Combat Experience and Experience

Our latest Small Bites edition is All About Characters.  Obviously, entire books (rule books and others) have been written about characters, so this is certainly not intended to be the end all and be all.  But there are some really important points that need to be discussed about characters when world building.

First of all is experience.  According to a lot of rule books, the only way to get experience is be involved in battle.  We checked a competitor, and in a 300+ page book (one of three main rule books), there are 12 lines concerning the idea that there could be learning experiences outside of combat.  “Noncombat challenges” requires less than a quarter page, less than half the space on that page given to the artwork.

We think it’s a little more important than that, but we have it easier.  By using a points based character creation, we can give character points (effectively experience), and these points can be used to advance skills that do not relate to combat.  Why does that matter?  Because without it, every stable boy, bartender, alchemist, and even most of the politicians are Level 1 or Level 0.  Let’s be practical - that means they are useless.

Class based systems have it hard.  It is difficult to justify advancing an NPC in levels while they are staying home.  But in some cases, this is exactly what should be happening.  We definitely need an example here: 

An alchemist spends six months out of the year making minor healing potions that get sold to adventurers and military quartermasters.  But he spends the other six months of the year in research and development.  He is desperate to create a new potion, but he never fights or kills anyone.

It is always difficult for us to stay off our soap box, so we’ll try to be straight to the point.  we don’t see why an alchemist, an enchanter, a weaponsmith or most NPCs need to be in combat to advance.  A farmer who has been at it for decades is likely to be a better farmer than his son, because he has farming experience.

Our farmer didn’t get a quest to harvest crops; he just went out and did his job.  He got good at it.  So, he should be a better, maybe higher level, farmer than say his son.  How can the systems handle this?

In Legend Quest, NPCs get 10 character points per year for doing their normal jobs and living their lives.  In this way, a person is advancing every year - just slowly.  (An average adventure should yield about 25 character points.)  If something gets wild, they might earn more.  Like what?  A brewer in a beer contest, a farmer surviving a drought or locust, a ferryman handling a major flood or storm; these things might grant bonuses.

What about in class based?  The best suggestion we have for you is to allow your NPCs to earn skill levels.  Honestly, it’s not so much # of levels per # of years, but you can absolutely make it work!

 

This post was written as part of The Lost City of Ballogfar Part III aka All About Characters, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one is showcasing characters, specifically adventurers, the types who would come running when they heard about this fabulous fantasy ruin.

We hope we’re getting you interested.  If you want to see the World Walker edition for FREE!! click the link here.  If we’ve hooked you and you want to get the full 68 pages of content in the Game Masters’ edition, click here.