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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GX.Sigma" data-source="post: 6273641" data-attributes="member: 6690511">I'm imagining a system for D&D where characters advance by acquiring treasure. It's not quite as simple as "GP=XP," since the setting I'm using doesn't have money. I was considering a conceit where monsters (and PCs) obsessively seek to hoard a certain kind of magical gems, and those are equivalent to XP.  But what if there was another way?I've been playing old Nintendo games, and noticed something about the way they do character advancement. Zelda, Metroid, and Mega Man do it the same way: it's based on treasure.Link gets better, not because he gets XP every time he swings his sword, but because he gets items. He finds a heart container, and he can take more hits. Samus finds a missile expansion, and she can deal more damage. Mega Man gets the metal blade, and the incidental enemies just aren't a threat anymore. There's usually an element of secrecy and exploration involved (you have to be perceptive and solve puzzles to get upgrades), which I like in my D&D.But could this work in D&D? The heart container thing is easy enough: find a heart container, get a hit die appropriate to your class. But what about class features? Spells as treasure are traditional, but what about spellcasting levels? What about fighter or thief levels? Maybe you could have consumable items that grant a level in a certain class (ala 3.x multiclassing), but that would be a step away from a class-based game. I want the character's choice of class at level 1 to remain significant. But, if you restrict them based on initial class choice (e.g., only monks can use this; it increases your monk level), the party ends up with a bunch of them they can't use (like if there are no monks in the group). Maybe you just have to restrict it to a few classes?And how would the group divide this very important treasure?I feel like I'm close to a solution, but I just can't solve it.Is there a way to do it? Has anyone tried it?</blockquote>

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