experience points for other activities

[Wolfgar]

I was reading some threads on dragonsfoot and came across the fact that Gary Gygax awarded xp to meaningful use of class-related skills. For example:

www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=12918&p=258727

ScottyG wrote:

Gary, in your games, and in the C&C rules, you give spell casters xp for casting spells on a 100/spell level basis. Does this include clerics casting cure spells?
Scott

Indeed, for OA/D&D and C&C game play, I also award XPs for successful meaningful spellcasting, the award 100 XPs per spell level.

Cheers,
Gary

I looked around for the C&C rulebooks online and came across this list of when XP are awarded.

AWARDING EXPERIENCE POINTS
The Castle Keeper is completely free to award Experience Points (XP) in whatever manner is desired. The following suggestions might be helpful in making campaign activity. Examples include:
1. For active participation in game sessions: 20 to 50 XPs per hour.
2. Normal XPs for each creature (monster) slain divided amongst participants engaged in the combat, division by effective fighter level, viz. fighters, rangers, barbarians, paladins and knights get 1 share per level; thieves, assassins, monks, and bards get 1 share per two levels; clerics and druids get 1 share per three levels; and wizards and illusionists get 1 share per four levels.
3. One-half normal XPs for each adversarial creature (monster) duped, captured, or driven away.
4. For all fighter-type characters (fighters, rangers, barbarians, knights, paladins), meaningful use of a weapon against an adversary: 10 XPs per character level of the fighter per battle.
5. For spell-caster characters, successful and meaningful use of a spell: 100 XPs per spell level, 25 per 0-level casting.
6. For ranger characters, successful and meaningful use of a listed function: 20 XPs per character level of the ranger.
7. For thief (or assassin) characters, successful and meaningful use of a listed function: 20 XPs per character level of the thief.
8. For monetary value of treasure gained, thieves get 1 XP for every 5 sp found and all others get 1 XP for every 1 gp found.

There is also some interesting discussions on awarding experience here.

This would certainly encourage characters to use their class skills more. Of course tracking this could be a nightmare for the DM.

We probably don't want to change how xp are awarded in the middle of the campaign. But something to think about.

[venger]

In a system like this the players would have to track their actions during the game on a sheet of paper and submit them afterward.

I'm more inclined to suggestions that simplify the process as opposed to complicating it.

There are some threads on Dragonsfoot about decoupling experience from gold pieces which I found pretty interesting.

[Dead Greyhawk]

I used to play in a game where only if you participated in the battle by doing damage to the creature would you gain XP. It led to a lot of single shots from people to make sure they did 1 point of damage to every monster.

I find such skill based XP awards to be prone to unanticipated effects and that they need serious thought about how they can be abused.

[Wolfgar]

I am not advocating tracking separate awards for each player. Rather I am suggesting that we could augment the total xp the party gets to divide based on a wider range of activities. Limiting xp awards to just killing things and getting treasure seems to stress a certain type of play. Giving awards for successfully doing something other than fighting may be harder to quantify but no less valid as a measure of game success.

[venger]

Another perspective would be that I could penalize the characters when they are not performing these class functions, be it through diminished experience or increased training costs per level.

I do award experience for the completion of objectives like I mentioned. But that's usually to supplement a dearth of treasure in the adventure.

Not to pull back the DM screen too far but, aside from the simplicity of the system, I appreciate the level of control over the advancement of the players the current model affords. As the party progresses in level, available adventure options tend to diminish.

[Ginger]

Dec 5, 2011 11:33:50 GMT -5 venger said:

Another perspective would be that I could penalize the characters when they are not performing these class functions, be it through diminished experience or increased training costs per level.

Please dock points from ranger bow specialists who use melee weapons against giant-class enemies. We can call it the Kimball rule.

[venger]

Totally the opposite.

Using the damage bonus vs. humanoids/giants is exactly the type of class specific function that earns extra XP in the proposed system.