Hi all,
I've been lurking for a while, but I'm soon to be running a mini-series of Lord of the Rings adventures (which I'll post afterwards, perhaps) and am curious to see how the rest of you have been doling out experience. I know I'm planning on doing it much, much faster than usual (since the campaign's so short), but am curious all the same. I've seen reference in other sites on the internet of wildly different approaches to experience-giving and thought it might be a fine subject for discussion.
The accelerated method I'm planning to use breaks the adventures down into discreet chapters (a collection of scenes) and assigns each of them a goal worth 100-500 experience (rather like the episode and scene goals described in the book). Then, of course, the awards for particular and important skill checks. Finally, success awards for the story's inherent goals (as the scenic and episodic goals in the book, again, but more like mission objectives in that these goals can, presumably, be failed, whereas participation alone qualifies for a scenic award in this model).
I love the ability to award experience based on key skill checks and TNs, though. It creates such a nice relationship between the characters actions and their potential for advancement. Good stuff.
So: Crossing the Bridge Scene (200 pts), plus an extended test to cross a crumbling Dwarven bridge in the Misty Mountains (TN 80) would give each of the four participating characters 50 experience (200 divided by 4) plus 80 (since, presumably, they'll each have to reach the aggregate TN eventually), for 130 experience points for the scene, for each character. Arguably, I could continue to award half the experience for every other character (as in the book) which adds another 40 to the total and reaches 170 experience points. This is actually very close to the method in the book, and could easily earn an Advancement or two in each episode (every 5.8 scenes, at this rate). This appeals to me because it gives that sense that the characters are changing and growing over the course of their journeys, rather than between them. The manner in which Sam, Merri, and Pippin become better fighters and such between Bree and Amon Hen is something I want to capture.
Thoughts?
word,
Will