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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 7459109" data-attributes="member: 23">HelloSo I'm looking into the Spiked Gobling Punch system (itself based on GLOG, itself based on older editions of D&D, a simple yet very intriguing system, esp magic) and one of the (to me) striking elements is that you don't get XP for killing monsters, but from gold. The logic is that your characters aren't going in the dungeon (or other adventurish things) to kill monsters - they are going in there to get treasure. This encourages the players to favor cunning over brawn and leads to better play. I'm given to understand that this feature is not unique to GLOG but is how it was done in older editions (I started playing with 2nd ed). I really do agree that killing the monsters shouldn't be the objective. And I really think that cunning over brawn is *good*. There is no need to force battle, it will happen sooner or later anyway. Monsters as XP can really distort the game.buuuuutI'm kind of bothered by gold as the source of XP, because it too can distort the game! It encourages PCs stealing and hiding treasure from each other - if you palm that golf-ball-sized diamond and don't share it, you might have just gone up 2 levels. Not all adventuring should be about money. And what you learn from an adventure isn't just about the reward. It can also lead to logic-defying situation. If two groups go into an identical barrow, and at the end of one there is a small copper bowl worth 5 gp, the party made xp... but if the other groups - having faced the same traps and the same monsters - find at the end a 50 pound bejeweled golden bowl worth 10 000 xp, they somehow learned 2 000 more than the unlucky people who found the dinky bowl? A group of hero that repels a week long zombie siege in an abandoned tower might gain nothing, while others who rob a fat merchant might bet 500 XP for a lazy heist. This isn't right.Lastly it can put odd constrains on the GM, as the power and advancement of the heroes is now directly tied on monetary reward. If the GM wants to run some kind of gritty game with low monetary reward where the heroes are constantly poor... they won't level up.  Conversly, if the party is going to find a huge sum for plot reason... probably a bad idea too.So... what why I don't like it. What I would like to learn is if there are good alternatives that are "osr/old school appropriate" to gold as XP out there? thanks,</blockquote>

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