Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Hywaywolf wrote:I second steveman. If a party redirects a band of goblins by using a ventriloquist spell to entice them to go elsewhere, then they defeated the goblins and should get the XP. If they run into that party again they shouldn't get XP again for killing them, but they do get whatever loot they have.

I agree with both sentiments here. Not all obstacles need be fought through. Experience should follow achievement, whenever it can be justified.

Such as finding secret doors, or rescuing captives, or fulfilling contracts, etc.

Lots of different ways to earn those XP's

In my second Shining Empires setting test, the players gained most of their XP from giving much of the treasure they found as gifts to their Shogun. It quickly turned into an amusing game of story time as they players realized the Shogun would grant more favor (and thus XP) the the characters who impressed him with the tales of how the treasure was recovered.

Best moment is when a character recovered one of the swords of Bizen Osafune (a deceased famous swordsmith who had made +1 magic weapons based purely on technique and his own personal honor) and got 1,500 xp for it, then another character gave him a bolt of silk she bought and fabricated a story about how she traveled to the court of Watasumi no Mikoto (Lord of all Waters) and had the silk woven for her by the Ningyo (Merfolk) princesses who lived in the royal palace and received 3,000 xp.

Steve I wish their was a way I could thumbs up your post, because that sounds awesome.

Awww heck here ya go, +1

Thanks for all the helpful information. I'll definitely give each of the players the maximum HP, though it's going to be difficult to explain to them that their beloved character will probably die. I guess they're either going to have to suck it up, or get crafty in battle. Although, a 'tactical retreat' will usually be the best option. I could also try a reincarnation system, in which players keep their XP, but are respawned as another character. Should stop the players from crying as they won't have to start fresh. If anyone could get me a link to a chart with suggested XP for tasks outside of combat, such as finding secret doors, opening locks, etc; it would be greatly appreciated.

Furthermore, I'm truly surprised at how quickly I got a response, and at the community's kindness to a newbie. I plan to have the first adventure on Friday, after I finish the maps and story. I look forward to being part of this rich community of fellow BFRPGers. Thank you all.

TomekC, on that note, let me recount the story of Bob the fighter and his six sons.

My very first character, the semi-prcon made out of the Basic Set players handbook choose your own adventure of BEMCI, Bob the fighter with fourteen strength.

He died. Eaten by a bugbear.

Then his son Bob jr, the fighter with fourteen strength came to take his place. Bob jr was just Bob's character sheet with jr added to it. Bob jr died, stabbed by an orc and replaced by Rob, Bob's twin brother. Bob was different, instead of a long sword he used a mace. He too had fourteen strength. Rob died, accidentally blasted with a fireball by his own ally. Rob was soon replaced by Dob. Dob used a sword like Bob jr and his father. Dob died when he fell off a cliff and was impaled by the sharp rocks below (4th-level fighter with 9 Constitution falling for 10d6 damage 0,0). Dob was soon replaced Bort, Bort fell into a pit viper pit and died, it was the pits. Bort was replaced with Jeb, Jeb survived for three more levels until he bit the big one to an evil wizard's wand of disintegration. Finally Jeb was replaced with Rock, who owed not to die. And he didn't until he was at least 50+ years old. He made it all the way to level 16 before we stopped playing that campaigned and started over at 1st-level with new ones. I made a bald Elf named Dendalli, but his tale is for a different time.

I think you should let them die. dying is a learning experience. Its just a first level PC. they are a dime a dozen. Its not like newer versions of D&D where you spend a tremendous amount of time perfecting your character trying to get that perfect blend of feats, skills, attributes and background before you ever play him. Of course you will get attached to something you put that much time into. But in BFRPG your character gets developed as you play him, not in the 10-15 minutes you took to create him. If it dies the first night you haven't really lost much because you wouldn't have earned much that first hour anyway. and you will be in the party again when more loot and more critters are killed. You won't come away with nothing.

haha, steve, that sounds like one of the LL campaigns I played in a few years back. The first night we had a PC die on the way to the keep, two others die in the keep and our NPC guide die on the way back to get resupplied. the next week my own PCs died twice, one was swallowed by a giant weasel. I think another NPC guide/horse holder died that same night. The next week we had an almost TPK, but for 1 PC who had been paralyzed in the first round of battle. After the trolls killed the rest of us and stripped us of our goods, he regained movement and escaped back to town. After that he couldn't get any more NPCs to go with him to the keep so he recruited a new adventuring party. We went back into the keep where he swore to us we would find the weapons and treasure of the previously slaughtered party. which we did after a while and over the corpses of a few more PCs. eventually we made it to 2nd level and were relatively safe from being one-shotted to death.

"Dying is a learning experience."



Make sure your players understand that discretion is the better part of keeping yourself breathing...

For hp with beginning characters i use half the con plus the class die roll then it is rolled normally for the rest of the levels. It gives slight increase in survivablity at the beginning but doesn't change the average overall much at the higher levels. I've still had 1st level characters die when they chose not to run. I play in one game that you get to keep 90% of the xp when starting a new character after the old one died,