Old School Saving Throws as Milestone Advancement

 

Remember years ago when I talked about Barony/Conrad's Game? Today we're gonna mix the ignobles milestone advancement from that RPG with the old D&D saves. In never actually talked much about the ignoble deeds before. It’s a neat system. Maybe the first milestone system in RPGs! To advance from one job to the next in Barony, you need to check off the following things:

Adventure (Travel Exotic Lands, Danger and Intrigue) 

Bard's Tale (Fame, Triumph, Notoriety) 

Battle (Military Engagements and Strategy)
Crafty Deeds (Cunning Execution of Skills and Ingenuity) 

Desires Fulfilled (Profit, Revenge, Power)
Exercising Prudence (Forethought Plans or Precautions) 

Growth (Leadership, Comradeship, Political Authority) 

Heroics (Boldness, Courage and Audacity) 

Magical Events (Acquisition, Exposure, Use)

Each deed can only check off one thing. 

 

I could actually say to use this system and call it a day, but we are here to provide a slightly simple alternative to XP counting for old school D&D type games, or at least in the spirit of them. 

 

So, here comes my idea:

When, in the course of your wanderings, you character survives* something that falls under the following categories, check it off. If they are all checked, you erase the checks and you can level up.

□　Death Rays or Ray-guns

□　Poisons or Diseases

□　Mesmerism or Mind Control
□　Paralysis or Stonification
□　Dragon Breath or Explosions
□　Wands, Rods, Staves, Curses, or Spells

There you go, no need to count XP. 

You might have noticed that my old school D&D saves don’t match your rulespedia or whatever. That’s okay, none of the old D&Ds agree with each other. Just use yours. Mine are better tho.

Maybe undead can be slightly friendlier in this system; if you get caressed by a ghoul, you lose one of your check marks (not the paralysis one!) instead of a whole level. 

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*: Or is resurrected after experiencing.

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Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

The Seventh Ability Score is Gold

Sometimes the seventh score is Luck, and that is a useful one to have, but this post is about starting gold. Many D&Dalikes have you roll 3d6*10 for starting gold. And many DnDs let you swap ability scores around or lower one score to raise another. In our Black Pudding game, I have let the players consider gold to be a score that these options are applicable to. Can't afford that helm? Maybe you can sacrifice your CON of 11 to get a little extra cash up front.

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Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

A less tedious way to do prime requisits

The tired-sauce way.

I've actually done this in a couple campaigns now, and it worked pretty fine, though this is the simplest iteration of the rule: Your prime requisite score is applied as a percentile reduction to the XP you need to level up.

Simple example: A Wizard with INT 10 needs 100XP to reach level 2. She only really needs 90XP to level up. Easy peasy, wizard-squeezy. 

Aw, I started my example on the high road to really drive home that the glass-ceiling was being burst, but ended it creepy.

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Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.