Your favorite character advancement scheme

[Asmor]

That is pretty cool. I wonder if that could work for DND...

Of course it could!

Is that the TSR Marvel game I've heard so much about? I still have yet to find a copy, but everything I've heard makes it sound absolutely fascinating

No, different game. Diceless system where you push stones around on your character sheet... Don't remember who publishes it.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Intellectually I love RuneQuest's system (it's called Basic Roleplaying now?), but the truth is that the "level-up" gives the jolt of progress and significantly increased power that helps keeps me (and most people, I think) coming back to the table. In-between systems, usually using points (M&M, GURPS, many others), are an okay compromise for me.

 

[Stormonu]

For the game I made (54 Fantasy), XP comes from making a successful skill check (in or out of combat) with the caveat of it being "significant use" of the skill (for example, jogging through the dungeon won't give a point for using Athletics (Run), but trying to outrun the city guard probably would). Also, if you botched a check (the equivalent of rolling a 1), you gained experience for "learning from your failure". After gaining so much XP, you can spend it to increase skills.

Also, I liked Chronicles of Ramlar Experience Wheels - it was a circle with ten dots inside, sort of like a clock. In the center, you would write a goal - "Get Stronger", "Rule the Kingdom", "Become a Sky Knight", etc.) For every hour or significant action spent on activities that fulfilled your goal, you checked off a box. Once all 10 circles were filled, you completed the goal and would gain an advance in whatever goal you were working toward; this would be skill points, attribute increases, gaining prestige classes, ruling the kingdom, etc.

 

[coyote6]

No, different game. Diceless system where you push stones around on your character sheet... Don't remember who publishes it.

Marvel Comics did; Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game.

 

[MortonStromgal]

The Storyteller system of awarding experience at the end of a session is pretty good for awarding particular sorts of behavior among the players. It does feel a little bit too heavy-handed from the ST's side, though, and I've found it often ends the night on a low note because someone feels like they didn't get all the experience they earned.

I use something similar to that only rather than Storyteller assigned I ask the questions to the players and they judge themselves.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Interlock. Similar to BRP, but overall I prefer it.

Sweet20 (using Keys, like those linked to in the OP) was interesting, and fun.

M&M's system, "XP" included, works very well in actual play, IME. I wasn't sure, when reading it for the first time, but yeah, it came through.

 

[Verdande]

I like how Mazes and Minotaurs requires that different kinds of characters get experience from different things:

i.e. Warrior-types got experience for defeating big and bad monsters, but wizardly types got experience for discovering secrets. I don't remember how hunter-type guys got experience right now, but I remember reading it and it clicking in my head instantly. And then wondering why more games don't have this in the rules.

 

[karlindel]

With 4e, I go with a game session based level up, generally every 2-3 sessions. Sometimes a long session with a lot of progress may mean a single session to level, and sometimes multiple short sessions with little progress means slightly more, but that pace is about right for the group.

Outside of D&D, I tend to prefer games with open advancement schemes, rather than class and level based systems.

Conceptually, I like Burning Wheel's advancement scheme, in which characters must have a certain number of successes and failures using a skill (and at varying levels of difficulty) in order to progress.

 

[The Shaman]

The Basic Role-Playing system is really fun and fairly logical, as far as experience point systems go. Make a check mark next to a skill when you use it, then roll d% under your skill rating at the end of the session/adventure to see if it advances. The higher your skill, the less likely it is to advance.

Flashing Blades is similar to this: check marks are awarded to attributes and skills, and the higher the attribute/skill, the more check marks are needed to advance.

 

[scourger]

For d&d/d20, I really liked the experience awards in Omega World: 0 for doing nothing; 500 for playing it safe; 2000 for a standard adventuring session; and 5,000 for a spectacular success or failure. I think it was called free form experience.

Otherwise, I really like the experience system in Savage Worlds. Each session is worth around 2 xp (1 for a really light night or 3 for something campaign-altering). Advances come every 5 xp, and ranks are at every 20 xp. We kept the old roll bennies for bous xp rule: roll 1d6 for each unused benny at the end of the night; a 5 or 6 on a d6 = 1 xp. It makes any edges that give bonus bennies very valuable, but we love it.