I like it - your choices for optional Mythic Bumps are very good too!
Cool and creative!
But how are 18th-19th level characters with only a single mythic tier supposed to hang with Tawil??!! His save DCS are very very high ... four abilities with a 39 DC. 7-10 mythic tiers and I'll increase player odds ;)
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So. I hate XP. I feel it adds a needlessly complicated level of abstraction and busy work that doesn't really add anything to the game.
It adds the psychology of reward. Turns out, humans are animals and just like cats and dogs enjoy getting something small and fun after expending their energy, people playing RPGs enjoy getting those little points after every game that add up towards more points and the next level, complete with the classic "dang, I'm just 1000 away!".
XP also compensates for boredom and anxiety which everybody experiences every gaming session, because no matter how fun your games are, there will be the boring bits when somebody else has the spotlight or the anxious bits where your PC gets hit on its head or when you roll two ones in succession. You're a puppy, you want a bone after an evening of generally positive but also a bit stressful and sometimes negative feelings. There there good boi, here's your XP. Works much better than the "yeah you'll level at some point when I tell you" reward system.
Cref: achievements in video games. Heck, those even don't give you anything most of the time, but people still love them.
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Maybe it's our advanced age of mid-fourties, but I've been running Pathfinder without XP for close to a decade (and am very grateful that there are level-up points given in the front matter of each module), but my guys have no problem whatsoever with that system and we've been happily playing together for twenty years now.
Giving out XP each session is just another hassle added on top for me, personally, since I already have tons of extra prep time doing translations to German for the flavor text, re-allocating treasure due to using the automated bonus progression, re-doing stat blocks due to that as well... granted, most of those happen way before I even start GM'ing the AP, but I'm happy for anything which makes things a bit less onerous overall.
This is also why I remain puzzled why Paizo can't just do more AP's which go to level 20... just have characters level up at the needed points. But I know intellectually that other people have problems with that approach, it just doesn't feel like a valid problem to me.
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I actually like exp too yeah. Partially because it allows players to feel rewarded even if they don't get any loot or help in character(such as if they avoid encounter with sneaking or diplomacy, but don't ally with character) plus it means that if pcs do everything, they can level up earlier than book assumes.
Like, my PCs in RotR leveled up to 18 before Karzoug because they did everything possible. In Strange Aeons they also ended up at level 4 before even encountering final boss of book 1 for same reason <_<
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I'd count that as a negative, personally. Means that if I want the now-too-weak encounters to feel appropiately challenging to be worth the one or two hours to play them, I got some extra work on top of the normal prep time. Thanks, I'll pass.
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I'd count that as a negative, personally. Means that if I want the now-too-weak encounters to feel appropiately challenging to be worth the one or two hours to play them, I got some extra work on top of the normal prep time. Thanks, I'll pass.
And on otherhand I consider it fair that if pcs to extra work, they get extra rewards :D
So. I hate XP. I feel it adds a needlessly complicated level of abstraction and busy work that doesn't really add anything to the game.It adds the psychology of reward. Turns out, humans are animals and just like cats and dogs enjoy getting something small and fun after expending their energy, people playing RPGs enjoy getting those little points after every game that add up towards more points and the next level, complete with the classic "dang, I'm just 1000 away!".
XP also compensates for boredom and anxiety which everybody experiences every gaming session, because no matter how fun your games are, there will be the boring bits when somebody else has the spotlight or the anxious bits where your PC gets hit on its head or when you roll two ones in succession. You're a puppy, you want a bone after an evening of generally positive but also a bit stressful and sometimes negative feelings. There there good boi, here's your XP. Works much better than the "yeah you'll level at some point when I tell you" reward system.
Cref: achievements in video games. Heck, those even don't give you anything most of the time, but people still love them.
Ok - so whether your agree or disagree w/Gorbacz, he did manage to describe some of my own gaming moments. Looking at that XP column and thinking "next session, if I don't get killed, I'll make the next level". It put myself and my players always a bit on edge right before leveling...there was excitement, sense of danger, etc. It was fun! Also - if you died, especially back in earlier editions, we house ruled loss of xp rather than a Con point - which just added to the tension as you closed in on your next milestone.
That being said, from a more story driven perspective, I'd love to run an AP without worrying about XP, and doing it Magnuskn's way. I'd like players to worry less about xp harvesting, and more about the storyline - so, maybe the murder-hobos DON'T have to clobber everything in their path just to garner the holy grail of XP.
I'd count that as a negative, personally. Means that if I want the now-too-weak encounters to feel appropiately challenging to be worth the one or two hours to play them, I got some extra work on top of the normal prep time. Thanks, I'll pass.And on otherhand I consider it fair that if pcs to extra work, they get extra rewards :D
That's actually mostly handled by the AP's themselves, though I'd say that (just spitballing a number here) about the last ten of them have been far better in that regard, with the writers occasionally suggesting redeemable opponents if the players put in the extra effort. "Easier fights" is not exactly a reward to my sensibilities, since I think very much in terms of "Fights are a high time investment = Don't waste my players and my own time with fights which the players will win super easily".
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Well, there is also that I like adding levels to boss enemies so if pcs level up I have excuse to do so :p
Either way, that is actually one of things that GMs and Players think of differently. Like players in my experience do actually consider "We did everything, so we have easier time than if we didn't do everything" a form of reward
Well, there is also that I like adding levels to boss enemies so if pcs level up I have excuse to do so :p
Which goes again into the territory of "I don't need the extra hassle on top of all the other stuff I already do".
Either way, that is actually one of things that GMs and Players think of differently. Like players in my experience do actually consider "We did everything, so we have easier time than if we didn't do everything" a form of reward
Not my guys, as far as I know. If things are too easy, they get bored after a while, as do I.
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Dagnabbit website maintainance nabbed my post
Anyhoo just noted that I like extra hassling :D
Plus you are confusing "Too easy" and "Easier than normally", Strange Aeons' first book's every encounter is potential TPK :p As in main reason there hasn't been one was that during level 1 I gave them mercy on one encounter due to good deed done earlier(note: it was still very likely for them to die since it wasn't auto success, just "one more chance to not to die" sort of deal), afterwards its been through really really lucky rolls. Like seriously, they have fallen down so much that I'm almost running out of nightmare ideas(well not really because I had like dozen of them, but I definitely have used more than half of them)
Can't really talk about Strange Aeons, since I've avoided reading it, because there's still a decent chance that someone will run it and I can be a player. But I stand by my points made so far.
I always use milestone leveling and so far in every AP I have had to rebuild most encounters as my players optimise more than the level assumed by the designers. I don't have a problem with this as I enjoy rebuilding opponents.
In Rise of the Runelords I held the players back at level 16 and still had to rebuild the final battle to make Karzoug an appropriately terrifying opponent.
The final battle of this AP may actually be dangerous enough to not need a complete rebuild , we will see when my players get there in a few years
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There there good boi, here's your XP. Works much better than the "yeah you'll level at some point when I tell you" reward system.
...at YOUR table.