EXPERIENCE AND ADVANCEMENT:
After our
discussion the other night, I came up with this proposal.
From levels
2-6, it requires 5 Grampius points to advance a level. To reach levels 7 and above, it should take
10 Grampius points per level.
- You get 1 Grampius point if you participate (and survive) the session.
- You get 1 Grampius point if your character gets 500gp in found treasure or more back to your HQ. This does not include the value of any magic items or useful tools/weapons/armor.
- You get 1 Grampius point if your team has undertaken a mission for a patron and have successfully completed that mission. Rewards paid by the patron do not count toward the found treasure total.
It should be
possible, but rare, to get 3 Grampius points.
Most sessions should involve EITHER going on a self-motivated treasure
hunt, OR going on a patron mission.
The scheme
requires that 1000gp per player maximum in placed treasure be in effect, and
that the DM hides and/or traps a significant portion of treasures in
Tomb-Raiding scenarios.
It also assumes
that most monsters don’t carry a lot of treasure with them outside their lairs.
My thoughts:
ReplyDelete>>You get 1 Grampius point if you participate (and survive) the session.
I think that players should get a GP whether their PC survives or not. Additionally, I believe that players should be free to award GPs to any of the three PCs in their character tree. However, I'm totally on board with limitations on spending Grampius Points such as "a maximum of three points may be awarded to a particular PC each game session" and "a character may not advance more than one level without entering play."
Also, Grampius points is confusing with the Gold Pieces abbreviation (GP). Maybe you come up with something different like "advancement points" or "zentaun points?"
OK, XP then, (Xenon Points)
Delete>>It should be possible, but rare, to get 3 Grampius points. Most sessions should involve EITHER going on a self-motivated treasure hunt, OR going on a patron mission.
ReplyDeleteDon't be foolish! You and I both know that nearly all sessions will be BOTH a patron mission and a treasure hunt!
Also, we should give "Grampies" for other awesome things as well. For example, I think we should award instances of extracting personal vengeance (assuming the player has a honest beef and the target is "on the list").
How about role playing the suggested characteristics such as "personality traits", "ideals", "bonds", and "flaws?" Maybe at the end of the session each player can share how their PC acted in accordance with these traits?
Maybe each player has a "Grampie" that may only be cashed if they give it away to another player, as we did with Conan?
No, I really want there to be a strict dichotomy: either taking a job, or searching for treasure. On the patron missions it should be possible but uncommon to find enough treasure to get an XP, but not likely. The patron's reward offer might equal a similar amount of gold, but it wouldn't count as XP treasure.
DeleteTherefore, we might design choice points in the adventure: go path 1 for some treasure, or path 2 to succeed at mission.
I'd like to avoid the possibility of more than 3 XP, and make the expectation 2.
DeleteI think we could certainly have PC's act as their own Patrons: Instead of getting an XP for found treasure or a patron mission, a PC could say "My guy has a hatred for thieves, I want to kill the thief guild boss today" if everyone agrees, that counts as the patron XP possibility.
>> Instead of getting an XP for found treasure or a patron mission
DeleteSo if your guy kills the guild boss at the beginning of the adventure, he doesn't get any sweet Xene-beanies for going along with the party to search for treasure?
Or are you saying that the whole party must agree to go along with your guy to kill the guild boss in order to advance?
I'm actually following Marlon's proposal to follow the Savage Worlds pattern. You get 1 XP for showing up and 1 more for completing the day's primary activity successfully. Occasionally, you might get a third XP if you found a lot of treasure while your main mission wasn't hunting for treasure.
DeleteSo, if you convince the crew to come along with you on your personal quest, that becomes the day's primary task.
"Also, we should give "Grampies" for other awesome things as well. For example, I think we should award instances of extracting personal vengeance (assuming the player has a honest beef and the target is "on the list"). "
DeleteI don't think we should give XP for those things, instead we should give "INSPIRATION" for those, see the Rule Book for inspiration, but it's basically like a Bennie from Savage Worlds that you get from playing your character traits and flaws. When you spend it, you get ADVANTAGE on a roll, and I think you can give it to other people too. We just have to start off strong awarding the INSPIRATION chips to get the expectation for them up.
Let's give some thought to advancement because your scheme looks a lot like "Epic 6" D&D. Even if someone were to play the same character and always win 3 "Grampies," it will take 14 sessions to make seventh level. Are you expecting most PCs' advancement to halt at 6th level?
ReplyDeleteAre you concerned that we'll all get to 20th level too fast?
I think that past 10th level, it's just no fun. I'm for slow advancement.
Delete>>I think that past 10th level, it's just no fun. I'm for slow advancement.
DeleteThe truth comes out! Why don't we just put a ceiling on character advancement at 10th level, then? I would totally be cool with that. Additionally, then we don't have to worry about adventures being too easy if they were originally built for lower level PCs?
Actually, let's make it 8th level so that we can "wall off" the 5th level spells that make games all sucky.
DeleteYou're right on the Grampius points, we can just call them XP.
ReplyDelete(Xenon Points)
It's impossible to get more than 3 XP per session, so no need for limitation (it's not 1 XP per 500gp, its 1 XP if you get 500 or more gp). I'm really hoping that it will be actually rare to get 3, most times it should be 2.
How about we allow player to award 1 (and only 1) of his collected XP to a PC who did not participate? You're right then, about non-survival.
>>it's not 1 XP per 500gp, its 1 XP if you get 500 or more gp
DeleteMaybe I'm misunderstanding, then. Do the PCs all get a Xenie if the ENTIRE haul is >500GP, or do PCs only get an Xenon Point if their PERSONAL SHARE is >500GP?
If the answer is the LATTER, the "Appraisal" skill just became a little more awesome.
Totally on the PERSONAL SHARE
DeleteI had a system for keeping item value secret during the Wilderlands of Hack Campaign that was pretty functional.
>>I had a system for keeping item value secret
DeleteSweet! You'll have to tell me how that works.
One more thing I'll point out about the 500GP thing. If a group of four PCs return with 1200GP, instead of giving each PC a share of 300GP (for no XP bonus) what if the group decides that two get 500GP and the others get 100GP with the understanding that the next haul over 500GP goes to the two PCs that took pay cuts? Would you as the GM penalize that, or is that perfectly acceptable behavior?
DeleteSounds fine to me, people did stuff like that when we gave XP for gold and people were close to a level. I think people can split treasure for any reason they like in any way that they like.
DeleteCool! Just making sure that's legit before we do it.
DeleteAre we using all three PCs we create in a "character tree" that we can swap in and out or will we all only be playing a single character?
ReplyDeleteI was hoping for swapping in and out---like Friday Jones and Two Chains
DeleteI believe there is some text about character trees in the DMG at page 236. I think that we'll find that just by using trees we can be a little more free with XP to drive the campaign. That may just be me, though.
Deletehttp://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?454691-5E-character-trees
Couldn't find anything about character trees in DMG at said pages
ReplyDelete