Now this is too easy...

[cmdicely]

I would really suggest to set encounter-based XP--if you want to do that--you just decide how much advancement you want in a story arc (whether that's an "adventure" or some other unit above the individual encounter), and then decide how important each encounter is within that story arc.

There's not much reward available for making it more complicated than that, and most likely you'll create more bookkeeping for a less satisfying result.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Fish

A lot of D&D munchkins take the view that if killing people gives you XP, then you just kill everybody you come across, whether they are an enemy or not. Shopkeeper? Kill him. Merchant? Kill him too. Family of peasants? Gotta be some XP in there somewhere. And he could point to the rules and insist upon his reward, because after all, defeating people should be worth something.

D&D hasn't worked like that for a long time, if it ever did. Obviously, Chromemagus doesn't have to give XP for killing rockstars or innkeepers or tavern wenches.

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by Chromemagnus

You do know for the second level in D&D 3e is 1,000 experience points (XP) right?

That's not a very safe assumption to make, seeing as how this is a GURPS forum. You probably could have prevented a lot of confusion by explicitly stating in your original post that you were rewarding DnD XP, not CP - particularly after some people in your last thread used the two terms interchangeably.

And, while this might work well for early levels, what about later? At 10th level, an enemy who is an "appropriate challenge" (CR 10) for a group of PCs is worth 3,000 XP. That means such a creature would need to be built on 3000 CP. Looking through my Monster Manual's index, here are the CR 10 enemies (ignoring dragons)...

Animated Object, Colossal
Bebilith
Couatl
Formian, myrmarch
Giant, fire
Golem, clay
Hydra, eleven-headed or nine-headed cryo/pyro
Monstrous Scorpion, Gargantuan
Naga, guardian
Rakshasa
Salamander, noble
Slaad, gray

Now, the above certainly aren't run-of-the-mill monsters, but they don't seem like 3000 CP material to me. A better view can be seen by looking at the dragons.

White: Adult is CR 10
Black: Adult is CR 11
Brass: Young Adult is CR 10
Green: Young Adult is CR 11
Blue: Young Adult is CR 11
Copper: Young Adult is CR 11
Bronze: Young Adult is CR 12 (Juvenile CR 9)
Red: Juvenile is CR 10
Silver: Juvenile is CR 10
Gold: Juvenile is CR 11

In all cases, these are rather young dragons. 3000 CP seems... excessive. Note also that 10th level PCs are also considered CR 10. In fact, looking at the XP progression, it looks like each level would be worth 300 CP (as each increase in CR increases XP by 300).

Multiplying CP spent on combat skills by 5 or so before going off to calculate XP might be more appropriate. That makes (all run-of-the-mill specimens) goblins have 20 CP thus invested, drow have 60, bugbears have 120, and CR 10 dragons have 600. The big beasts, like Great Red Wyrms (CR 26), have 1560 CP. This also implies 60 CP/level for characters - you may want to consider dropping down to 50, in which case CP*6=XP, which is then evenly distributed amongst participants.


Of course, I'm still uncertain why you feel the need to use DnD XP, when you aren't particularly familiar with that system. It's like learning the Chinese pronunciations and meanings of kanji when you are intending to learn Japanese - why not just learn Japanese to start with?

[Desthro]

Originally Posted by Fish

If you're going to grant an XP award based on a person's connections, then you might be forced to recalculate the value of your combat people too. That soldier you just killed is part of a squad, which is part of a division, which is part of an army, so shouldn't you get XP based on that? Plus, the soldier has a family. And maybe the family is part of the mob. You can easily see that reckoning XP this way would get out of hand.

Again, taking things too literally, if he's alone just remove the points for his connections and what not and all of a sudden, boom, it works. If you have to take on his/her entire squad just to get that one individual, then yeah, you should get the points for it. Point is, it's a mutable concept, you have to be flexible and adaptive in your application and thinking, otherwise it's just fail.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Desthro

Again, taking things too literally, if he's alone...

Um, yeah, now we're back to the beginning, aren't we? If this 200-point mega-wealthy rock star is alone then shouldn't be worth anything. That was the whole argument to begin with. Point value alone is not an indictor of combat readiness or potential XP value.

Originally Posted by Mailanka

D&D hasn't worked like that for a long time, if it ever did. Obviously, Chromemagus doesn't have to give XP for killing rockstars or innkeepers or tavern wenches.

And thank goodness — but we were hypothetically speaking of resurrecting a system in which all kills are worth XP based on their point value, which is the type of XP-for-murder system that that D&D munchkining thrived under.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

So you want to reward your players for slaughtering movie stars and rock gods?

Depends on which ones. :)

[knarf]

Originally Posted by SuedodeuS

That's not a very safe assumption to make, seeing as how this is a GURPS forum. You probably could have prevented a lot of confusion by explicitly stating in your original post that you were rewarding DnD XP, not CP - particularly after some people in your last thread used the two terms interchangeably.

And, while this might work well for early levels, what about later? At 10th level, an enemy who is an "appropriate challenge" (CR 10) for a group of PCs is worth 3,000 XP. That means such a creature would need to be built on 3000 CP. Looking through my Monster Manual's index, here are the CR 10 enemies (ignoring dragons)...

Animated Object, Colossal
Bebilith
Couatl
Formian, myrmarch
Giant, fire
Golem, clay
Hydra, eleven-headed or nine-headed cryo/pyro
Monstrous Scorpion, Gargantuan
Naga, guardian
Rakshasa
Salamander, noble
Slaad, gray

Now, the above certainly aren't run-of-the-mill monsters, but they don't seem like 3000 CP material to me. A better view can be seen by looking at the dragons.

White: Adult is CR 10
Black: Adult is CR 11
Brass: Young Adult is CR 10
Green: Young Adult is CR 11
Blue: Young Adult is CR 11
Copper: Young Adult is CR 11
Bronze: Young Adult is CR 12 (Juvenile CR 9)
Red: Juvenile is CR 10
Silver: Juvenile is CR 10
Gold: Juvenile is CR 11

In all cases, these are rather young dragons. 3000 CP seems... excessive. Note also that 10th level PCs are also considered CR 10. In fact, looking at the XP progression, it looks like each level would be worth 300 CP (as each increase in CR increases XP by 300).

Multiplying CP spent on combat skills by 5 or so before going off to calculate XP might be more appropriate. That makes (all run-of-the-mill specimens) goblins have 20 CP thus invested, drow have 60, bugbears have 120, and CR 10 dragons have 600. The big beasts, like Great Red Wyrms (CR 26), have 1560 CP. This also implies 60 CP/level for characters - you may want to consider dropping down to 50, in which case CP*6=XP, which is then evenly distributed amongst participants.


Of course, I'm still uncertain why you feel the need to use DnD XP, when you aren't particularly familiar with that system. It's like learning the Chinese pronunciations and meanings of kanji when you are intending to learn Japanese - why not just learn Japanese to start with?

IIRC, the "Superman" template in GURPS Supers is about 1000 points. So a 3000 CP monster is significantly more powerful than Superman. I hope the PCs are capable of interacting on that level by the time they reach your "10th level."

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Depends on which ones. :)

You meet Lady Gaga! Roll on your choice of Terror, Confusion or Awe table.

[Gudiomen]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

You meet Lady Gaga! Roll on your choice of Terror, Confusion or Awe table.

Or just roll Will to actually care.

[PPoS]

Originally Posted by Gudiomen

Or just roll Will to actually care.

+1 (and possibly +4 to the Will roll.)