Experience Awards??

[thegreyelf]

So I am having the single most monumental brain fart in history.

I ran OD&D for my Friday group (a first for all of them) last night, to mark the anniversary of Gary's passing this past week.

It went better than expected: we were actually planning to do AD&D 1e, because everyone is familiar with it on some level. Then, halfway through char gen, one of my players said, "You know what? Don't you have the stuff for original D&D? Like, the white box stuff? I mean, if we're doing this to honor Gygax shouldn't we do that? Plus, I've never had the chance to play that version."

Then everyone else chimed in. "Yeah, let's try that one!"

So I pulled out my various and sundry copies of the OD&D rules and they made 5th level characters (since it was just a quick one shot). We decided we wanted thieves, variable weapon damage, and variable hit dice, so we used the 3LBBs and Greyhawk, but none of the other supplements.

After character generation I ran an off-the-cuff, basic "please rescue my daughter from brigands" adventure with a 4-room dungeon featuring gnolls, werewolves, and a sub-adult black dragon.

Fun was had by all, and they were all surprised at how fast, easy, and fun it was.

Since it was a one-shot, actual XP awards didn't come into play, but the player who had originally suggested OD&D asked, out of curiosity, what the awards would be, after examining the progression tables.

I could not, for the life of me, remember where in the books the XP award rules were, nor could I find them on repeated flip throughs. Now I KNOW I have seen them and even discussed them here before, but my brain would not call the info forth. Can anyone shoot me a reference?

Thanks!


[EDIT]It's possible this may belong in the Underworld & Wilderness Adventures forum--Fin, please move at your discretion. Also, a suggestion: how about a forum for "General OD&D Discussion and Stories?" Just a thought.

[verhaden]

Page 18, after the 'Statistics Regarding Classes' tables in Volume 1: Men & Magic:

Experience Points: Experience Points are awarded to players by the referee with appropriate bonuses or penalties for prime requisite scores. As characters meet monsters in mortal combat and defeat them, and when they obtain various forms of treasure (money, gems, jewelry, magical items, etc.), they gain "experience" points. This adds to their experience point total, gradually moving them upwards through the levels. Gains in experience points will be relative; thus an 8th level magic-user operating on the 5th dungeon level would be awarded 5/8 experience. Let us assume he gains 7,000 gold pieces by defeating a troll (which is a 7th level monster, as it has over 6 hit dice). Had the monster been only a 5th level one experience would be awarded on a 5/8 basis as already stated, but as the monster guarding the treasure was a 7th level one experience would be awarded on a 7/8 basis thus: 7,000 gp + 700 for killing the troll = 7,700 divided by 8 = 962.5 × 7 = 6,037.5. Experience points are never awarded above a 1 for 1 basis, so even if a character defeats a higher level monster he will not receive experience points above the total of treasure combined with the monster's kill value. It is also recommended that no more experience points be awarded for any single adventure than will suffice to move the character upwards one level. Thus a "veteran" (1st level) gains what would ordinarily be 5,000 experience points; however, as this would move him upwards two levels, the referee should award only sufficient points to bring him to "warrior" (2nd level), say 3,999 if the character began with 0 experience points.

Levels: There is no theoretical limit to how high a character may progress, i.e., 20th level Lord, 20th level Wizard, etc. Distinct names have only been included for the base levels, but this does not influence progression.

[Porphyre]

