[Steve Plambeck]

Probably the overriding consideration should be how often a given group of players gets together. If you play monthly, the XP curve needs to be much gentler than if you meet weekly. That, or the amount of XP given out by the GM has to go up accordingly.

You don't want any character that plays in every adventure, even a pretty advanced one, to wait a year or more to earn their next Attribute point -- hard to keep the player interested at that rate!

These are the cumulative costs for a starting 32 point character to reach 40 points:

800 XP – Melee/Wizard rules

1,500 XP – Original ITL rules

8,300 XP – Legacy ITL rules

That last one is tough! If you feel a figure should advance enough in 5 years of continuous, successful play to reach 40 points, then they currently need to make:

140 XP per session playing once per month

70 XP per session playing twice a month

35 XP per session playing 4 times a month

That doesn't look so bad, but what's ugly is that 7/8's of that XP goes to earning points 38, 39 and 40. Only the first 7 months is going to seem interesting for the player (going from 32 to 37 that fast) whereas points 38-40 will take 4.36 years! Less than 1 per year.

I guess everyone is just supposed to stop at 37 points and put all future XP into talents, spells, or Staff Mana. I can't say I really like that.