(Interlude) -- Experience, Crits & Fumbles

Pausing the action for a brief moment . . .

Experience Points

I have never liked giving experience points for treasure.  I've always felt that treasure should be its own reward . . . and I wanted to maintain that with my solo delvers.

So, since their primary goal is to explore and map the Undercity, I decided to give them xp for doing just that.

First of all, I am using my own (highly modified) version of John Yorio's Dungeon Generator.

I give "Party XP" for the following:

• 25 pts for each card turned to extend corridors or to open rooms
• 5 pts for each square in an explored room (not one just looked into)
• Encounter Points as indicated by Labyrinth Lord for encounters
• 100 pts for each dead Delver (this should have an impact, eh?)
• zero points for any treasure

I also give "Individual XP" for the following:

• 10 pts for each point of damage taken
• Encounter Points for killing creatures
•  50 points for notable "Personal Stuff" (such as: finding secret door, detecting traps, clever spell use, etc.)

I then divide the "Party XP" by the number of delve survivors and add their share of this to their "Individual XP".  However I don't leave it there.

In my "social games" I have each player vote for how well the other (note: not their own) characters were role-played.  Adding up these votes then results in a percentage multiplier adding to each character's experience.

I can't really do that here . . . but I can use a die roll to simulate it.  I roll two "Low Average" dice (i.e., 6-siders numbered 2,2,3,3,4,5) add them together and divide by two to get each surviving character's "multiplier" . . . which then is applied for each survivor.

Critical Hits

Whenever a "natural 20" is rolled I consider that to be a "critical hit".  For simplicities sake what I'm doing for these first level characters is this . . . I roll twice the number of normal damage dice and apply any adjustment.

Once (or If) the Delvers reach 2nd level this will change to a maximum value of the damage die plus a roll of the second damage die then apply adjustments.

Fumbles

Whenever a "natural 1" is rolled, I consider that to be a "Fumble".  And when there is a fumble something bad will happen.  Depending upon the situation it may be as simple as the character (or attacker) falling down or losing their weapon . . . but it could also result in wounding themselves or one of their friends . . . it all depends upon my vision as to what is taking place . . . but nothing good will be the result.

Now back to the action.  Delve 2a will be posted relatively soon . . . and as a teaser, we will have the third Delver death in just four delves . . . the dozen company members will be reduced to nine.

-- Jeff