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2012-11-16, 11:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2011
- Location
- Vancouver Canada
- Gender
Alternatives to experience points?
I can't think of any foolproof ones myself, most lead to farming in some way. Do any alternatives already exist, or can anyone think of one?
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2012-11-16, 11:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
You could control leveling. At plot relevant moments all player characters gain a level.
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2012-11-16, 11:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
- Gender
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
I did that. I found it fun and easy. The only thing we needed was an XP pool for crafting/ XP spells. Maybe give each player at every level something akin the the one an artificer gets, then, allow non-magical users and such able to contribute XP towards items/ spells for them. Like Wish/Permanency/etc.
Dascarletm, Spinner of Rudiplorked Tales, and Purveyor of PunsThanks to Artman77 for the avatar!
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2012-11-16, 11:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2011
- Location
- Vancouver Canada
- Gender
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
That sounds like it would work, I'll try that.
To completely change the question, does anyone have suggestions on how to run a game in which players may control several characters each? I'm thinking they'll be split mostly into an adventuring group and a money farming and item crafting group back home, but the R&D has to move into the action sometimes to level up with the rest of the group.
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2012-11-17, 10:07 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
- Location
- Virginia Beach VA
- Gender
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
If Team Finance is farming and crafting, why do they need to be player characters, rather than NPCs? NPCs administered by the players, if you like, but still.
And why do they need to level by adventuring? Particularly if you're not using XP.
"You've been a weaponsmith for a year now. You've served with a master, you've studied the lore, you've gone to weekend seminars, you've gotten 30 semester hour credits, congratulations, you're now Level 2!"
is at least as convincing as
"You're a weaponsmith, you helped steal a lot of gold from the Dread Tower and got in some bar brawls, ding, level 2 weaponsmith!"Last edited by Laserlight; 2012-11-17 at 10:08 AM.
Junior, half orc paladin of the Order of St Dale the Intimidator: "Ah cain't abide no murderin' scoundrel."
Tactical Precepts: 1) Cause chaos, then exploit it; 2) No plan survives contact with...(sigh)...my subordinates.
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2012-11-17, 10:54 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2012
- Location
- Northeast USA
- Gender
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
I've played in a couple of very fast leveling games that threw out a level at the completion of each storyline.
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2012-11-17, 12:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2007
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Gender
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
Check out the Ars Magica RPG. It dealt with first- and second-string characters for all players.
Avatar by the incomparable araveugnitsuga!
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2012-11-17, 12:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2012
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
In Ars Magica you don't get as much XP for actually adventuring as you get out of staying home and studying. So the wizards that aren't around for the adventure aren't losing much/anything in the XP department.
And the mooks are, well, mooks.My D&D 5th ed. Druid Handbook
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2012-11-17, 12:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
- Gender
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
Because experience points are mostly unrelated to the rest of the system, you can do just about anything you want and it won't ruin anything. One common example is to level every 3 sessions, or at major plot points or whenever you feel like it really.
So you never have to interrupt a game to look up a rule again:
My 3.5e Rules Cheat Sheets: Normal, With Consolidated Skill System
TOGC's 3.5e Spell/etc Cards: rpgnow / drivethru rpg
Utilities: Magic Item Shop Generator (Req. MS Excel), Balanced Low Magic Item System
Printable Cardstock Dungeon Tiles and other terrain stuff (100 MB)
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2012-11-17, 06:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
- Location
- Minnesota, USA
- Gender
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
If you are looking to forgo traditional experience based leveling I completely support Speed of Plot leveling.
As for exp dependent spells and the like convert it to a gold cost like Pathfinder did. I believe there may be an official optional table for that somewhere otherwise there are countless online. Otherwise it's going to become problematic as I've found.Last edited by AlchemicalMyst; 2012-11-17 at 06:09 PM.
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2012-11-17, 11:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2010
Re: Alternatives to experience points?
Seconding the "level when the DM says so" option. I've played a few games which used it, and it works quite well (saves everyone headaches from calculating/tracking xp, level disparity, and you can keep everyone at a level where the enemies you want to use are still challenging). Combine it with replacing all xp costs with 5x that number in gp, and you have pretty much removed xp from the game entirely.