01-15-2012, 07:45 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Danville, VA USA
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[DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
In DF 3: The Next Level we are given guidelines on how much XP to award for a number of different scenarios.
My first question concerns Completion XP. What if the dungeon is a megadungeon that may take years of playtime to clear, or a wilderness area that can never be truly cleared? In a sandbox style game there may be no discrete end-point that could be called a completion point. What do you recommend? What if you want to encourage (or at least allow for the possibility for) not fighting everything you see? What if you want a more old-school feel where exploration of dangerous places and acquisition of treasure is more important (or at least more efficient to get XP) than killing things? all comments are much appreciated! Jon Tate |
01-15-2012, 08:25 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: The former Chochenyo territory
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
Obviously a megadungeon requires different Completion terms. Perhaps 1xp for every 10 encounters (where an encounter can be a fight, a negotiation/roleplaying opportunity, trap, or obstacle/puzzle), with an additional 1xp for finding a new safe area where the party can rest.
xp for treasure is tricky, needs a sliding scale, I think. Perhaps you can set an increasing threshold based on the Speed/Range table, so starting at (say) $100 per character, once the party amasses that much loot ($500 for a party of 5), everyone gets 1xp. Next threshold is $150, so the party of 5 needs $750 in additional loot to get the next xp. Priceless items (artifacts, Mona Lisa, etc) can just be 1xp by themselves.
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My gaming blog: Thor's Grumblings Keep your friends close, and your enemies in Close Combat. |
01-15-2012, 08:33 AM | #3 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
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In general an adventure should be some sort of Major Problem that isn't The Main Problem. Only things related to the Major Problem should count for determining if the adventure has been completed. Everything else is effectively a random encounter, even if it is actually part of a separate adventure running concurrently. Quote:
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01-15-2012, 08:39 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
In my wilderness/exploration game, I gave out a CP/day spent exploration, with bonus CP for either finding particular obscure locations or for recovering treasure from deep within a monster lair. I didn't give any CP out for fighting monsters: boss monsters generally were in the way of the treasuure/CP site, but the PCs could totally avoid them if they wanted and had the right skills.
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01-15-2012, 09:42 AM | #5 | |||
Fightin' Round the World
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: New Jersey
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
Quote:
http://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com...use-rules.html Quote:
You can offer a bonus for completion the "specials" of a level, or just for those specials. You cleared the Evil Shrine on level 1? Great, +2. Wiped out the Orc Menace on level 2? Great, +1. How about +3 for solving the Mysterious Moon Man Portals on level 7? Fine. I plan to have bonuses for finding and solving neat stuff in my megadungeon (2 1/2 levels mapped, just started on levels 3 and one of the sub-levels of 4) but nothing for "completion." It's a concept that doesn't mesh well with a "megadungeon" IMO. Quote:
But FWIW I've averaged about 4-6 XP per session in my game, and that seems to work out fine. I plan on giving a large completion bonus for the long, involved clearing of the Temple of Evil Chaos in the Caves of Chaos, because it's inevitably multi-session and it's an assigned mission. Hope that helps.
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Peter V. Dell'Orto aka Toadkiller_Dog or TKD My Author Page My S&C Blog My Dungeon Fantasy Game Blog "You fall onto five death checks." - Andy Dokachev |
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01-15-2012, 10:00 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
So much depends on the group and how fast you want the characters to advance, which may in turn depend on how much time you have to play.
I would start by asking myself about how much I would want successful PCs to advance in the time we are going to devote to the game and work backwards from there. I would be happy to eye-ball the cp gain at the end of each session, based on how much the PCs did and what they achieved.
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GURPS Settings Beneath Castle Everglory: A Dungeon, Lineage (Modern Fantasy) Paradise City (Cyberpunk), The World of Kung Fu (Modern Martial Arts Setting) |
01-15-2012, 11:46 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
Me, I give one Cp for showing up, 1 CP per "bonus area discovered" and 1 CP per "challenge solved". A group of monsters can be a challenge, but diplomacy/bribery/stealth can (sometimes) be used to go past it, and it grants the same CP, only taking less time (so more CP/session). Puzzles can be challenges (if necessary to advance) or bonus areas (if necessary to reach a hidden treasure cache). If the characters are on a quest, then succeeding grants extra CP, depending on how hard was the quest. If they are on a personal quest (meaning that they wrote a backstory with motivations for me to use hooks), they get a +1 CP each time IMO they advance it. Finally, they get to pick a MVP each session. A MVP means +1CP that session. This averages 3 CPs per session.
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01-15-2012, 04:09 PM | #8 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
Quote:
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01-15-2012, 04:15 PM | #9 |
Fightin' Round the World
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: New Jersey
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
MVP is most valuable player.
I do that too, actually, because it encourages my players to brag up the cool stuff they did (or someone else did) during the session.
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Peter V. Dell'Orto aka Toadkiller_Dog or TKD My Author Page My S&C Blog My Dungeon Fantasy Game Blog "You fall onto five death checks." - Andy Dokachev |
01-15-2012, 07:38 PM | #10 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: [DF] Dungeon Fantasy Advancement question
There's no reason you can't just use the "normal" CP guidelines in Campaigns in a DF game. The Next Level guidelines are basically there to simulate old school "boiling anthills" style play, AFAICT, if you don't want that, don't use them.
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Tags |
character points, cps, dungeon fantasy, experience points |
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