You don't level up
Edit: 26/06 modified a lot of things, streamlined many mechanics, and corrected a lot of gramatical errors
I'm gonna use D&D 5 as a backbone for this homebrew, but I have some ideas that can be applied to other games (also because i’m lazy as fuck and this is an easy system to break hack):
We'll make some changing using the official manual:
Experience Points will be called Hero Points, to convey better the idea.
We'll also use the variant rule https://5etools.com/variantrules.html#skill%20variants_dmg, and the https://5etools.com/variantrules.html#proficiency%20dice_dmg).
To clarify, when i state "dice average", i mean the statistical average.
To simplify, always consider it to be equal to "max dice value / 2 + 1". So the d6 average is approximed to 4, not 3, the d8 average is approximed to 5, not 4, the d10 average is approximed to 6, not 5, and the d12 average is approximed to 7, not 6. (You can find more informations on why, here)
Precepts -
At the end of an adventure your DM is going to ask if you have fulflilled your precepts, everyone will take turns answering, and when they answer yes they'll get 1 Hero Point.
Optionally you always get at least 1 Hero Point for having played, and the DM can decide to give 1 Hero Point to reward good roleplay.
The important thing isn't to answer "yes" to all questions, but to estabilish through them what has happened during the story so far, and the direction in which you're going to move next.
The precepts are divided in 2 world-building questions, 4 background questions, and 4 team-bonding questions.
The precepts here presented are a guideline for almost all campaigns, but can be customized in any way you want.
The precepts are:
To do so you must first of all face the precept in-game, and decide to abandon it playing accordingly.
The crisis can be something directly related to the precept, and the details should be crafted by you and your DM, for example forgoing your Criminal flaw "when i see something valuable i can't think about anything but how to steal it", might cause you to be forced to make a Wisdom saving throws each time you see something valuable until the crisis has ended.
Once you lose those precept forever, the only way to regain it is by facing a new crisis opportunity introduced by your DM, and once resolved, you will gain a new precept.
Character creation:
Proficiency -
You don't gain skill proficiencies anymore, instead whenever you want to do a skill check, you'll have to roll
(physical if it's a skill that requires strenght, dexterity, or constitution; mental if it's a skill that requires intelligence, wisdom, charisma).
You can choose to take the proficiency dice average, but you must choose between adding the roll or the average to your check before rolling.
Choose a race - you gain all racial features, but any skill proficiencies.
Choose a background - you gain all background features, but any skill proficiencies
Experience Points will be called Hero Points, to convey better the idea.
We'll also use the variant rule https://5etools.com/variantrules.html#skill%20variants_dmg, and the https://5etools.com/variantrules.html#proficiency%20dice_dmg).
To clarify, when i state "dice average", i mean the statistical average.
To simplify, always consider it to be equal to "max dice value / 2 + 1". So the d6 average is approximed to 4, not 3, the d8 average is approximed to 5, not 4, the d10 average is approximed to 6, not 5, and the d12 average is approximed to 7, not 6. (You can find more informations on why, here)
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Advancement:
Instead of choosing a class, you follow “Precepts”.Precepts works as a sort of guideline for characters, that ask him to improve by facing new challenges, and making impactful decisions, even bad ones.
At the end of an adventure your DM is going to ask if you have fulflilled your precepts, everyone will take turns answering, and when they answer yes they'll get 1 Hero Point.
Optionally you always get at least 1 Hero Point for having played, and the DM can decide to give 1 Hero Point to reward good roleplay.
The important thing isn't to answer "yes" to all questions, but to estabilish through them what has happened during the story so far, and the direction in which you're going to move next.
The precepts are divided in 2 world-building questions, 4 background questions, and 4 team-bonding questions.
You can alternatively spend hero points not only to buy improvements, but to reroll a die (just like an Inspiration).The standard progression will let you gain from 1 to 10 points max at the end of each quest, but your master can decide the pace of the campaign by rewarding them at the end of each session, or at the end of each month worth of adventuring.
The precepts here presented are a guideline for almost all campaigns, but can be customized in any way you want.
The precepts are:
- Reputation - have my action made my legend grow (for better or worse)?
- Influence - has the world changed even a little thanks to me (for better or worse)?
- Personality trait - has my personality influenced someone in a memorable way?
- Ideal - have i upholded my ideals despite the consequences i had to endure?
- Bond - have i made some progress towards the completition of my personal mission?
- Flaw - did my flaw cause a crisis that could have been avoided otherwise?
- Discovery - have we discovered or understood something new or unusual of the world we live in?
- Challenge - did we manage to test our limits, almost being defeated, but managing to win against a challenge greater than us?
- Camaraderie - do my teammates think I played a crucial role in the unfolding of the events, without which things would have been gone worse for them?
- Debts/Credits - do i owe something important to one of my teammates, and did i repay the debt? Does one of my teammates owes me something important, and did he/she repay the debt?
- Optionally you always get at least 1 Hero Point for having played, and the DM can decide to give 1 Hero Point to reward good roleplay.
You can forgo a precept and gain immediatly a character advancement, but doing so will make you also gain a "Crisis", that is the reversal of the precept you abandoned.
To do so you must first of all face the precept in-game, and decide to abandon it playing accordingly.
The crisis can be something directly related to the precept, and the details should be crafted by you and your DM, for example forgoing your Criminal flaw "when i see something valuable i can't think about anything but how to steal it", might cause you to be forced to make a Wisdom saving throws each time you see something valuable until the crisis has ended.
As long as you have a crisis going on, all hero points gained from then on, must be spent on ending it.The cost of ending a crisis is equal to the number of the remaining precepts you still follow.
Once you lose those precept forever, the only way to regain it is by facing a new crisis opportunity introduced by your DM, and once resolved, you will gain a new precept.
