Experience Points

Except in specially devised scenarios and tournaments, there is no winner in a role-playing game. The accumulation of heroic deeds, friends, prestige, weapons, equipment, knowledge, and skills, can be construed to be the results of winning. If a character survives and meets with success in his endeavors, that is winning. However, there are rewards besides the acquisition of material goods and reputation, such as developing your character's skills, knowledge, and abilities. This is accomplished through the gathering of experience points.

Why An Experience Point System?

The experience system is specifically designed so that characters will mature fairly rapidly, tapering off as they reach higher levels of experience (around fifth and sixth level).

Experience Points and Their Application

It is difficult to devise a point system by which a Game Master can judge and reward his players fairly. The ultimate purpose of experience points and experience levels is to provide a means by which the player's character can grow and develop. Many role-playing games have their own unique system, charts, equations, and computations for distributing experience points. You may want to adapt one of those systems to this game if that's what you're more comfortable with.

Many games avoid the whole question of experience points by a system in which points are pumped back into the powers, but this leaves skills undeveloped, as well as being pretty drab.

Most experience systems concentrate on the "kill factor," but what about the thought process? What about the decisions, plans, or motives behind a particular action? Doesn't cleverness and a cool head count? Aren't these the true ingredients of good role-playing? Shouldn't the brilliant medical student playing a character with an I.Q. of 4 (and staying firmly in character, saying and doing things as the character would, even though he realizes the foolishness or stupidity as a player) get experience for playing in character?

Each player's character involved in a given situation/confrontation should receive the appropriate experience points. The Game Master should make a list of his players at the beginning of the game and jot down each player's experience points as they gather them throughout the course of the game. At the end of the game, the Game Master totals each player's points and gives them the total so that they can keep track of their growing experience and skills.

The difficulty with this system of determining experience points is the subjectivity. The Game Master must utilize the proceeding experience outline with some thought and try to be fair and unbiased.

Example: Eight third level characters brimming with power and armed to the teeth attack and subdue one, lone, fourth level villain or minor monster. The eight players should receive experience points for subduing a minor menace. After all, the poor guy didn't have a chance and presented no real threat to the characters. However, if one or two first or second level characters subdued the same villain, they should receive experience for subduing a major or even a great menace (depending on how powerful it was), because the threat and ingenuity involved were much greater.

This method stimulates imaginative playing instead of promoting slash and kill gaming.

Warning: Game Masters, don't be Santa Claus, heaping wonderful amounts of experience points; be fair and tolerant. Let your players truly earn their experience points, growing in skill, knowledge and power. If you have a group of players rising rapidly in experience levels, you will know it's because they are clever and imaginative players.

Character Experience Levels

Each character class has the above experiance listing to mark advancement. A character involved in an adventure gains experience points for his thoughts, actions and deeds. As these experience points accumulate, the character will reach new plateaus, indicating his continual growth, development, and mastery over his powers and skills. Each time a player's character accumulates enough experience points to reach the next level of experience, his skill increases accordingly. In most instances, abilities and special powers also increase in range, duration, power/damage, and scope.

A clever plan, a quick attack, all earn experience points. The more experience points a character receives, the higher the level he attains and the greater his abilities. Players, be certain to keep a careful record of the experience given to you at the end of each game. When a character attains a new level, be certain to tell the Game Master so that the skills and hit points can be increased accordingly.

Experience and Hit Points

Each time a character reaches a new level of experience the player gets to roll one eight-sided die (1D8) and adds the number rolled to the character's hit points. This indicates the physical development and maturity of the character as he develops.

Per Level of Experience

Per level of experience, or per each level of experience, or per level of the caster, indicates that the person can perform a skill, force ability, or other ability at his highest level of experience. This often indicates the amount of damage that can be inflicted or a duration of an effect.

EXPERIENCE POINTS TABLE