It’s just a few days until the start of Gen Con 2010, and we’re raring to go.
This week, we discuss XP – when to pump it up and damp it down, splitting evenly among the party vs. calculating per character, and the great debate over 1gp = 1xp.
Also, more about the goblin spider, and a look at two fearsome relics – the eye and the hand of Vecna.
And hey, don’t forget to come to the meetup if you’re going to Gen Con!
Roll for Initiative Meetup at Gen Con
Time: Thursday · 10:00am – 12:00pm
Location: OMNI Hotel
40 West Jackson Place
Indianapolis, IN
Meet at the Severin Bar & Grill – lobby level, next to the registration desk
RSVP in the comments below, at Facebook or with Google Calendar:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130437993666407 or 
[powerpress]
Couple of points I want to make on some comments in this show:
When a player isn’t really participating in a combat, you don’t award less XP, you give them a lower grade for that session so that it requires more of their own resources in terms of time and money for them to level up.
FWIW, I agree with Jayson (again… geeze, I agree with him on almost everything) on the issue of gold->XP, because you have to actually spend that wealth to gain levels anyways. Jayson put it beautifully… a character isn’t more experienced because they are wealthy, but their wealth is more of a placeholder for the increase in power that one ultimately acquires when they actually train, and actually have to spend that wealth. I think if one finds players going up in level too quickly, it makes much more sense to simply lower how much money the characters get in the first place… at the very least, keeping the characters relatively wanting for more treasure gives them more of an incentive to keep adventuring. The characters adventure, get gold, earn XP, spend the gold to go up a level, and then they have to go back out and adventure some more to get more gold. It’s a self-maintaining cycle that works.
Just IMO, of course.
Alright a new show! You guys got this one out quick. Good job, and thank you!
With Gen Con in a few days, we wanted to be early. Come to our meetup y’all!
Thanks folks! We aim to please! ^_^
AS far as the gold to XP thingy: never made any sense to me, even back in the early days.In fact, I don’t recall ANY DMs awarding XP for gold. But then again, memory can be a selective thing..
What we’ve been doing in my group has been working so far (XP for “defeating” monsters, magic items, and role-playing).
that’s the beauty of AD&D: rules can me modified or even taken out, and the system STILL works!
Funny, this is one rule I’ve actually followed from the book. I don’t do 1 gp = 1XP, I knock the ratio down a bit, but I still use the rule. I guess it all depends on how you started playing, and what style of DM’ing you pick up.
What happens, I think, if one does not give XP for gold is that by the time the characters are ready to advance, they are far wealthier than they ought to be for that level. IMO, it might make sense to increase training costs as a result.
Regarding relic powers, my DMG was acquired used and well loved. The previous owner had filled in many of the Major/Minor powers of the relics, and I have decided to retain his assignments for each. As it is written, so it shall be done.
Regarding the Swords Nick mentioned from Temple of Elemental evil they were –
Fragarach
GP value – 90,000
XP value – 18,000
This hefty steel broadsword bears a mighty enchantment. It was originally fashioned for a demigod of wlsewhen, and eventually passed into the WORLD OF GREYHAWK setting…
Other Swords of Answering
When Fragarach first came into this world it recieved immediate attantion and quick renown; so much so , in fact that six other swords like it were forged and enchanted. These are lesser weapons of course and their alignments vary.
See page 127 of the Temple of Elemental Evil for complete descriptions.
Where did the direct download link go? While I do subscribe to the podcast I like to download it so I can burn it to a CD and play it in my car while I drive around town.
I think you have to opens ITunes and download it from there.
Sorry 🙁
I agree with DM Nick on the XP for GP issue. To me, XP should be awarded for the success of a character’s tasks rather than the amount of GP found. Consider that there may not always be a monetary award at the end of a difficult task. Likewise, a party may find a lot of wealth with little difficulty. Gold should be its own reward. My opinion, of course.
If you use 1gp= 1xp and the players get most of their treasure from monsters in fair fights and you use training as in the DMG then a 1st level thief that wanted to level to 2nd would need from 1500 to 6000 gp to train to 2nd. That would mean they would have about 3000 or 4000 xp before they could afford to train. According to the DMG if you have enough xp to level and you don’t train you cannot gain any more x.p. so a Thief would actually be limited more by money than xp at least at first. They would have to supplement their income with treasure that did not come from monsters (thievery, rewards, bounties) in order to pay for their training. On the other hand a Barbarian would likely have enough money to train once he had enough x.p.
I’m thinking of modifying the training rules by allowing the players to choose to do a task in place of paying money if they cannot afford to train. For example a thief might be sent on a mission by the thieves guild during their training time.
When I played when I was a kid we didn’t use any of the training rules. The players were only required to come out of the dungeon (or wilderness) and tell tales of their adventures to some form of civilization before leveling.
When I played 2nd ed. in college the DM didn’t use x.p. at all. He just gave us a level at the end of each session (which were from 8 to 14 hours long) and then had everybody give him a secret ballot vote of who they felt role played the best (not voting for themselves of course) and then gave an extra level to that player.
I’ve got a copy of a Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things . It is an awesome read.
I know I’m 4 years late but it was not He-man who had two swords coming into one, it was Thundar the Barbarian with his Sun Sword.
Sorry, I was wrong. It was Blackstar with his Starsword and Overlord with his Powersword that came together to make Powerstar not Thundar the Barbarian.