Low-Mid-Level adventuring

[Frank Black]

With reflection, I have realized that most of my favorite times playing, either side of the screen have been in the level 3-5 range.

It suddenly occured to me that I could make my own xp advancement chart for levels 1-8? and thus prolong my players time in this range. I would think that level 10 might be considered extremely rare, nearly unique in such a setting.

Has anyone else ever tried such a thing? What are some of the logical differences in such a world?

[Jason Beardsley]

Well, I'd like to play adventures that go up to, and stop at 20. I would have no issues with playing games that go up to only 10. However, our group is not the typical group. Our games go fast. After about 6-9 months of playing 2x a week, every week, we're in epic levels. And we typically stop around level 30.

Go ahead and post your XP chart, if you'd like! I'd be glad to seeing it, and possibly using it. As I'm not afraid to tell my players, "we're only going to level 10."

[Rezdave]

Frank Black wrote wrote:

I could make my own xp advancement chart for levels 1-8? and thus prolong my players time in this range

Why make a new chart? Simply divide the XP earned by a factor of 2, 3, 4 or whatever to prolong things.

Maybe you want to advance through low levels faster, then slow down as you get to higher levels? Just divide XP by current level, so PCs gain full awards at 1st level, half at 2nd, 1/3rd at 3rd and so forth. Use any mathematical scale you like, and if you wish to chart it out then so be it. In the example above it would take 1,000 XP to make 2nd level, then 4,000 more to make 3rd and an additional 9,000 to make 4th (for a total 14,000 rather than 6,000).

Personally, I cut all Combat XP by 50% across the board at all levels, but then offer Roleplaying XP to make it up. Sometimes it comes out even. We play bi-weekly on Sundays and the PCs make about 6-8 levels per real-time year, or about 1 level per 4-5 sessions.

Frank Black wrote wrote:

What are some of the logical differences in such a world?

I run a low-level world there the average person might make 3rd Level, whether as a Commoner, Expert or whatever. This means most NPC "adventurers" are actually Com2/War1 after 30-40 years of farming and a little plucking through caves and ruins during the winter months where there are no crops to tend. Basically, they have "day-jobs" and regular lives and moonlight as "adventurers" (assuming they don't actually run into any real monsters and most likely get themselves killed and eaten).

A "professional adventurer" who makes Ftr3 is actually doing pretty well on the survival rating, but will probably still retire to a regular profession or become a bodyguard or weapons instructor to make a living. However, a old non-adventuring city-mage could also "retire" about Wiz3. A Ftr1/Exp2 blacksmith or Rog1/Exp2 taverner might be an example of an adventurer who actually found something valuable and survived to sell it and retire into a profession capitalized by their haul.

In my world, most "professional adventurers" are impoverished or struggling but believe that even such an existence is better than life back on the farm. Most people who try to become professional adventurers fail to even scrape by and must return to their common lives, and those who do actually find "adventure" often end up dead and never heard from again (granted, we're talking NPCs here).

A "successful" character actually achieves 5th level, usually as an Expert, Warrior or whatever. This could include adventurers who may or may not be financially successful (now that GP no longer gives XP). Note that while adventurers may retire (perhaps in modest comfort) while single-classed, most people of this level will be multi-classed with 1-2 levels of Expert, so a career Army Sergeant or Drill Instructor would be a War3/Exp2 or something like that (assuming a primarily peacetime career with occasional conflicts rather than decades of fighting in the army of a warlord).

Low-level worlds necessarily need to be low-economy, otherwise everyone would retire young and wealthy with no need to advance. You need to cut GP by the same factor by which you cut XP, or else you will live in a world of rampant inflation.

Personally, I like my world even poorer. I tend to cut GP rewards by about 90%. I also cut the quantity of magic items and frequency of "day-to-day" magic, but encourage PC casters to enchant their own custom magic items by altering the economics of crafting (25% Base Cost to craft with that price able to be lowered still more by allowing economies-of-scale, adventuring for components rather than buying them retail and so forth).

HTH,

Rez

[Tronos]

Yeah, i do something similar and it works great. The players seem to enjoy the sense that they really have to try to make it using role playing and tactics. It also makes the reward a little sweeter when a nice magic item is found - the feeling that they really earned it.

Alternatively, we like to play a more typical game where advancement is normal and the amount of magic items etc is more apparent.

[midnight756]

You actually don’t have to modify or make a chart at all. You can just simply tell your players that they will not be calculating experience that you will just advise them when they level. As far as items that cost exp to make you can either borrow the pathfinder suggestion for crafting without exp or come up with your own system. Typically it is just a increase in gold amount to make, or a total cost at a percentage of what the item is full cost 2nd or 3rd try should be near full price without loss of exp.