If you’re walking in on the middle of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeon series, there’s an index here.

Experience, oh how have I been dreading you! The reason being that there are challenges, between the variable progression tables, and the varying monster experience awards, that I’m not keen to tackle.

Let’s begin with some assumptions:

• XP is in the hundreds and thousands,
• Advancement is at arbitrary numbers because different classes increase levels at different speeds.
• Classes get experience differently: Warriors for fighting, Wizards for research, Rogues for gold, Priests for big ethos goals.
• Sessions have goals like “save the princess” that grant experience. These are GM-set and more akin to Trophy Gold than Macchiato Monster Weird!
• Desperate actions, against foes greater than the PC’s level, grant experience. This one is like Blades in the Dark, but with less strict rules about what constitutes desperate.
• Early experiences are intended to be formative to your character.

If advancement doesn’t vary between classes, the progression chart is inessential. Advancement goals are tied to level and class. If you assume dungeon levels in the DMG are PC levels, about 50 at-level kills are required for a fighter to level up, which equates to 1 kill seven levels higher, which I imagine is close to impossible in a duel, although balance in second edition is questionable at best. This reflects the slow advancement model, I think.

I don’t really love combat-centric XP, and the challenge is having fighters be combat centric but not other classes. My question then is should fighters be gaining XP to fight, and the obvious answer is no, they gain XP only for a challenge. So, rather than use XP as the marker, perhaps the actual trigger for XP is barely succeeding in combat? After all, that’s how learning works.

So, all of that given, here’s my experience rule:

• PCs level up when gain a number of XP equal to their level multiplied by 1000XP.
• Fighters gain 250XP for scraping a victory back from the jaws of death single-handedly through combat. They gain a fraction of this XP if they gain victory with assistance.
• Rogues gain 1XP per gold piece returned to their stash, even if these riches are shared with their companions.
• Wizards gain 250XP for ticking a section off a research clock, either through downtime or through achieving an associated quest. The nature of the research project and the nature of the achievement for ticking the clock are for discussion between the GM and the wizard.
• Priests gain 250XP for ticking off a section off a faith clock, either through downtime or through achieving an associated quest. The nature of the work of faith and the nature of the achievement for ticking the clock are for discussion between the GM and the wizard.
• At the outset of a significant subsection of a quest or area, the GM negotiates a goal with the PCs. This goal may break the fourth wall. When the goal is achieved, the PCs gain 250XP each.
• When a PC takes desperate action, where the risk of failure is great injury, death or worse, they gain 250XP, in addition to any.

This ticks all the boxes, gives players negotiation in their advancement, and allows for some interesting opportunities to answer why we’re on the same team. Only playtesting will tell if these seem fair, however. The other big difference here is that’s it’s not hard to level up; where non-combat rewards are anaemic in second edition and combat rewards are still fifty to the level, I’ve shortened to what I’d expect to be 1 level up very 4 sessions, if a formative experience occurs. This might be too fast, but I think better than a grind, particularly for the heroes to lords arc second edition anticipates.

So, how do we use experience to advance? This is where I try to lean into formative experiences, a concept only briefly mentioned in the DMG, but an excellent one:

Formative experiences – one’s first brush with death, horror, wealth, sacrifice, or major challenge to one’s ethos – change you. When a PC has a formative experience, they change their ethos or personality, or they gain a new ethos, and they may advance as many levels as they have XP.

After 9th level, most PCs have achieved harmony, and may choose to train during downtime in order to advance instead of wait for a formative experience. When a PC advances, they can choose any one advance their class allows.

Ohhh, this rule makes me want to start characters with just their heritage ethos, and not develop their class or other ethos until after their formative experiences. Multiple advancements are there because every level feels excessive for significant character change, particularly if those levels are only 4 or 5 sessions apart initially.

This has been a part of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeon Series! Let me know your thoughts on experience and advancement, if there are glaring questions left unanswered, whether I’ve overlooked anything important, or anything of the sort!

Idle Cartulary

13th April 2022