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Old 07-04-2020, 06:25 PM   #11
zot
 
Join Date: May 2018
Default Re: XP for money?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skarg View Post
"I fought and defeated sixty fearsome monsters, but they didn't happen to have any wealth, or I didn't manage to get anything valuable away from them, so I guess I didn't learn anything from that experience."

"Ah lad, while you were battling those monsters, I sneaked by and found something really valuable. So now I am stronger and more agile than you are. Better luck next time."
Heh, I've been hesitating to talk about my game here but this topic is so pertinent to it. In my game (completely different from TFT), we take more or less the opposite approach.

A PC's items are actually part of its stats so, in effect, you purchase items with XP. Using an item requires bonding to it and you need to spend XP to bond, so there is actually a world-justification for relating XP to items and limiting what you can bond with. How you manage to get an item depends on the story, of course but some player characters can make items (but only items they have plans for). So far, none of the stories we've played with my game have had an open market for items :). The system uses a uniform point system to define items and characters (items are actually tiny characters) so it's easy to balance XP, items, and PC power levels.

So in my game if you get an item you actually have to SPEND XP to be able to use it, rather than receiving XP for finding it :)
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Old 07-05-2020, 10:16 AM   #12
larsdangly
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: XP for money?

I feel like the reasonableness and value of this approach is all about context. It is not uncommon to play a game as a kind of competition, against your friends or yourself or some independent benchmark. This notion has been subordinated to other goals in the table top roleplaying universe, but good old fashioned competitive drive is still important to many games, and is a perfectly good motivation for an evening of dungeon crawling. In that case, how you play will be dictated by how the rules say you win. If you want a dungeon crawl that is about distance covered, you might assign rewards to places reached. If want one that is a blood bath, you could assign rewards to beings killed. If you want one that is scavenger hunt, you assign rewards to treasure.
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Old 07-05-2020, 11:06 AM   #13
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: XP for money?

I agree with Steve Plambeck and the Thorsz that gold is its own reward. Especially if fine weapons, henchmen, gunpowder, molotails, potions (e.g. healing potions) or anything magic are available for sale.

It seems to me that competitive play can thrive without any need to award XP for the intended goals.

Last edited by Skarg; 07-05-2020 at 11:21 AM.
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Old 07-06-2020, 01:09 AM   #14
Steve Plambeck
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Default Re: XP for money?

I'm considering too that (in my experience) the best possible use of gold once you have it is to spend it on fine weapons, silver weapons (for wizards), and fine armor. All of which is to give your PCs effectively higher attributes in those do-or-die situations.

XP is (or at least was) mainly spent on also increasing attributes to improve survival odds.

If I've earned enough XP to up my DX +1, or enough gold to buy a fine sword that ups my adjusted DX +1, then I've increased my effective DX +1. Very rarely I might even do both in the same adventure, allowing me to go into the next session at +2 compared to what I had been.

That's not going to be as rare with extra XP attached to the gold earned. It's going to accelerate attribute bloat, or effective attribute bloat. The bigger the treasures (and the fewer survivors to split it with, which does happen on occasion) the faster a PC might increase how powerful they are; a real killing could see a PC jump an effective 2, 3, or even 4 points in just a couple days of play time.

The intent of the rules is to slow down how fast a character advances as they become more "powerful". XP for gold would accelerate that advancement, possibly to an unbalanced degree if there was "too much" treasure to be had. How much gold is "too much"? Well, that's not something I'd ever want to worry about. PCs love to shop for new toys, and I wouldn't want to deter that.

I've had PCs that grew quite rich, and that made for some interesting and fun situations in and of itself, but they didn't turn into 50 point superheroes as an unintended consequence.
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