[Skarg]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

Problems with attribute bloat will not be solved by changes in the XP award rules, because the game master is the ultimate source of XP. Attribute bloat is a consequence of the way we let points be spent, which is different.

Fundamentally, yes - the only way to represent very-experienced/powerful characters in TFT was with high attributes (and access to strong talents/spells, but those were determined by IQ).

It would technically be possible to stop bloat by making the experience system extremely steep so practically no one would ever become a very-high-point character, but that would change the established range of power levels, and wizards in particular are expected to get up to IQ 20 or more, so other rules would need to change to allow powerful wizards and avoid attribute bloat.

I'd add though that there is also an issue with EP awards in ITL in that they don't scale for difficulty. For example, two starting foes or wolves with ST + DX = 24 each are not very difficult foes for say a 38+ point character, but they are worth as much EP as one opponent with ST + DX = 48, i.e. a 56+ point character... In other words, there should be a very strong effect for relative difficulty, where there is none. We came up with a nice system we liked for accounting for this, but it's somewhat crunchy and can be done with GM discretion too. Guidelines for proper EP awards that can make sense to novice GMs
(if done really well) would seem like the ideal approach, to me.

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

But there are sources of XP that I think may be unnecessary bookkeeping and/or rewards for die rolls rather than play.

- XP for making any roll on 4 or more dice - Meh. It's not evil, but 30+ years down the pike, I'm not sure what it adds. The successful roll, and its results, are a reward in themselves.

Whether it's bookkeeping or fun depends on the players' tastes, but there's a challenge for when it's appropriate to give the award or not. Did the circumstances justify an EP award or not? And was it actually a really easy roll because the character has high attribute numbers?

Again, the ideal thing might be a really-well considered and well-written set of guidelines on when to award how much EP, or not, taking into account both the circumstances and the relative difficulty.

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

- XP for good job rolls - I'm pretty sure now that I just want to reward those with money.

Sounds fine. We gravitated towards playing out and remarkable event during job downtime, anyway, with whatever outcome playing it out had. That seemed much more satisfying and interesting and avoided issues.

Just as long as it's not giving huge EP to experienced people, it's good.

If you do give EP for job rolls, have someone (several of us could do it) run statistics and let you know how experienced (or likely to be dead at what age) people doing nothing but working would be using the table. I'd be happy enough with "the average 40-year-old farmer who just farmed all his life will still be a 30-point character for adventuring purposes - no EP from jobs".

Though if someone starts a 32-point fighter or wizard and does a fighting or wizardly job for 20 years, I'd expect them to be more like 36 pointts at the end of an uneventful career... so about +1 attribute per 5-10 years sounds about right, and unlikely to be complained about as an exploit...