A couple of quick questions

[GMAN]

Hi All

I've had the 1st edition for years but i've only just got round to starting to run my game, which im looking forward to, so i've decided to take the plunge and buy the 2nd edition. I have a few supplements already which i've read are pretty much compatible with 2nd edition Conan, one being the Road of Kings. I was just wondering if the new Return to the Road of Kings has everything that the 1st has plus more or are there parts that the 1st edition has that the new one dosn't, I have several players who don't know much about the Conan world so when i was first buying books this seemed like a good place to start.

Also, this will be my first run game for years, i was pretty young when i ran my last Judge Dredd game so just threw a bunch of cool stuff at my players whacky characters. I've played a D&D 3.5 so know the general rules, and im ironing out the parts of Conan that are different. My main question here is, with no challange rating how do current GMs go about giving out experience to the players

Sorry if these questions have been covered else where, i've been a little out of the RPG/Mongoose loop in the a while.

Thanks

 

[Ichabod]

I think giving out XP is easy. Figure out what level you want your characters to be at any given time and decide they are that level. Or, for the more mechanically inclined, determine how many sessions you want them to play at a particular level, how many XP they need to make the next level, and divide.

I find that efforts to match XP to particular sessions/activities serve no real purpose and are horrendously inaccurate anyway. For instance, sessions with a lot of failure are likely better experiences for characters, involving having to do more and learn more, nevermind that Fate Points are meant to reward success, yet often XP rewards are better for success than failure.

Time is not a meaningful element either. Combat drags sessions out immensely when little is actually going on. Is one long combat more XP worthy than doing lots of planning and having quick resolutions to a bunch of problems? What of the players who spend hours dickering about what to do?

Speaking of combats, I get the sense that GMs typically focus on the difficulty of combats (or at least danger) as the primary determinant of XP. This runs into the same problem above where XP are being based on activities where not a lot is actually happening.

In theory, can relate XP to number of scenes/challenges a party faces in a particular session. Interestingly, if they waste huge amounts of time solving a problem, they will face fewer challenges, thus earning less XP.

Anyway, my system would be: two sessions at 1st level, two to three sessions at 2nd level, three sessions at every other level. Can occasionally decide that a session is worth only half a session or decide arbitrarily to speed up or slow down advancement to fit the campaign better.

 

[Saeros]

I don't give out XP at all.

I write my adventures based on a level, and when the adventure is completed the players move up to the next level. My adventures are probably longer than it would normally take to advance a level. If I calculated XP, the players would probably advance faster, but I like having the players all at the same level, and being able to design the encounters knowing exactly what level the players will be at the time.

The adventures usually last three sessions, but the current adventure (3rd level) has taken five sessions so far, and will take at least two more I think.

 

[VincentDarlage]

I have a few supplements already which i've read are pretty much compatible with 2nd edition Conan, one being the Road of Kings. I was just wondering if the new Return to the Road of Kings has everything that the 1st has plus more or are there parts that the 1st edition has that the new one dosn't, I have several players who don't know much about the Conan world so when i was first buying books this seemed like a good place to start.

Return to the Road of Kings has A LOT in it that Road of Kings does not have. I am really proud of both books, and think they both belong on a collector's shelves. Return to the Road of Kings expands a lot on the Black Kingdoms, including Amazon, Atlaia and so on.

 

[cbrunish]

The only problem I had with the Return to the Road of Kings is that it dropped the NPC's at the end. Otherwise it REALLY is GOOD!!! Definatly worth the money.

 

[GMAN]

Thanks all, thats given me lots to think about. I think im gonna take the approach of levelling characters up at certain stages, it's pretty much what i did for my Dredd game.

 

[decker423]

I've borrowed some XP ideas from RIFTS (by Palladium), giving XP for good ideas or critical usage of skills, problem solving, etc. I determine XP by how they did. Obviously the higher the HD of the opponent the higher the XP earned however if the PCs just walk through a "tough" opponent then the opponent wasn't really tough so you would lower the XP.

Unlike a lot of GMs, I don't "level up" every game session.

I don't know about some GMs but if someone is killed, they start out at 1st lvl again. All PCs start at 1st Lvl. I like it as a player AND as a GM when a character works and EARNS his way to the top. IMHO.

Unlike 3.0 and 3.5, I don't do group average levels to even out XP for everyone. Everyone more or less gets the same XP for said "adventure session" EXCEPT for those who did something special to merit (or have taken away) extra XP (see the Experience Points Table by Palladium, I think it's a good idea).

I think it's feasible to take away XP for punishment as it's feasible to reward extra XP for outstanding roleplaying/problem-solving, etc.

 

[Hervé]

I don't use XP in my campaign, giving levels to characters when I think it's time to to it. The only time we used XP in Conan was for Betrayer of Asgard, as the adventure gives a detailed amount of the XP gained each session.