Thursday, January 2, 2014

Experience expressed in terms of dice

This is a little update to the Kill It With Fire RPG rules. The concept is that while there are skill-sets that act like psuedo-classes, any PC can attempt to learn any ability, but those with the skill-sets and the associated traits can learn them easier. So there are no levels in KIWF, but there are HD and tricks that can be increased over time, if the dice come up in your favor. Good bye, experience points! Hello, experience dice!

Experience

When you finish a major quest and are out of harm’s way, be that clearing out a dungeon or what have you, the referee should allow your group 1d6’s worth of in-game weeks to improve your abilities as a reward for merely surviving, provided you made it back to a safe area to live and train.

It is not guaranteed that you learn anything of worth, however, and so sometimes nothing happens, but you can store up Experience Dice (xpdice) to shore up your chances. Experience dice are d6s that are awarded by the referee after each session for the following kinds of situations:
  • You or your group have completed a minor quest: 1d6.
  • As above, but a major quest: 1d6’s worth of d6s.
  • You have pleased a god/power (and this action isn't covered by one of the others in this list): 1d6, or 2d6 if you are have a “Holy” skill-set.
  • You said something in character that made the whole table bust up laughing something fierce: 1d6.
  • You spent dungeon lucre on a night of carousing, buying or expanding a personal domain, or creating a pious work: 1d6 per 100 gold spent per the PC’S HD (for instance, a 3HD PC would need to spend 300 gold).
  • Your ingenuity saved the entire party from certain doom: 1d6.
  • You made a heroic effort to save someone in a grim situation: 1d6, or 2d6 if you were horribly wounded.

Example: Phinious the Sage is a PC of the arcane persuasion. During today’s session, his party stopped the machinations of Huruk the Mad Duke (minor quest), discovered a new dungeon complex (minor quest), and provided the ingredients to power a ritual that saved the free city of Cravenholm (major quest). After the excitement, during a lull between adventures, Phinious sacrificed 3000 gold creating some automatons to act as sentries to the temple of Tsathogunata, demon-god of wizards. He has 5HD, so that gives him 6xp dice for the sacrifice, plus 1 for the minor quest and at least 1 more for the major quest. His player may now roll some or all of them to gain new abilities now, or they can be saved for another session.

Experience Dice can only be rolled during the aforementioned PCs’ world's downtime, and any dice that don’t roll the needed result are lost.

Ways to spend those xpdice, and how many it will cost:
  • Get an additional Hit Die: roll a 6 or better, but the amount of successes required is cumulative for every two extant HD the PC has. For instance, if the PC has 6HD already, then the player needs to spend xpdice until he has managed to roll three 6s in one sitting (using any amount of xpdice the player is willing to throw at the attempt).
  • Get a new ability: each ability will have a number that you have to roll at or higher on an xpdie to earn, but you get one reroll to your attempt if you have a relevant trait score equal or higher than the target number. You also get a reroll if the ability is within your skill-set. Abilities that need to be learned before the one you want will be grouped together.
  • Increase a trait score: spend three xpdice and have them all roll the number you currently have. Xpdice can only be spent this way in groups of three.
  • Train with a weapon: each weapon is written up much like an ability with a target number to roll for basic aptitude, which is a minor weapon ability. Related weapon abilities will be grouped together on a weapon’s description.
  • Get a free check: this is a way to actually use xpdice outside of downtime. Sacrifice one die to pass one check or make one combat die an automatic hit.
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