Level Up Everyone and Everything
XP used to only be good for one thing: leveling up characters. Well, we don’t live in that world anymore; get with the times! Or at least we won’t at the end of this blog post. With the traditional XP paradigm, player-characters leveled up as player-characters gained XP. Just so we are on the same boat before I go full throttle and launch us straight into outer space, “XP” is a shorthand denoting experience points, a non-diegetic metacurrency which is spent to level up, and “leveling up” is the process by which player-characters gain access to new powers and abilities, typically depending on their character class. Basically XP can literally only do one thing and it’s disgusting. Here is my radical idea: what if XP itself offered interesting decision points?
In some systems, the players do make decisions in the leveling process. They may pick new feats or decide to multiclass into another character class. But the decision of what to do with XP is nonexistent. You simply tally it up and see if you’ve reached the next threshold. There is nothing terribly wrong with this. However, if there is a core principle to OSR and Post-OSR play, it is offering choices to players that have a meaningful impact on the fictional world of play. This isn’t just my opinion. To seem more authoritative, here is the Retired Adventurer blog saying the same thing:
“The OSR draws on the challenge-based gameplay from the proto-culture of D&D and combines it with an interest in PC agency, particularly in the form of decision-making. The goal is a game where PC decision-making, especially diegetic decision-making, is the driver of play. I think you can see this in a very pure form in the advice Chris McDowall gives out on his blog for running Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland.”
Art by Norn Noszka, one of the artists working with me on Barkeep on the Borderlands.
To get to the point, I propose that the players get to choose whether to invest their hard-won XP into their character, one of their items, an NPC they like, a settlement they’ve been to, their mount, or anyone or anything else they damn well please! This isn’t that radical. Or at least, I am not the only radical. Luka Rejec has adopted a similar mindset in SEACAT. To quote just a bit from the super secret drafts that you can only access by joining the Stratometaship:
“Players gain experience (xp) through play and invest them in their heroes. The more xp invested, the more powerful and capable a hero may become. Players also invest xp to improve sidekicks, pets, properties, and other game objects.”
It is somewhat simpler to allow players to invest their XP in sidekicks and other vaguely humanish creatures that can function similar to player characters, but it does get trickier if they want to invest it in something to which you can’t simply glom on some class levels and call it a day. For instance, if they want to invest XP in their stronghold, just giving that stronghold a level in fighter may be a bit underwhelming given the stronghold’s inability to hold and use weapons or go into dungeons. Boutique systems needs be crafted. This is perhaps the biggest impediment to the radical future in which players get to decide where they invest their XP. However, as an example for such a baroque system, allow me to peel back the curtain on how I “level up” magic items and perhaps I will expand your mind a tad.
There are no “magic items” in the Prismatic Wasteland; there are only Relics. Purely as an aside, I use “relic” instead of “artifact” to emphasize that these items are the remains of previous, more advanced civilization(s), rather than emphasizing the fact that they were once made by some artisan. (“Relic” comes from the Latin for “left behind” versus “artifact” which derives from “made by skill,” also Latin.) All Relics begin with dormant powers, meaning they function like mundane items of the same type. At this stage, the referee should determine the Relic’s appearance and history. The appearance is a sensory quality of the item that sets it apart from similar items. The history is who created the Relic and why. To spark ideas for these details, the referee may roll on a number of random tables that litter the Prismatic Wasteland’s rulebook, such as the tables for Arbiter Characters (i.e., NPCs) or Spells.
As the Relic levels up, it either gains new powers or its existing power increases in effect. The Arbiter should make connections between the Relic’s appearance, history and context to determine its powers, using the same framework as determining the magic effect for spells. If the power is an effect that damages multiple creatures at once, decrease the damage by one effect step. The Arbiter may develop the powers as needed rather than in advance.
Relics have a Usage Die for using any of their powers that are not passive benefits. If the Relic is capable of multiple active powers, each operates under a separate Usage Die. Each Relic has at least one recharge condition. Upon satisfying this condition, its Usage Die returns to the maximum for its level for all available powers.
Example Relic: Cercator, a magic sword
[Item was sparked by rolling “Dwarf Prospector” on the Arbiter Character table and “Alarm of Scintillating Metal” on the Spell table (for the name, I modified the Catalan word for “metal detector”)]
Appearance: The blade is as strong and light as plasteel but appears to be made out of Carrara marble.
History: Primeval dwarves deep in the planet’s core forged the sword while mining metals to construct the cosmic dragon super highway.
Powers: These powers manifest only as the wielder invests their XP into the item.
Minor: When you strike the blade with stone, the sword plays a dwarven tune if precious ore is nearby.
Moderate: While you hold the sword, you can see in total darkness and smell any gold that is within a Near distance.
Major: When you strike the blade with flint, it shoots a fireball that deals 4d6! damage to all in a small area.
Spectacular: When you strike the blade with gold, the sword sounds an alarm if a dragon is in the same region.
Legendary: When you hold aloft the sword in the presence of a dragon, it must obey you for 1d6 Duration.
Recharge Condition: You must either (a) deliver at least five item slots worth of precious metals to a dwarf in an underground settlement or (b) slay a cosmic dragon while wielding the sword.
