maneuvering in that 2E game, and as the halfling Godfather of a budding mafia, I got all the politics I could handle...
(PS...through no fault of my own, my characters' criminal persona was dubbed "Mr. Big", being a halfling crime lord and all. I suppose I deserved that...)
Berandor said:
I think it'd make more sense to grant bonus skill points rather than xp. If a smith crafts a lot he'd get more skillful but his hit points & saves shouldn't go up IMO. If a fighter gets into 'real' fights where he migt die he should get XP. Given that D&D already assumes a high level of combat skill I wouldn't give an additional amount for passing of time, I'd say you have to train a lot just to stop your skills degrading.
Kobold Marine
First Post
In one 2e game I played in, the rest of the party got tossed into a sort of temporal warp sending them about 200 years into the future. My character was a kobold, which the DM fortunately had houseruled them a long lifespan. With his approval, I went to venerable age, went up two or three levels, and wrote up some backstory explaining what I had been up to all this time. Since the entire party was widely scattered in terms of levels, there were no real power balance issues (beyond what was already there of course).
Regarding xp advancement for NPC's and for non-adventuring types, Seasong has some decent house rules for that on his website at:
http://seasong.home.texas.net/sh/rules_advancement.html
Regarding xp advancement for NPC's and for non-adventuring types, Seasong has some decent house rules for that on his website at:
http://seasong.home.texas.net/sh/rules_advancement.html
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