Turning coin looted on adventures into experience points for old-school dungeon fantasy games.
The original dungeon crawling RPG awards 1 experience point per gold piece hauled away on an adventure. This original method works fine for a simple campaign but in a complex and enduring campaign the PCs end up with incredible treasure hoards and little to spend all that treasure on in they aren’t empire builders. The following outlines more explicit methods for turning treasure into experience points.
What changes and what doesn’t change in awarding experience points should be noted first. Experience points for defeating monsters, overcoming challenges, and specific mission awards are given to PCs as normal under the campaign rules used. No experience points are granted for the specific value of treasures gained during an adventure. For those GMs that wish to award experience points (hereafter to be noted as exp) for magical items it is recommended to consider only awarding exp for utility as opposed to monetary value (it may be possible for some players to gain multiple awards from discovering magical items). Earned exp should be given as normal for the campaign but converting money to experience points requires specific actions on part of the PC/player.
Keeping track of downtime is essential as this shall be a resource as precious as coins when converting treasures won to exp. It is recommended that the campaign be structured to allow for 2 to 4 weeks of downtime to occur between adventure sessions. It is during this downtime period players will make decisions on how to spend their treasure and the time required to do so.
Health and preparation are also essential to the entire process and recovery from injuries and other maladies will reduce the time a character has to convert wealth into exp. Aside from Gifting and Carousing a character must be over 50% of their normal HitPoint total to benefit from the following methods of exp gain.
Throughout these guidelines "coins" will be used to express treasure costs. This is done to fit the coinage used in a campaign and is meant to be the common coin of value used in a campaign, so in a typical "gold standard" campaign all coins are gold pieces and in a "Silver Standard" these would be silver pieces of course. One should feel free to adjust fees as appropriate to the campaign economy of course as the suggested pricing assume lots of coins flowing even if the specific type may vary.
All of the methods of exp advancement require a 2d6 die roll with appropriate modifiers to determine the success and quality of the attempt to gain experience points. This roll may be made per week or at the end of multiple weeks depending on the campaign.
Experience Point Reward Table
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2d6+mods
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Result
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3 or less
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Unsuccessful*
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4 to 6
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Limited Success
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7 to 10
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Typical Success
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11 to 12
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Unexpected Success
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13 or more
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Amazing Success**
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* a roll of two “1’s” on the 2d6 roll will always be unsuccessful regardless of modifiers applied.
** a roll of two “6’s” will always be a success regardless of modifiers to the contrary but will only be an amazing success if the total score indicates it to be such.
Training
Training is study and exercise dedicated to a character’s class and skills. The time span for training is based on the week. The definition of training here is meant to cover potentially tiring and stressful exercises.
A character may spend a maximum of 100 coin per current level each week spent in training. A specific trainer may be employed if a character so wishes but the costs will be greater and may not contribute to exp gained.
Training prohibits spending time on Research but does not interfere with Carousing, Gifting and Sacrifice in and of itself (those methods may prohibit or reduce time allowed for Training however).
Training Modifiers
-3 for self training.
-1 if character has inferior prime attribute.
+1 for prime attribute of 13-16
+2 for prime attribute of 17 or higher
+1 if Trainer employed is at least 2 levels/ranks above character
+2 if Trainer employed is at least 6 levels/ranks above character
-2 for Training during long term travel.
-1 if training in a space not dedicated to training
+1 if training in superior training space.
-2 to +2 depending on relationship with trainer
Training results:
Unsuccessful Training: No Experience points are gained and there is the possibility of injury or stress being inflicted upon the character, check on training mishaps chart to see what fate befalls character. A character’s relationship with a trainer declines during this training.
Limited Success: Earn experience points equal to 50% of coin spent on training. Extra fees paid to trainer are excluded from these exp. (Example: 150 coins are spent on training and 100 coins spent to employ a trainer and the character would gain 75 exp)
Typical Success: Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. Extra fees paid to the trainer are excluded from these exp. (Example: 150 coins are spent on training and 100 coins spent to employ a trainer and the character would gain 150 exp). The relationship with the Trainer will improve.