Men & Magic p 18
"Experience Points: Experience points are awarded to players by the referee with appropriate bonuses or penalties for prime requisite scores. As characters meet monsters in mortal combat and defeat them, and when they obtain various formsof treasure (money, gems, jewelry, magical items, etc.), they gain "experience".This adds to their experience point total, gradually moving them upwards through the levels. Gains in experience points will be relative; thus an 8th level Magic-User operating on the 5th dungeon level would be awarded 5/8 experience. Let us assume he gains 7,000 Gold Pieces by defeating a troll (which is a 7th level mon-ster, as it has over 6 hit dice). Had the monster been only a 5th level one experience would be awarded on a 5/8 basis as already stated, but as the monster guarding the treasure was a 7th level one experience would be awarded on a 7/8 basis thus;7,000 G.P. + 700 for killing the troll = 7,700 divided by 8 = 962.5 x 7 = 6,037.5.Experience points are never awarded above a 1 for 1 basis, so even if a character defeats a higher level monster he will not receive experience points above the total of treasure combined with the monster's kill value. It is also recommendedthat no more experience points be awarded for any single adventure than will suffice to move the character upwards one level. Thus a "veteran" (1st level) gains what would ordinarily be 5,000 experience points; however, as this would move him upwards two levels, the referee should award only sufficient points to bring him to "warrior" (2nd level), say 3,999 if the character began with 0 experience points."

EDIT: cross posting. Apologies for repetition

[thegreyelf]

Mar 8, 2014 8:34:44 GMT -6 verhaden said:

Page 18, after the 'Statistics Regarding Classes' tables in Volume 1: Men & Magic:

Experience Points: Experience Points are awarded to players by the referee with appropriate bonuses or penalties for prime requisite scores. As characters meet monsters in mortal combat and defeat them, and when they obtain various forms of treasure (money, gems, jewelry, magical items, etc.), they gain "experience" points. This adds to their experience point total, gradually moving them upwards through the levels. Gains in experience points will be relative; thus an 8th level magic-user operating on the 5th dungeon level would be awarded 5/8 experience. Let us assume he gains 7,000 gold pieces by defeating a troll (which is a 7th level monster, as it has over 6 hit dice). Had the monster been only a 5th level one experience would be awarded on a 5/8 basis as already stated, but as the monster guarding the treasure was a 7th level one experience would be awarded on a 7/8 basis thus: 7,000 gp + 700 for killing the troll = 7,700 divided by 8 = 962.5 × 7 = 6,037.5. Experience points are never awarded above a 1 for 1 basis, so even if a character defeats a higher level monster he will not receive experience points above the total of treasure combined with the monster's kill value. It is also recommended that no more experience points be awarded for any single adventure than will suffice to move the character upwards one level. Thus a "veteran" (1st level) gains what would ordinarily be 5,000 experience points; however, as this would move him upwards two levels, the referee should award only sufficient points to bring him to "warrior" (2nd level), say 3,999 if the character began with 0 experience points.

Levels: There is no theoretical limit to how high a character may progress, i.e., 20th level Lord, 20th level Wizard, etc. Distinct names have only been included for the base levels, but this does not influence progression.

Right, I got that...I mean, where are the guidelines that tell me how much XP a monster is worth??

[Stormcrow]

In the original set, there are none. What you see here is all there is: an example in which a 7th level monster garners 700 XP. Many have taken this, and a comment in Greyhawk ("Rather than the (ridculous [sic]) 100 points per level for slain monsters"), to mean that monsters are worth 100 XP per monster level. Calculating a monster's level is a bit hand-wavy: start with the monster's hit dice, add one for any pluses, then add one or more for special abilities. I don't remember offhand where this bit is in the booklets.

Gary revised monster XP based on HD in Greyhawk, and this is the system that lasted through AD&D 2nd Edition

[Stormcrow]

Ah, it's not in the original set:
THE STRATEGIC REVIEW Vol. 1, No. 2: “For purposes of experience determination the level, of the monster is equivalent to its hit dice, and additional abilities add to the level in this case. A gorgon is certainly worth about 10 level factors, a balrog not less than 12, the largest red dragon not less than 16 or 17, and so on.”

[thegreyelf]

Mar 8, 2014 10:07:53 GMT -6 Stormcrow said:

Ah, it's not in the original set:
THE STRATEGIC REVIEW Vol. 1, No. 2: “For purposes of experience determination the level, of the monster is equivalent to its hit dice, and additional abilities add to the level in this case. A gorgon is certainly worth about 10 level factors, a balrog not less than 12, the largest red dragon not less than 16 or 17, and so on.”

THAT'S IT! I never even thought to look in my Strategic Review collection.

Thanks!