if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

[Nevenall]

That's a pretty common joke in our group, but the other day one of my players made the very interesting suggestion to start a campaign where all the points and experience were awarded to the group rather then a particular character.

 

For example, instead of giving three players 150 points each, the group gets 450 to divide in whatever way they want. Maybe someone wants to play a more experienced Gandalf level character then the players decide as a group to give him 300 points and divide the rest equally.

 

The same thing happens for experience, say the group gets 15 xp for an adventure, they could split it equally, or give the 300 point character 1 and split the rest between the 75 point characters so they advance more rapidly.

 

I don't know how it would work in practice but it is an intriguing idea.

It reminded me of the fact that the main characters for Star Wars were auditioned as a group rather then individually. One Han, one Luke, one Leia, and 1 1/2 Chewie.

[Lucius]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

This means that one character could, for example, get the lion's share of points at start, with the agreement that the rest get most of the experience (at least at first.)

 

Or that one character gets more points but agrees to provide a base for the group.

 

Or the group votes each time for a Most Valuable Player (Character) award, or Most Entertaining, or whatever.

 

I think it would work, with the right group.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Most Valuable Palindromedary

[Lord Liaden]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

Not quite the same idea, but Theron Bretz wrote a very interesting and useful article for Digital Hero #3 on running a campaign without awarding Experience Points at all. All the characters are built at the start with everything needed to fit their concepts, with no attempt to "balance" their point totals or abilities with each other. They gain other types of reward over the course of play.

 

Part of the article was posted to this website as a free sample, and you can view that here: Pointless Champions.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

It could be made to work in theory. I think few groups would go for it in practice.

 

On the subject however, here are seven different alternate xp / progression schemes that you might find interesting / useful: XP Meta Concepts

[Utech]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

The main trick is to convince players that the game will be fun even if their characters are built on just a few points while their buddy is built on lots and lots. There are dozens and dozens of examples of this in books and movies, so it shouldn't be impossible to get the concept. So long as the GM gives opportunities and challenges appropriate to each character, you're golden.

 

So long as everyone agrees that it's just as heroic for the simple librarian to try to hit an agent over the head with a frying pan as it is for super-duper-dude to catch a falling building, you'll have no trouble with the set-up.

 

As for groups sharing out a pot of XP, I think you'll find this works best if all the players talk quite openly about what they want to see in the game and the story moving forward. It's entirely possible that one player will be satisfied with his character right at the outset and be happy to pass up the chance at XP for a long time.

[mattingly]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

I played in a campaign for around 7 years, that gave no XPs at all. If you felt like your character had earned something in-game that should go onto your sheet, the players would vote. In that whole campaign, I think the only thing I added was the Conversation skill and 1 CSL.

[teh bunneh]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

If I play a game long enough, I tend to reach a point where I don't think my character needs any more skills/combat levels/powers/etc. In a long-running Star Wars (d6) game, the GM asked to see my charsheet and was flabbergasted that I had some 40 or 50 unspent XPs. He asked me why, and I simply said that there was nothing else that he needed to be complete. But that was after playing the character for several years...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

I often get to that point with villains I design for a game. I like to build them with everything I think they need or should have for their concept and role, and tend to leave them after that. In Heroic games they may gain superior equipment over time. Supervillains might get an upgrade in Defenses and Damage if they have to keep up with PC advancement, but more often I just give them more support resources.

[GoldenAge]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

In Epic City experience is fungible and can be used as a group (base security upgrades) or passed on to others as a donation (I build you a radio). They can even be utilized as instant re-rolls (OH CARP!!!).

 

Works well for us.

[Nevenall]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

thanks everyone it's very interesting to hear how you approach experience.

 

Does anyone award large sums after a long time?

Say 25 points after 5 adventures or so?

[GoldenAge]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

thanks everyone it's very interesting to hear how you approach experience.

 

Does anyone award large sums after a long time?

Say 25 points after 5 adventures or so?

 

Players in Epic City ONLY receive experience after completing a campaign thread (anywhere from 1 to 6 months of play - one day a week). That's not to say that they can't spend EXP during a thread, as long as they have it they can use it.

[Utech]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

Does anyone award large sums after a long time?

Say 25 points after 5 adventures or so?

 

A dimension-hopping campaign I'm running on HC has big chunk experience awards just about every time they jump to a new dimension. It works well.

[The Suave]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

If I play a game long enough' date=' I tend to reach a point where I don't think my character needs any more skills/combat levels/powers/etc. In a long-running Star Wars (d6) game, the GM asked to see my charsheet and was flabbergasted that I had some 40 or 50 unspent XPs. He asked me why, and I simply said that there was nothing else that he needed to be complete. But that was after playing the character for several years...[/quote']

 

I have a tendency to do that, but with almost every character ever. Occasionally I'll run across a skill or some-such that I overlooked in initial concept, but for the most part I have trouble spending experience points because the character I start with is the character I want to play.

