Something I've been considering for a while: substantial differences in total point value can cause game problems, and this is true whether you're talking about spending experience for successes, advantages acquired during play, disadvantages acquired during play, bonus xp for roleplaying, or simply one player who for whatever reason can't show up every session.
On the other hand, simply having everyone advance in lock-step, ignoring all of those factors, seems undesirable. So, it occurs to me that much of the problem is that +1 xp is permanent; if I gain an extra xp in session 1, I'm still ahead by 1 after session 100. Change that and it's maybe okay. So, my basic thought on it is this:
Thus, if a character has his leg chopped off, losing 40 points (-20 for lame, -20 for -4 basic move), he gains an extra 4 xp per session. If that leg gets healed, his point value jumps back up again, and he's no longer getting the bonus. The player who likes to spend 1 xp/session on buying successes will wind up stabilizing at about 10 points behind everyone else. If the average session award is 3 xp, the player who misses half the sessions will wind up 30 points behind. This even works out okay for just allowing characters to be created at different total point values.
Thoughts? Problems? Ways to improve?
On the other hand, simply having everyone advance in lock-step, ignoring all of those factors, seems undesirable. So, it occurs to me that much of the problem is that +1 xp is permanent; if I gain an extra xp in session 1, I'm still ahead by 1 after session 100. Change that and it's maybe okay. So, my basic thought on it is this:
- Advantages and disadvantages gained in play count towards a character's point total. This includes wealth -- if you get a windfall profit, your point value goes up.
- Unspent xp is also counted against this total.
- For every session or adventure, the GM chooses a basic point level, typically the median cp level of all the PCs. When awarding xp, for every 10 points by which a character differs from that value, adjust the xp award by 1 point, with a minimum of 1.
Thus, if a character has his leg chopped off, losing 40 points (-20 for lame, -20 for -4 basic move), he gains an extra 4 xp per session. If that leg gets healed, his point value jumps back up again, and he's no longer getting the bonus. The player who likes to spend 1 xp/session on buying successes will wind up stabilizing at about 10 points behind everyone else. If the average session award is 3 xp, the player who misses half the sessions will wind up 30 points behind. This even works out okay for just allowing characters to be created at different total point values.
Thoughts? Problems? Ways to improve?
Reversion to the Mean on character points
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire