💾 Archived View for gemlog.blue › users › valinard › 1685488066.gmi captured on 2023-07-22 at 19:33:35. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-06-14)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The system I'm using for my current game is based on the Black Hack[1], and perhaps my favourite part of it has been the experience system. In place of XP certain actions count as 'experiences' and are recorded on the character sheet. Players can check off a certain number of them to gain a level (in BH equal to their current level, though I'd suggest equal to the level you're trying to reach.)
BH requires PCs to carouse to gain a level, though in my game *any* downtime action can be used to level - training, research, crafting, building relationships - and will be a little more effective for it.
By default, the following qualify as experiences:
- Defeat or foil a boss
- Enter a new dungeon or level
- Recover a magical artifact
- Complete a quest
- Overcome a deadly hazard
- Fail spectacularly at something
In my game we use this list:
- Fight against an important or particularly challenging foe.
- Saving throw or malady that could lead to death.
- Each time you return home Encumbered due to valuable treasure.
- Quest completed on behalf of an NPC.
- New dungeon, level or major map entered.
Both reward the kind of thing D&D characters expect to be doing - going into strange places, fighting monsters, recovering treasure. But you could easily change the whole tone and genre of the campaign by switching these around, with entries like "share a meal with a new friend" or "come to understand an enemy's motives" for a more Ghibli-style game.
One unexpected effect of this system was that after a while, PCs end up with Experience sections that look like this:
- Stepped through Ultan’s Door
- Battled the White Swine – twice
- Discovered the puppet of Afatis
- Discovered the law of Zyan
- Slew the White Sow
- Defeated the Weaver of Shadows
- Struck a deal with Azmarane
- Entered catacombs of the Fleischguild
- Discovered the Porcelain Abattoir of the Fleischguild
- Defeated the Fleishgeist
- Defeated Szadu
- Laid the Restless Shades to Rest
- Entered the White Jungle
- Entered the Parapraxis
- Battled the White Apes of the Parapraxis
- Battled the White Ape Chief
- Comforted Espi about the truth of her origins
- Recovered the Parapraxis
- Recovered great treasure from the Parapraxis
- Attended the Chatelaine’s Private Feast
- Stood up to Aximund
- Defeated the Lionhead Giant
- Travelled to the Alkaline Wastes
- Descended into the Fallen City
- Discovered the fate of Liishinoru
- Reunited Liishinoru and Kasparan
- Defeated the Liishinoru
- Entered Liishinoru’s Heart
- Vowed never to speak of the filtration tanks again
- Discovered the Water Treatment Plant
- Fulfilled Liishinoru's Promise to Repair the Water Filtration Plant
- Recovered texts from the Archives of the Fallen City
- Discovered the Swamp of Many Eyes
- Discovered the skeleton of a monstrous reptile
- Scouted Loktole
- Fought in the Battle of Loktole
- Defeated the Hydra
- Rescued Stumby
- Entered the Pass of the Ibis
- Escaped the belly of the Froghemoth
- Liberating the prison camp
- Rescued Sendrie from The Stalker
- Saved the Lone Elm
- Explored Underleaf Forest
- Entered the basement of Owlshadow Castle
- Roasted the Butcher of Agnis Fen
- Slew Aximund of House Ibis, Harbinger of the Purifying Flame
- Faced Down the Avatar of the Purifying Flame
- Suffered an Eye Injury While Facing the Whining Krematorium
- Arrived is Wolsdag by Crow
- Attended the festival of Longtide
- Was turned into a goblin
- Ambushed and slew Culdan
- Drove the bloody hand from Wolsdag
- Sailed to the Shattered Isles
- Entered the Submerged Spire
- Battled and Freed the Ctenophoric Maiden
- Plundered the Tomb of Kremulos the Livid
- Raised and redeemed Aximund
- Battled Their Rogue's Gallery in the Hinterlands
- Returned Aelix and Ulina, daughters of Saint Balix to Rastingdrung and presented them before the Chatelaine
In other words, an extensive record of the PC's career. Without context, such a list offers only tantalising glimpses of the campaign it represents, but for any of the players every entry brings a memory vividly to mind. It's a log of the campaign created effortlessly as part of the process of play - players are eager to add to it because every entry is a token of the currency they used to grow in power.
And there's more. Because XP now represents specific moments, effects that add or remove XP become really interesting. A character who sacrifices XP in some way loses an experience - and all memory of that experience.
When the PCs encountered a stranded Chronomancer seeking retrograde energy to further her journey into the past, she traded the PCs memories of their past for memories of their future. This allowed them to give up an experience to gain a new one - but the new experience could not be spent on levelling until the vision had either come to pass, or been successfully averted.
And a potion called the *Blood of the Corrupted*, which provided a significant amount of experience in return for certain downsides, could provide the following experiences:
- D̛̾̎R̋̽̈́A̓̎͐N̒̾͂K͗͗̃ T̀̽͠H̓̀̒E̒̅̀ B̿̆͡L̑̇̆O̊̆̕O̊̍̊D̛̑͋ Ó̈̽F̐̏͊ T̾͋͂Ȟ̓̒E͋̑͠ C̈̐̏O͋͝͞R̃̋͡R͗̈̅U̍̑͡P̽̔͂T͌̀̾E̛͑͌D̋̚͡
- D̛̾̎R̋̽̈́A̓̎͐N̒̾͂K͗͗̃ T̀̽͠H̓̀̒E̒̅̀ B̿̆͡L̑̇̆O̊̆̕O̊̍̊D̛̑͋ Ó̈̽F̐̏͊ T̾͋͂Ȟ̓̒E͋̑͠ C̈̐̏O͋͝͞R̃̋͡R͗̈̅U̍͡PTED
- D̛̾̎R̋̽̈́A̓̎͐N̒̾͂K͗͗̃ T̀̽͠H̓̀̒E̒̅̀ B̿̆͡L̑̇̆O̊̆̕O̊̍̊D̛̑͋ Ó̈̽F̐̏͊ T̾͋͂Ȟ̓̒E͋̑͠ C̈̐̏O͋͝͞R̃̋͡R͗̈̅U̍̑͡P̽̔͂T͌̀̾E̛͑͌D̋̚͡
They work just like ordinary experiences, but the PC seeing that on his sheet is likely to get the message that something is *very* wrong.
Another trick is to combine the system with Ben Laurence's system for *awakening* magic items[2]. Instead of the GM having to watch out for a moment in the game which is epic enough to rouse a Splendid item into magical awakening, I put it in the hands of the players - instead of investing an experience to level up, they can invest it in an item.
This is an out-of-character decision - the player decides that it happens, but the character has no control over it, from their perspective it just happens. As DM I retain control over the specs of the resulting item, so very dramatic and emotive pairings of item and event produce the most powerful magic, while pairing an item with "entered the lair of the one-eyed scabid kobold" might produce something less impressive.
For example, one of the players used *Returned Aelix and Ulina, daughters of Saint Balix to Rastingdrung*, a quest taken on a vow made to a martyred saint, to empower *Joyeuse, the Blade of Saint Maurus*, a sword made with fragments of the wheel upon which one of the *other* saints of the same faith had been martyred, to create:
- 2H Sword +2, +4 if the wielder is bloodied.
- Target hit by a full attack must CON save or die if they are engaged in enforcing law or religious orthodoxy.
So at this point I'm thoroughly sold on the method; as an experience system it's adequate; but the side effects of using it are what, for me, make it shine.