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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Experience for Death

On pages 85-86 of the 1st edition DMG under the heading of Special Bonus Award to Experience Points there is a small notation about a character who dies and is brought back to life earns 1000xp. I mentioned the rule to Rob last night during our game after one of our members was reduced to a burnt piece of toast and he never had heard of it.

I always liked the idea for these types of weird one time experience point awards. Repeating the same event will yield no addition experience. Here is a short list that I can think of while I am still blurry eyed.

- returning from the dead: 1000xp
- exploration of a site: variable lower
- unusual magic item*: variable higher
- overcoming obstacles such as traps or locked doors or puzzles: variable lower
- researching or learning about a culture: variable lower

* for magic items I only give experience points to unusual items that have some sort of special power. There is not xp for +1 or +2 weapons, especially in a high magic campaign. If the sword be a +2 troll slayer than xp will be awarded. With weapons at +3 and above xp is awarded. Potions only provide xp, like the weapons, if some extraordinary potion is found.

Mostly I wing it at the time. Mostly if it feels like the situation or item should earn experience than I pull a number out of my wazoo.

I would be interested to hear from others if they award this type of experience and if so what they give it for.

7 comments:

  1. Years and years ago, I had a monk named Robyn who died. The paladin in the group called in a favor with the local temple and got be resurrected. I got the 1000 xps. It was cool. IRRC there was some roleplaying about my experiences on the other side...

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  2. Not really on topic, but you remind me of one of my old DMs, who used to give, I think it was 500? 1000? x.p. when your character died in amazingly heroic, horrible or amusing ways. The x.p. went to his "next of kin," i.e. your next character!

    (Fun: my verification word is "stabs")

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  3. I level by fiat, so the 'tangible' reward I give out is akin to drama points. Players pretty much only getting them for doing cool character-building things and it really only works once for the same action. So I suppose it's similar in that way.

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  4. Way back, I used to game with a DM whose bedroom was in the attic. It was at least three flights of stairs down to the kitchen in the basement (house was on a slope). To encourage players to volunteer to go down and make the tea, the DM would offer XP awards to those who did the duty.

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  6. Who knew? But I am happy that Syrivald, my character, was the beneficiary of your knowledge.

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  7. WOw, I had forgotten about that rule.

    In Magic Realm, you get Fame and Notoriety (one equivalent of XP in D&D) for killing monsters. But you earn those points individually, rather than as a group.

    Plus, there is a multiplier: for your second kill, you get double points for that kill, for your third kill, you get triple points, and so on.

    So there is a huge benefit to risking one more kill, even though you are grieviously wounded, since the multiplier makes the next kill that much more valuable.

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