Levelling up without the XP system


Reign of Winter


My group prefers levelling up at important milestones in a campaign, such as defeating a Big Bad or reaching a new land. I was wondering, is it possible to do this in Reign of Winter?
If so, where would you place all these milestones in the campaign?
Thanks! :3

Grand Lodge

Pretty sure RoW says what level you should be at various sections in the intro to each module.

Silver Crusade

I've been using the guidelines that come in the front of every book and that's been working well for me.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I typically prefer to level up characters just after they've achieved something - that way it feels like they earned it. I also prefer to do it when they're able to take a little time out to rest, rather than it happening at random on the road or in the middle of the action. For example, after defeating the bandits in the first book the PCs should either have access to their lodge to sleep in, or they may opt to escort somebody back to the village. Either way, they'll be able to rest after the big fight, and that's a good time for them to level up.

As others have said, read the guidelines for what level characters need to be. Be careful of the wording though, they'll often say things like "Characters should be 6th level before they face the X". That means you need to find a suitable stopping point for them to level up before they reach that encounter.

And remember, Reign Of Winter is a lethal campaign. Don't be afraid of throwing more at your players than they can easily handle, and don't be afraid to kill a PC if that's the way the dice roll.


This works well for the first two modules. The Third is mostly a giant dungeon that is sprawling enough to be non-linear and the party is expected to level up more than once inside it IIRC.

My group TPK'd there so thats as far as we got in ROW.


100% possible. I do it for every single campaign I ever run. We hate tracking XP.

Acquisitives

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Puna'chong wrote:
100% possible. I do it for every single campaign I ever run. We hate tracking XP.

Seriously. Why bother? Levels are right there in the book. Party gets to a certain point, everyone gets a level.

Doesn't hurt that the level advancement points are naturally stops in the adventure, everyone can take a break and update their character at the same time, etc.


My group I played in did not have a problem leveling up at appropriate milestones. Book 3 might be the trickiest since it can be less linear than the other books, but it is certainly doable.


Yakman wrote:
Puna'chong wrote:
100% possible. I do it for every single campaign I ever run. We hate tracking XP.

Seriously. Why bother? Levels are right there in the book. Party gets to a certain point, everyone gets a level.

Doesn't hurt that the level advancement points are naturally stops in the adventure, everyone can take a break and update their character at the same time, etc.

Yep, and since the encounters are designed around a certain party level it saves all the dumb contrived stuff that some DMs feel the need to do in order to get the PCs to the right level anyways. Or at least I think so.

"Oh, you aren't level 3 yet? Ummmm... Well, if you go clear out a couple rats in this dude's basement you'll get enough story XP to level! Yaaaay!"

Also saves the hassle of the party not finding X room or skipping around Y encounter because they took another way and not getting XP for those. It's just easier in the long run and one less things for the DM and players to worry about, plus it keeps the characters in lock-step in terms of advancement so you don't have those weird situations where one guy is level 5, the rest of the party is level 4, and some dude who didn't show up a couple weeks is at the tail-end of level 3. And with an AP you're signing on for a specific story, told through the lens of your DM and party; when Link gets through the Forest Temple, he gets the bow. It doesn't matter how long it took the player or what they did in between, that checkpoint marks a "level-up" that's the same every time in the story.

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