Running my first gold-for-XP game (well, gold-or-XP game) has me thinking about incentives.
Specifically, what does gold-for-XP incentivize?
- Acquiring loot
- Doing jobs for pay
- Stealing
- Running a profitable business
- Avoiding things that don't pay
- Avoiding things that kill you
Is this what I want my game to be about?
No. I want my game to be about:
- Exploring the World ¹
- Engaging with the World
- Following your interests
By using XP, how might one incentivize this kind of game?
- Exploring: Give XP for locations visited and locations fully explored.
- Engaging: Give XP for completing quests, partnering with factions and NPCs, slaying beasts, developing your skills, doing daring and ambitious things.
- Following your interests: Give XP for completing personal quests.
Do I want to dictate what my game is about?
Of course. I don't want to play a game about running a business or managing a kingdom or waging war between armies. I don't mind if they're an element of the gam. But I want to steer my Players away from those activities if they're going to dominate our hours spent at the table.
But is XP— the currency of incentive and quantitative advancement— necessary to communicate to Players what a game is about?
No, but it helps. And I like advancement. It feels like a line pulled taut. It gives a feeling of continuity and directionality to a game that can last years.
What are some inventive approaches to advancement?
Messy Characters (from Chris McDowall's blog):
When you achieve all the following criteria, you reach Prestige Status and add d6hp to your Maximum.
- Bravery: You have at least one Scar.
- Legacy: You have an apprentice and heir.
- Prominence: You have sold at least one treasure worth 10g or more.
- Eminence: You have been awarded a medal, title, or another honour.
Boasts (from Luke Gearing's Wolves Upon the Coast):
A Character who makes a Boast of Heroic Proportions either gains 1HD or +1 Attack Bonus in addition to any wager or reward offered by others.If they are found to shirk their Boast, they lose the HD or Attack Bonus and may never again Boast.
Those failing the Boast lose the HD or Attack Bonus, but may try again or make another Boast.
Only one Boast can be pending at a time.
Experiences (from David Black's The Black Hack):
Unlike in many other games, Characters don’t earn [experience] points incrementally, all that matters is that a Character is able to Experience enough things that will change them as a person. There are a number of potential ways a Character can be awarded an Experience by the GM.
- Defeating a powerful ‘named’ enemy either in combat or by thwarting their schemes.
- Discovering the entrance - or a newer, deeper level of a ‘dungeon’ or lair and begin exploring it.
- Rediscovering a magical artefact from a previous enlightened age.
- Completing a quest for an NPC.
- Overcoming, disabling, or surviving a deadly and powerful threat such as a magical trap or curse.
- Failing so spectacularly and in such dramatic fashion that everyone around the table agrees it’s worth it.
- Once a Character has acquired a number of Experiences equal to their current Level they may ‘share’ them to gain a Level... Each class gains something different when they go up a Level.
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