Attribute Bloat 'Re-Deux'

[JLV]

Originally Posted by ecz

note I use the old system to assign experience ( my players have totally rejected the new way to assign experience for Legacy Rules)

I have to admit that I'm leaning in the same direction -- the old rules at least had a basis in both logic and actual in-game performance. Plus, they were something everyone could understand and didn't lead to potential accusations of favoritism or DM manipulation. If I was going to do anything with the new rules, what I might go with would be the "peer evaluation" system -- whoever gets the most votes as best role-player for a session (the DM gets a vote too -- and the balloting would be secret) might earn an extra 5 or 10 XP or something -- just enough to encourage role-playing, but not enough to encourage cut-throat politicking for the extra XP...

Mind you, I haven't actually TRIED the new rules yet, and until I at least give them a spin, I'll probably refrain from changing anything. I think I ought to at least see how they play before I throw the new "XP earning" rules completely out. Though I might just use them in a few quick one-shots and so on to see how I and any players I manage to come up with like them, before committing to an actual campaign with them.

Originally Posted by larsdangly

How many XP do people imagine characters will ever earn? I don't think it is plausible that anyone will earn more than a few 10's of thousands, at least not in the foreseeable future. If a typical dedicated player averages one session per week, that will yield something like 5k per year, so you aren't going to get over 20-40k over the time scale I have in mind. Really, most people switch games, start new campaigns, etc. more often than that. Also, I suspect that players presented with the XP costs in the RAW are not going to sit on 8-16k EP for years on end to gain their 41st, 42nd, stat stat point; instead, they are going to spend those on talents, spells, staff power and lesser wishes.

I pretty much totally agree with this. I think that most campaigns won't reach the stage where this becomes an actual problem for at least four or five years (though you just watch, some teenagers out there will play 10 hours for every day over the entire summer vacation this year and BOOM, they'll prove (or disprove) the problem in a year or so), and most players won't have the discipline to retain XP for an attribute increase beyond the 38-40 point range -- the temptation to spend them on things of more immediate benefit will be overwhelming!