Nealok's Fantasy RPG Resource

Points and Pointers and a Weapon That Learned to Talk

I have started many characters at levels significantly above 1st. Some of them have lasted as long as a year and a half. Some of them have lasted less than a session. But even with the longest run character, there is always a problem of how huge the experience gap between levels is, and playing a character over and over again without any sort of tangible advancement can be frustrating not only for you, but, if you think about it, for the character. As a character starts out, he is on fire. He learns new things all the time, gaining spells left and right, learning new ways to fit in that extra attack before the other guy, and learning how to put just the right amount of smackdown into that knife in the back. They learn these things QUICK. Then they hit the wall, that force that separates men from boys. They trudge on, finding cool secrets, going on interesting trips, but never really making a knowledge based quantum leap the way that they used to. As such, most adventurers retire (or their players retire them) around 8th or 9th level, because after that, you start earning as much experience to advance as you did to get to the new level.

This new system is designed to prolong the life of those poor bored souls, and, I imagine, it will be a power gamer's dream come true. I suggest that there should be more incentive for well role-played or simply well played characters in the form of Advantage Points. These points would be given out for general things that the DM wants done in the game. Here are some examples of things that would earn Advantage Points:

Role-playing consistently
Making an effort to actually portray a character (acting like your PC.).
Making a clear effort to work with the group.
Outstanding playing overall (should be very rare)
Completing an adventure to the greatest degree of success, as determined by the DM.
Solving a problem in an ingenius, unique way.
Having some bizarre occurence with the dice that leaves you in such awe that it deserves an award.
At the very least, one point should be given every single game session in which the player is in attendance.

These points could be used to purchase benefits a la White Wolf games. It is important to note that they would not measure a character's overall ability; that would still be the province of experience points. These APs would be in addition to the normal experience points given for a game. The fun then comes by compiling the stuff that can be purchased for these points. Here are some examples.

For every 10 APs, you can add a +1 to your weapon or Armor. For 20 more, you can add another, and for 30, another, and so on. So to make your normal +1 weapon into a ball bashing +5, it would take 150 APs total.
For 150 APs, the character can fire arrows from his bow without ever running out, even if he doesn't have a quiver. These magical arrows can be improved at rate described above.
For 60 APs, you can fly at will.
For 75 APs, you can become invisible at will, for 100 APs, that includes sound.
For 1 AP, you can take back a bad roll and reroll it.
For 20 APs, you can reroll 1 "worst possible roll" for any 1 session (1's to hit, 20's on Proficiency checks, anything which would kill the character otherwise.).
For 3 APs, you can add a 5 points to any thieving skill. (Is that too powerful? Maybe 1% for every 3 APs)
For 4 APs, Get an automatically friendly reaction when you need it...this one could be cashed in by the DM for story purposes...heh, heh, heh.)
For 10 APs, the character can make a Willpower roll to remove a cursed item or restore an energy drained experience level.
You could condense the entire reward system by only giving out APs and allowing players to exchange 1 AP for, say 1,000 XP. I imagine that, if you really wanted to, this could also work in reverse.
Also, players could, in theory, exchange 1 point for some set amount of money. I discourage this unless your world has a functional banking system where a "clerical error" could lead to such an odd accrual of wealth, or the character who counted the money was very tired.

This last one was suggested and first implemented in my gaming group by my sometime DM, Vyzhin. (Obviously not his real name. He originally called the APs "Hero Points," which I was snitty about, and so he changed the name to "Role-playing points." That was for those of you who think Advantage points sounds silly.) The APs can be the requirements for some sort of Holy or Philosophical Order in your world.

At 6 APs, you are rank 1(Novice), and you have something really tiny and restriced, but still potent and nice to have, like the ability to start a fire in the fireplace or campfire with your mind, or -1 on all attack rolls during the day. Then, with 6 more points, you would be rank 2 (Initiate), and you would be able to detect magic at will or exchange attack boni for armor penalties and vice versa. With 6 more points, you would be Rank 3 (Apprentice), and you would have actually been contacted by the Order or power or philosophical head, and you would have been sent on a quest or some such. At Rank 3, you would actually be in the Order, and you would have some other slightly more powerful, but not overwhelming, ability.

