What levelling up rules do you use?

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

After some extended time with 3X and 5E, our group is returning to a hybrid of 1E and what we like from 3X and 5E.

One of the things that was specifically asked for was that we play be the rules that require training to level up and/or change classes. So, we're planning on sticking as close to the AD&D DMG guidelines as possible (with some changes in pricing as we also decided to change the economy to a silver standard).

We're likely keeping XP for gold pieces found, but with the reduced treasure rates, it will have less of an impact than in AD&D RAW.

I've also revised the XP for encounters based on the average party level (rather than monster HD or calculations based off of HP and special abilities) and a multiplier for whether the encounter was easy (x0), normal (x1), average (x2), hard (x3), or deadly (x4). Easy encounters grant no XP, while deadly might result in a near TPK, even with good tactics (and definitely some PC deaths). This portion is based off of the XP rules from Dungeon Crawl Classics. (I'd originally wanted to drop the XP charts and use the DCC RPG unified chart and awards, but the players wanted to keep the individual class-based XP charts, so this is the best of both worlds, for me.)

The main goal here is to have slower advancement than we experienced in 3X or 5E. We're looking at about 25 average encounters (for a fighter; other classes will vary) to get from 1st to 2nd; 30 to get from 2nd to 3rd; and increasing by about 10 encounters needed per level from 2nd to 3rd and beyond (from 19th to 20th would take about 200 average encounters for a party of 19th level characters).

Interestingly enough, XP rewards peak at name level (around 9th) and then start dropping off. So, even though a fixed amount is usually needed from about 9th level on, XP awards start dropping off and advancement slows.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

By the book.

 

[Imperialus]

We use training by RAW... That and living expenses are an important gold sink for PC's. 7 years in, and everything has balanced out OK.

One thing that seems to be overlooked though is that if you actually follow the 1st ed RAW then you only accumulate experience when returning to civilization... I suppose if you were to get really technical you gain XP for killing monsters on the fly (though we've never played that way), but honestly in 1st ed 90% of your XP comes from treasure anyhow, which doesn't award XP until it is 'safe'... So if you are clearing out the lost tombs of who-zat for six weeks of game time and roll back into town having accumulated enough XP to put you well over the amount you need to level up then you don't loose out on anything as long as you train up before heading back out again.

 

[TerraDave]

We use training by RAW... That and living expenses are an important gold sink for PC's. 7 years in, and everything has balanced out OK.

One thing that seems to be overlooked though is that if you actually follow the 1st ed RAW then you only accumulate experience when returning to civilization... I suppose if you were to get really technical you gain XP for killing monsters on the fly (though we've never played that way), but honestly in 1st ed 90% of your XP comes from treasure anyhow, which doesn't award XP until it is 'safe'... So if you are clearing out the lost tombs of who-zat for six weeks of game time and roll back into town having accumulated enough XP to put you well over the amount you need to level up then you don't loose out on anything as long as you train up before heading back out again.

Yes.

Players had to get so many thousands of gold to advance. (monster XP could be really paltry). Training acted as a vacuum to suck up that gold.

I always felts a "wine, women, and song" rule where PCs got the XP for spending the gold was the best alternative.

 

[Imperialus]

Yes.

Players had to get so many thousands of gold to advance. (monster XP could be really paltry). Training acted as a vacuum to suck up that gold.

I always felts a "wine, women, and song" rule where PCs got the XP for spending the gold was the best alternative.

The problem with wind women and song is that it is already pretty well covered in the living expenses. I mean when your fighter hits 7th or 8th level and rolls into town he's spending thousands of gold a week on living expenses alone. I have a hard time conceptualizing spending more than that without seriously channeling John Belushi's coke addiction.

 

[TerraDave]

The problem with wind women and song is that it is already pretty well covered in the living expenses. I mean when your fighter hits 7th or 8th level and rolls into town he's spending thousands of gold a week on living expenses alone. I have a hard time conceptualizing spending more than that without seriously channeling John Belushi's coke addiction.

Black lotus is not cheap.

Neither pulp fantasy heroes nor real world recipients of sudden wealth have a problem with extravagant living.

I guess you game-ize it. You get a score based on how much money your character can spend on themselves, and make this the one measure of success. There is something nicely simulationist about this approach.

 

[dagger]

With the name level rules for followers that usually took care of some gold, or needing to have certain spells cast from high level clerics/magic-users, and even starting to get into magic item creation.