NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8838049" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I ran a Spire campaign that wrapped a couple months ago and it had a lot of emergent mechanics for characters in the form of Fallout. When you take Stress (similar to HP damage in D&D, though each PC has five types) you risk taking Fallout. The higher your stress total gets, the greater the risk of and the more severe the Fallout will be.Fallout is a negative consequence for your character, many of which can be permanent. As you play the game, your character will start to accrue different Fallouts, which will change your character as a result. Their relationships with NPCs will also take Stress and risk taking Fallout. So the relationships they’ve built with different people are at risk in play. This is not connected to XP, exactly, but it is emergent change to character through play. Characters in Spire “level up” when they effect a change upon the setting. If they change something about the city, they get a new class ability. The greater the change, the more potent the ability. I think this is a good example of having a reward system that drives play, but which doesn’t feel “forced” in the way you’re worried about. “Achieving change” is a pretty wide open category that can be pursued in any number of ways. There’s no need that XP triggers need to be so specific that they become rote.Well, part of that should be addressed by the game, and by the group. As others have suggested, sometimes XP triggers will be at odds… [USER=70468]@kenada[/USER] and [USER=71235]@niklinna[/USER] talked about a social score in Blades in the Dark. So a Leech going for mayhem and a Cutter going for violence or intimidation don’t sound like the best ideas to bring to bear in some kind of negotiation or diplomatic mission. So do they find some creative way to use their skills without jeopardizing the score? Or do they put the crew’s success at risk for their personal growth? These are interesting questions. Also, with Blades in particular, the decision of whether a player gets XP is up to the player. However, that power comes with the responsibility to be honest and fair about it. The book offers the player principle of “Don’t be a weasel” and it’s great advice. I find that many players are far more stingy giving themselves XP than I would be if it was up to me to grant it to them.</blockquote>

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