Re: Numenera – More on Experience Points

Numenera – More on Experience Points:

'via Blog this'

From the Design Diary article by Monte Cook:

"Players decide how they want to use the xp they earn. There are short, medium, and long-term uses. The short-term, immediate use for an xp is that you can use 1 xp to immediately reroll any die on the table (even one someone else rolls). This is pretty straightforward.

Medium-term uses are a bit more costly (but not much) and are usually story-based. A player can spend xp, for example, while climbing through the mountains and say that these mountains are just like those found in the region where she grew up. In those mountains, she is skilled in climbing. This helps her at that time, and any time she might return, but it’s not as though she’s skilled in climb everywhere. This might cost, say, 2 xp. Alternatively, another character, with a bunch of numenera components, might spend xp to cobble together a device that allows him to breathe underwater, because he wants to explore a submerged complex. This gives him that ability for a considerable length of time but probably not permanently. Again, the story and the logic of what’s going on dictate the parameters.

Long-term uses of xp are more costly still, and permanently affect a character. For 4 xp, you can gain training in a skill, increase your stat pools, improve your ability to use effort, and so on. When you do this four times, you gain a level (which in and of itself has some advantages)."

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In my Sylvaeon campaign, I have been developing a similar idea of Wyrd Points. Each character starts out with 1 or 2 Wyrd points. They can be used to cause effects during game play. I never thought of using them for character development. I am increasingly interested in the ideas that Numenera will offer and already has offered in these design diaries. It is making me rethink things about my own game. That alone is making Numenera worth backing, but I am sure the setting and mechanics will both be worth the wait. Around a year off, I am already chomping at the bit for Numenera and it isn't anywhere near finalized yet ;)

Today I ordered some clay poker chips to give players to keep track of their Wyrd points they start with and/or earn during the game. They can turn them in to "spend" them on game effects. I need to revisit Wyrd - which variously means something akin to Fate, Doom and Luck all combined into one. I want to see if I can let players gain and use Wyrd to add to the growth of their characters in ways I might not have even remotely considered before.

- Jeffrey