Unexpected Success: Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. and 50% of fees paid to trainer up to normal weekly limit allowed.(Example: 200 coins are spent on training by a 2nd level fighter and 300 coins spent to employ a trainer . The character earns 200 exp for initial coins spent and an additional 100 coins (half of the 200 allowed per week)).
Amazing Success: Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. and 50% of fees paid to trainer. (Example: 200 coins are spent on training by a 2nd level fighter and 300 coins spent to employ a trainer . The character earns 200 exp for initial coins spent and an additional 100 coins (half of the 200 allowed per week)). The relationship with the trainer will improve. Consult Training Boons chart to see if additional benefits are received.
Relationship with trainer
A character’s relationship with training will impact the benefits of training. A trainers disposition to a character will impact fees, training roll, actual experience points rewarded for training, and
the benefit or severity of boons and mishaps.
Initial Relationship with trainer.
If the relationship with a trainer isn’t defined by social relationships within the campaign roll 2d6 and apply the appropriate modifiers to determine that relationship.
Initial relationship modifiers:
-1 if CHA of student 6 or less
+1if CHA of student 15 or more
-2 if of opposing alignments
+1 if of same alignment
-1 if student prime attribute is inferior
+1 if student prime attribute is 15 or greater
Initial Relationship with Trainer
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roll
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Initial relationship
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3 or less
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Dislike
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4-5
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Unfavorable
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6
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Mercenary
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7-8
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Polite
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9-10
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Favorable
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11 or more
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Friendly
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Impact of Relationship with Trainer
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relationship
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minimum trainer fee
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Training Roll
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Impact on exp
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Mishap or Boon
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Hostile
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200/level
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-2
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-10%
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-25
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Dislike
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150/level
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-1
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-10%
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-10
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Unfavorable
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125/level
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-1
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-
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-
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Mercenary
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110/level
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-
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-
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-
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Polite
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100/level
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-
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-
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-
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Favorable
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75/level
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+1
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-
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-
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Friendly
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50/level
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+1
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+10%
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+10
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Mentor
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none required
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+2
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+10%
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+25
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Training Mishaps
Only roll on this table when an unsuccessful training session has been completed.
+10 to roll in a superior training space
-10 to roll in a makeshift training space
+1 per point of prime attribute over 14
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1d100 roll
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Training Mishap
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1 or less
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Permanent loss of Prime Attribute. Character loses 1 point in prime attribute.
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2-10
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Grievously Injured during training. Character’s Prime attribute is halved for next 8 weeks. Recovers 1 point per week of complete rest (final points only recovered after all rest). HP reduced to 1.
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11-25
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Seriously Injured during training. Character’s Prime attribute is reduced by 2-5 points Recovers 1 week owe week of complete rest. HP halved.
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26-40
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I’ll fated. All saving Throws and Class actions are at -2 for next 7 weeks.
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41-50
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Strain/Stress reduce Prime attribute by1 point for 2 weeks.
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51-60
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Forlorn. All saving Throws and Class actions are at -1 for next 2 weeks.
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61-70
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Down the wrong road. Next three training sessions -1 to roll.
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71-75
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Took a wrong turn. Next training session is -1 to roll.
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76 or more
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Mishap avoided
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Training Boons
Only roll on this table when an Amazingly Successful training session has been completed.
+10 to roll in a superior training space
-10 to roll in a makeshift training space
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1d100 roll
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Training Boon
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25 or less
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No Boon Granted
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26-40
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Insight gained, +1 to next training session roll.
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41-60
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Good Student, +1 to next 3 training session rolls.
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61-80
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+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw, skill check, or hit roll.*
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81-90
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+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw, skill check.*
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91-99
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+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw.*
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100 or more
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Character Permanently gains 1 point in prime attribute.
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Some campaigns may not handle permanent ability score gains well, treat this a bonus that will last for the next month of game time if a permanent increase fitting.
(more to come in future posts)