 

As of late I have been involved in shorter games, so this is more or less a null issue, but even in the Fantasy game I played in for two years, I had trouble finding places to spend experience. I was playing the character I wanted, as far as I was concerned he needed little else.

 

I still haven't decided if this is a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, I tend to be incredibly happy with my starting characters, and I am excited to see where they go in the story. On the other hand, I have very little concept of "character progression" as far as the sheet is concerned.

[dmjalund]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

aren't there any "concept preserving" places you can spend points, like enhancing existing skills, and such?

[mattingly]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

I tend to spend XP like it's a character log.

 

Just finished an adventure in Chinatown? Buy an AK for it.

Just rescued the mayor's daughter? Buy a Favor.

Just finsihed an occult adventure? Buy a KS to show what you've picked up.

Just infiltrated a bad guy's base? Buy a cool gadget that you confiscated.

Just got the crap beaten out of you? Buy an extra point of BODY.

[The Suave]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

I tend to spend XP like it's a character log.

 

Just finished an adventure in Chinatown? Buy an AK for it.

Just rescued the mayor's daughter? Buy a Favor.

Just finsihed an occult adventure? Buy a KS to show what you've picked up.

Just infiltrated a bad guy's base? Buy a cool gadget that you confiscated.

Just got the crap beaten out of you? Buy an extra point of BODY.

 

I quite like that approach, and will definitely be using it in the future.

[GoldenAge]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

I tend to spend XP like it's a character log.

 

Just finished an adventure in Chinatown? Buy an AK for it.

Just rescued the mayor's daughter? Buy a Favor.

Just finsihed an occult adventure? Buy a KS to show what you've picked up.

Just infiltrated a bad guy's base? Buy a cool gadget that you confiscated.

Just got the crap beaten out of you? Buy an extra point of BODY.

This happens quite a bit in Epic City as well.

[tesuji]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

RE the shared xp approach

 

As others have said it depends on the group but it also depends on the GM. While Luke is built on more pts than hansolo, and the plot revolves around luke, that doesn't mean han gets a lot of sitting around time.

 

The idea would be, do you as Gm provide enough "you are the key player right now" monments for each character, regardless of points, for the game to be fun?

 

in a superfriends game, every lengthy scene "should" provide challenges for both supes and hawkman, even though supes might be catching a mountainous sized meteor while hawkman is saving people off a burning bridge. Supes paid more for his "catch a meteor" level strength than hawks did for his "can carry people while flying" but that doesn't mean supes should get more screen time.

 

A potential risk there is the following: if players realize "the amount of points i spent on stuff does NOT affect how much screen time i get, how much "key to the scene time" i get or "how much fun i get" they might ask the obvious question - "so why did we have to do all this math anyway?"

 

The philosophical underpinning of HERO system is "more points earns or is derived from more effectiveness" and thats effectiveness in actual play not some theoretical but never seen effectiveness. So once you as Gm show the players they have as much fun and are as important to the play and get as much screen time as everyone else REGARDLESS of points, you really start to undermine that core.

 

A valid question is "if a character who is really good with compiters (cost maybe 30 cp) is just as vital and involved and on screen as the guy with "i fly and shoot laser beams and can pick up aircraft carriers" (cost maybe 150-200 cp) why do all the m,ath and not just have them write these down on their sheets without calculators and software involved in figuring up a total cost? What exactly is gained by figuring "total cost" in these circumstances? (figuring total cost != detailing abilities - you can say "i fly 20m per phase and it costs me this much end, etc" regardless of whether you put a price beside it or not)

 

Before i would try a shared cp/XP or disparate levels Cp/Xp game, i would try a pointless game, where we never worry with cp/xp at all and just define our abilities to suit genre and whatever campaign benchmarks and reasonable evolution. if "how many Cp/Xp I have" isn't going to actually matter much to the players, why force that math on them at all? What is gained by it?

 

regarding no xp gaming - done that. it works fine for a more discrete short term campaign, where say one major story is resolved then you move on. IMO.

[Patriot]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

When I get to run a game Xp goes something like this:

Base of 1 (if you did something very much not in character, this might be suspended)

Possibly a bonus point if a skill or action that was successful became a turning point of the game (created a ureaka moment, etc.)

and 1 point to add to a failed skill only. The reasoning is this, if you do something right , you dont put much further thought into it...it you jack it up...you will more probably research an error

[dmjalund]

Re: if you don't want your xp, I'll take it.

 

you mean a Eureka moment?