Then the real power starts a'comin'. First of all, all rank increases must earned in story as well as in-game to begin with, but starting on the journey to 4th rank, it becomes a really hard trek. Second of all, going from 3rd to 4th takes 12 points, from 4th to 5th takes 24, and from 5-6 takes 48, etc. By the 10th and final rank, you are granted some brick-shitting ability, and you have to do some nasty, completely non-combat oriented quest to get it. Obviously this list and idea should be tailored to the particular group, but it offers a great deal of incentive without making you give away too, too much experience

Anyway, you get the idea. I highly, highly recommend that your DM change the point values depending on the average amount of APs he decides to give out. I think the general number advancement scheme (for adding +'s, Order rank, or weapon intelligence (see below)) is suitable, but you will probably still want to tailor that to the individual campaign, like I said. The entire point of the system is to give a more versatile and more immediately rewarding experience system than the existing one.

No.
I'm lying.
The point is so that your cleric can talk smack about the other party members with his mace.

Read on

I have saved the inspiration for this entire system's title for last. I am a total sucker for intelligent weapons. I think they are massively cool, and if they weren't so rare and cool and just intrinsically unusual, I swear, I would give one to every single PC I DMed. So, instead of making every short sword that the players found into Bob the drunken dagger, I conceived a system that would enable players to make their own decisions about intelligent weapons, allowing them to decide if it was within their character's persona to have a weapon that argued about battle tactics with them.

I imagine in-story this would occur by some psionic process where the psyche of the PC becomes imbedded in the weapon (or armor or amulet or ring or phylactery or your mom...whatever) through the latent psionic potential of all things or the ambient magical energy in the world, and the weapon responds by forming an identity based on its owner. If the DM feels a bit weird about this, then make the sword count as a henchman or a follower and/or dock the player for the normal experience amount of an intelligent weapon. Whatever the case, the origin of how the damned thing learned how to talk is pretty important, maybe even the subject of an adventure series, and should influence the growth of the weapon's communicative abilities.

To begin with, I suggest the character has to pay anywhere from 7-10 APs to bond to the weapon. This makes the weapon "his." The character will always know in what direction the weapon is in relation to him, and anyone who carries the weapon will distinctly feel like he is carrying something that belongs to "someone else."
Then, after another 10-12 APs, the weapon develops an alignment, an intelligence equal to half the character's, and the ability to send emotional responses to the character as long as the weapon is being held by the character. At this level, the character also knows the exact location of the weapon, within reason.
12-15 APs later, the sword gains the ability to speak aloud to the character and gets an additional quarter of the character's intelligence (so the weapon has .75 the Intelligence score of the character, round down for rogues and warriors, up for wizards and priests.). At this level, the character can telekinetically call the weapon as long as it is within the character's line of sight OR no more than [character's Intelligence] meters away from the character. Think Star Wars.
With another 15-20 APs, the weapon can develop the full intelligence of the character and communicate with him telepathically. At this level, the character can conjure the weapon into his immediate possession no matter how far away from the character it is, as long as it is on the same plane.

Due to the special nature of this system, the weapon does not have ego, nor does it ever, ever, ever acquire some of the special powers detailed in the section about Intelligent weapons. The weapon should have a capacity for languages according to its Intelligence, but should acquire them through gameplay. When the weapon first gains cognizance, it should have a personality similar to the characters. As its intelligence increases, it should become as far from the character's personality while still maintaining the same alignment.

By the way, for non-external enhancements to any weapon (e.g. the emotional communication, the pluses on the weapon in the AP list above, the inifinite arrows on the list above.), the magic is derived from the character bonding with the weapon or item in question. Under no circumstances should someone else be allowed to access the special abilities of the item.

All of the AP results should have some explanation in-story, and if the players don't explain it or if the DM can't rationalize it, then don't include it. These points are not for power gamers, they are to signify the natural benefits that characters get by continuing to survive in a dangerous world.

Later

-N