Adjust XP/month for active PCs

[Manzanita]

Proposal: For time spend adventuring, 50XPs will be assigned per level per month, to a maximum of 400 XPs/month for PCs level 8 and above. This modified amount will be effective for XPs assigned after this proposal is accepted, however, PCs currently adventuring on the day this proposal is approved will get the higher of the revised amount per this proposal, or 100 XPs/ month. Thus this proposal will not reduce the XPs to be awarded to any current adventurer.


Currently, PCs gain 100 XPs/month while adventuring, on top of whatever else the DM assigns. No XPs are assigned for time spent for PCs while not on adventures. These XPs represent basic role playing, problem solving and serve to partially equalize slow adventures with fast ones. This method, though, provides increasing limited returns as PCs advance in levels. A per level award seems more reasonable. Since LEW is largely viewed as a low level world, capping the increase/level helps keep lower level PCs in the game.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

I know this has been discussed in the General thread for a while. I think this is probably the best proposal I've heard for it. If I were a judge, I'd vote yes. But I'm not.

 

[El Jefe]

Will current 1st level characters be "grandfathered" at 100 xp/month, or will 50 xp/month for 1st levels apply? And when would the new guideline take effect? 100 xp/month prior to adoption, and 50 xp/month after that until the character reaches 2nd level? Or is this retroactive?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping out higher level characters who get stuck in dead adventures, but I want to look out for the little guy, too.

 

[Manzanita]

I think it would be simplist if the the XP award were based on the rules at the point when the XPs were rewarded. Thus if some version of this proposal is approved before you poor bard received XPs, then the revised rules would determine the XPs he receives since he began adventuring. This just seems most straightforward. I see no reason 1st level PCs should recieve more XPs/month reletive to their leveling amount than higher level PCs. They already benefit from adventuring with higher level PCs because that allows the party to overcome greater obsticles and gain more XPs for the party as a whole, and thus the 1st level PC in particular.

I wouldn't be opposed to working out some retro thing, or keeping it at 100 XPs/month for first level PCs, if that what other people want. Given the pace of PbP, it is almost inconceivable we will come up with some sort of rule that advanced PCs TOO fast. I think this proposal is on the conservative side.

 

[orsal]

transition

Several ways we could handle the transition, assuming this proposal does pass.

(1) The rules in effect at the end of an adventure, when XP are awarded apply.
Benefit: the simplest way to do it
Drawback: doesn't seem fair to all the first-level characters in the Vesper Peaks adventure, which started a year ago, to have their expected 1200 XP suddenly get halved

(2) Everybody gets 100 XP per month up until the day this proposal gets its third judge approval, and (50 x level) XP per month afterward.
Benefit: no retroactivity
Drawback: more complicated, two different numbers to calculate for adventures in progress at the time of the rule change

(3) For adventures in progress, everyone gets the benefit of whichever rule serves them better. So 1st level characters get 100 XP/month and 3rd level characters get 150 XP/month. This only applies to adventures in progress at the time of the rule change; old rules apply to adventures already completed by then, and new rules to adventures not yet started.
Benefit: nobody feels their character got cheated
Drawback: seems a little munchkiny to give everyone whatever terms work out better for them

My own preference? I don't really care. As I've said before, if the XP-for-time amounts to a big deal it's too much anyway. My only active character just reached 3rd level, so all of the above work out the same for him, assuming the rule is passed this month. If anyone has strong feelings about which of these methods (or others) is fairest, I'm OK with that. But I would support approving the proposal, with whatever transitional arrangement we choose, and not to hold the proposal up arguing about the transitional details.

 

[Manzanita]

any comments from the judges?

 

[Knight Otu]

Thinking about this, I guess I'm in favor with this change, using orsal's option 3.

 

[Manzanita]

I modified the proposal to reflect Orsal's third suggestion.

 

[Patlin]

Just occurred to me that if this is implemented higher level characters will consistently get higher amounts of xp for the same adventures, continually widening the xp gap between characters adventuring together.

That seems like an undesirable and probably unintended consequence to me...

 

[El Jefe]

I disagree. At each level, each character would get a proportional share of "adventure time" xp. For example, a 4th level needs 4000 xp to go from 6000 to 10,000. At 50/month/level, that would be 200/month, or 20 months to go from 6000 to 10,000.

A second level only needs 2000 xp to go from 1000 to 3000. At 50/month/level, that would be 100/month, or the same 20 months to go from 1000 to 3000. Provided that all experience was "adventure time" experience, the gap would stay exactly the same, up until 8th level, when everyone would slow down.