My Diatribes on Roleplaying and the Earning of Experience

by
Woodelf
<woodelf@yar.cs.wisc.edu>

EXPERIENCE

Experience is awarded for three things: accomplishing deeds, playing in character,

and, of course, unique experiences. Accomplishing deeds primarily means overcoming
obstacles and opponents. An obstacle is anything that provides the character with
a challenge, whether it is physical, political, mental, social, or of some other
type. Note that how one does this is the most important factor. The more creative
or daring the solution, the more experience will be awarded. In many cases, a
failed creative attempt will be worth more than a successful but clich�d
technique. Also, when dealing with living opponents, especially intelligent ones,
any form of defeat is as good as death. In fact, in many cases, killing your
opponent, in addition to being a bad move legally, will be worth less experience
even than merely circumventing her. There are exceptions, of course, but generally
killing an enemy is the least creative solution, thus the fewest XPs.

Playing in character is probably the most important thing to consider. Playing out
of character is the only way that you can actually lose XPs (compared to those you
would have gotten from the other two methods). In addition to a copy of your
character's alignment and background, I will keep handy a quick summary of your
Priorities, your attitudes with regard to the six Morals marked with an asterisk,
and one or two beliefs that I predict will have the most relevance in general
play. On this I will make notes as we go as to particularly out-of-character
actions and particularly in-character actions. I am particularly mindful of those
where you must resist the temptation to slip out of character for your own
betterment.

Unique experiences are anything that you do or are subjected to that would more
than likely be character-building. This can further augment gains from either of
the other two sources, or reflect the experience gained by something that isn't
strictly covered in any other way, but would clearly give a real-world person
experience.

Racial Adjustments: Most races besides humanity have an adjustment to earned

experience, in the form of a percentage. Whenever experience is awarded, it should
be adjusted correspondingly by the player before being recorded. If the character
also has a bonus for high prime requisites, the two percentages are added and then
applied. Multi-class characters divide their experience equally, then apply the
racial and prime requisite modifiers.

There is a two-fold reason for the adoption of experience point adjustments

instead of racial level limits. On the game level, it helps game balance by
slowing the advancement of races with more inherent abilities, and/or longer
lives, preventing them from dominating the game. On the game-world level, it is
explained by the fact that these same races have a body of knowledge far greater
than a human and many more skills to maintain their ability in, so they must work
a little bit harder to improve their class-based skills.

ROLE-PLAYING

Ideally, there shouldn't be any need for a player to talk to another player, or
ask the DM a question. Instead, I would hope that characters would talk to
characters, or ask NPCs questions. After all, if the characters can't communicate
the necessary information, then it generally means it is information that only
their players possess. Now, realistically, I realize that a certain amount of
game-level (as opposed to game-world-level) interaction is necessary. But even in
the realm of, say, combat, I encourage you to do as much as possible from the
perspective of your character. Obviously I need to know your to-hit and damage
rolls, but even they can be conveyed as much as possible within the context of the
game. For my part, I'll provide you with the detailed environment necessary. For
your part, I expect everyone to at least know how to implement the rules they want
to use, including combat options (which will be detailed later in this packet).

A personal pet peeve: when players tell the DM how in-character an action is, or
how it is the only appropriate response because of some personality trait of
theirs, in the process obviously stepping out of character. (From the characters'
perspective, there is no such thing as a DM.) There is absolutely no need for
this. Repeated assurances that as a (insert race/class/social class/etc.), I would
grow quickly annoying. It is not something you would ever hear in the real world.
(As a Protestant, I will ignore the Catholic priest's warning and proceed anyway.)
Instead, just do whatever it is you want to do. In character or not, I will know,
because I have a copy of your alignment, and if you play at all consistently, the
other characters will quickly learn how you react to certain situations, and
perhaps even why, without you shoving it in their faces.

In addition to your alignment, I have several tools for helping you to further
characterize yourself. These are intended variously for people to analyze
themselves, or for aiding method actors, or for other role-playing games, but they
are all wonderfully helpful in getting inside the head of your character. I
strongly urge you to borrow one or more of these between games.

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This document has been edited for legibility purposes by

OLIK / Ole A. Ringdal

olear@online.no / http://home.sol.no/olear
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