Experience points and luck

For DCC RPG rules discussion. Includes rules questions and ideas, new rules suggestions, homebrews and hacks, conversions to other systems, and everything else rules-related.

Moderators: DJ LaBoss, finarvyn, michaelcurtis, Harley Stroh

Post Reply
Tokage
Far-Sighted Wanderer
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2016 12:45 am
FLGS: I have none.

Experience points and luck

Post by Tokage »

DCC system for experience and advancement seems to focus a lot on expenditure, cost, effort, and loss - how much damage was taken, how many spells faded away, how many single-use items spent, how many characters dead. This is fine and all, a simple and functional system that makes sense and that I rather like, but I feel that one rather large factor of things has been completely overlooked - the role of luck.

You've all had a theoretically imposing and powerful final boss brought low in two turns without managing to hit anything, failing all his spell checks, and getting critted by like three party fighters. Many of you may have seen a simple, unassuming mook, last several turns and land many blows through awesome rolls on his part and terrible rolls on the party's. And then there are the moments of absolute binary, where you are either lucky or dead, such as a save-or-die trap.

How would you apply the DCC experience rules to all these? Is it still worth some experience just boldly exposing yourself to terrible danger and yet managing to clear it up without a scratch? Or should you receive less or none at all, your incredible luck holding you back and keeping you from learning anything by your own effort? Would the humble little shrooman named Neoconyd, who opened an unexpected can and utterly destroyed a high-level party, be worth a great deal of experience because of the hit point and spell loss you are suddenly forced to deal with, or just a tiny amount because you really should be able to deal with this guy by now? Is the decapitating scythe trap worth nothing at all just because the entire party somehow managed to dodge it?
User avatar
Ravenheart87
Tight-Lipped Warlock
Posts: 903
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:34 pm
Location: Győr, Hungary
Contact:

Re: Experience points and luck

Post by Ravenheart87 »

Survival is its own reward. If you managed to luckily kill a hard mob easily it means you wasted far less resources - hit points, luck, potions, spells. This also means you can manage another encounter or two, which will also give you XP. I award at least 1 XP for every encounter and trap by the way.
Vorpal Mace: a humble rpg blog with some DCC-related stuff.
User avatar
GnomeBoy
Tyrant Master (Administrator)
Posts: 4126
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:46 pm
FLGS: Bizarro World
Location: Left Coast, USA
Contact:

Re: Experience points and luck

Post by GnomeBoy »

I've awarded XP based on what actually happens. Never mind relative/comparative power levels or what could have happened... Did Asmodius go down like a chump? That's chump experience. Was Hacksaw, the single HD mook taking down two party members before they managed to bring him down? That's probably a lot of XP.

This is because for me, the numbers on the character sheets and GM notes don't have any reality in the game-world. No one knows what their own Save or to-hit bonus is, they don't even have a concept of what that is... If a guy was tough, he was tough, regardless of how I statted him out. If he's tough, he's worth more XP.
...
Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

bygrinstow.com - The Home of Inner Ham
User avatar
Max_The_Judge
Deft-Handed Cutpurse
Posts: 202
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 3:47 am
FLGS: Game Kastle

Re: Experience points and luck

Post by Max_The_Judge »

I do the same thing GnomeBoy does. If an encounter was really easy for my players, either through lucky rolls or good planning, I don't give them much XP, no matter how hard the encounter was supposed to be in theory. But if they bleed for it, yeah, I'm going to award them more. Yeah, it means 5 skeletons is worth no more than 1 skeleton but that's not what it's all about. I'll also award more XP if the players come up with unique ways to avoid combat or even recruit enemies as allies. One of my players just did that this last Friday. She convinced the leader of a group of monsters to participate in a drinking contest with her. She used her magic to rig the game and drank the leader under the table. Then she became the leader. It was a fun session and it will have interesting repercussions for the next session. So I awarded more XP.
User avatar
GnomeBoy
Tyrant Master (Administrator)
Posts: 4126
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:46 pm
FLGS: Bizarro World
Location: Left Coast, USA
Contact:

Re: Experience points and luck

Post by GnomeBoy »

Max_The_Judge wrote:It was a fun session and it will have interesting repercussions for the next session.
Always the aim. 8)
...
Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

bygrinstow.com - The Home of Inner Ham
User avatar
Weisenwolf
Deft-Handed Cutpurse
Posts: 203
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 3:06 am

Re: Experience points and luck

Post by Weisenwolf »

GnomeBoy wrote:I've awarded XP based on what actually happens. Never mind relative/comparative power levels or what could have happened... Did Asmodius go down like a chump? That's chump experience. Was Hacksaw, the single HD mook taking down two party members before they managed to bring him down? That's probably a lot of XP.

This is because for me, the numbers on the character sheets and GM notes don't have any reality in the game-world. No one knows what their own Save or to-hit bonus is, they don't even have a concept of what that is... If a guy was tough, he was tough, regardless of how I statted him out. If he's tough, he's worth more XP.
+1
Post Reply

Return to “Rules discussion”