You can have only 1 crisis going on at a time.
Character creation:
Proficiency -
Your standard proficiency dice is a d6 (instead of a d4 as per the variant rule) - You have a physical proficiency dice (PP dice) and a mental proficiency dice (MP dice). For each ability score you become proficient it goes up to a max of d12.
You don't gain skill proficiencies anymore, instead whenever you want to do a skill check, you'll have to roll
D20 + ability score mod. + physical/mental proficiency dice
(physical if it's a skill that requires strenght, dexterity, or constitution; mental if it's a skill that requires intelligence, wisdom, charisma).
You can choose to take the proficiency dice average, but you must choose between adding the roll or the average to your check before rolling.
- Choose a proficiency in an ability score, and all the related skills and saving throws, of your choice.
- You become proficient in the ability score, all the related skills and saving throws, of your highest racial ability score bonus (usually a +2, humans and tritons that have no major ability score bonus can choose proficient in one ability score of their choice).
Choose a background - you gain all background features, but any skill proficiencies
- You become proficient in the ability score, all the related skills and saving throws, of the tools of the trade you're proficient with (Mason's tools for example can be used to spot a secret door in the walls with a perception check, so wisdom, or understand how to open it, so intelligence, or force it open, so strenght. Gaming sets can be used to know how to win a game, so intelligence, or understanding your opponent through the game, so wisdom, or plainly cheat through any means, so charisma or dexterity, but there's no way strenght or constitution would be related to them. The DM must find the reasons of your choice, acceptable).
Dinamic Hit points -
Your total hit points are equal to PPd (or average) x Constitution ability score.
You can gain hit points by:
- Supernatural means
- Taking feats that increase your consitution ability score
If any ability lets you gain more hit points by the level reduce the hit points you lose by injuries, magical straining, or aging by that quantity.
If you suffer any level draining or effect that reduces your hit points, increase the hit points you lose by injuries, magical straining, or aging by 1 x level drained/other effect suffered.
You lose hit points by:
If you suffer any level draining or effect that reduces your hit points, increase the hit points you lose by injuries, magical straining, or aging by 1 x level drained/other effect suffered.
You lose hit points by:
- Aging - Divide your race maximum age/100 rounded in excess (for example for humans would be 1 year, use the graphs for reference), and every time this period passes (in-game) your character loses 12 - PPd - Constitution mod. hit points permanently.
If by any means you gain a way to stop aging, you stop gaining or losing hit points with age.
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| Aging period per race |
- Injuries - When you drop to 0 hit points and fail a death saving throws, you lose 12 - PPd - Constitution mod. hit points permanently.
- Magical straining - You can cast a spell even if you have less mana points than the mana points necessary to cast that spell (equal to the lv. of the spell), but you reduce your max hit points of mana points difference, permanently.
Death -
Other than dying if you fail 3 death saving throws, you also die if your max hit points reach 0.
Resurrection effects lets you recover PPd x level of the spell (if an effect, it's PPd x 1d10)
Extra attacks -
You don't gain extra attacks with the extra attack class ability. When you use the attack action with a weapon in which you are proficient and hit the target, based on the PP dice roll, you score more attacks (you roll to hit only 1 time, and roll dice damages equal to the number of attacks you have scored, or roll 1 time and multiply them for the number of attacks you have scored. Be aware that if you use the PP average instead or rolling, you won't be able to score more than 1 attack if you're not using at least a d10):
You can exceed your available mana points to cast a spell, but doing so reduces permanently your total hit points of the difference (launching a 5 lv spell, with 4 mana points, costs 1 permanent HP).
Short and long rest -
By doing so your PPd and MPd decrease of 1 grade for each dice spent this way up to a d6, for the rest of the day (d12 > d10 > d8 > d6).
You can't spend dices during a short rest to recover hit points if you have no proficiency in a physical attribute, or mana points if you have no proficiency in a mental attribute.
After a long rest you recover all the dices spent.
Expertise -
(If you are proficient in dexterity and constitution (d10), and gain expertise in stealth, you roll 2d10 when doing a stealth check, but if you are proficient in strenght and constitution (d10), and gain an expertise in stealth, you roll 2d6 since you are not proficient in dexterity, and the standard proficiency dice is a d6).
Buying things -
If you want to start from a virtual level above 1, you get 10 points x level, instead.
The features you can learn, and their costs are:
You gain extra attack based on your PPd roll.
You don't gain extra attacks with the extra attack class ability. When you use the attack action with a weapon in which you are proficient and hit the target, based on the PP dice roll, you score more attacks (you roll to hit only 1 time, and roll dice damages equal to the number of attacks you have scored, or roll 1 time and multiply them for the number of attacks you have scored. Be aware that if you use the PP average instead or rolling, you won't be able to score more than 1 attack if you're not using at least a d10):
- On a 6-7 you score 2 hits - Requirements: PPd = d6/d8
(With a d6, even if not proficient with any ability score, you can manage to score 2 hits on average every 6 attacks) - On a 8-9 you score 3 hits - Requirements: PPd = d8/d10
(With a d8 you'll score on average 2 hits each 4 attacks, and 3 hits every 8 attacks) - On a 10-11 you score 4 hits - Requirements: PPd = d10/d12
(With a d10 you'll score on average more than 2 hits half of the time, 3 hits each 5 attacks, and 4 hits each 10 attacks) - On a 12 you score 5 hits - Requirements: PPd = d12 (With a d12 you'll score on average more than 2 hits at least each 2 attacks, 3 hits each 3 attacks, 4 hits each 6 attacks, and 5 hits each 12 attacks)
At the start of each day you gain MP (or average) mana points. Those points are spent during the day to cast known spells.
You can exceed your available mana points to cast a spell, but doing so reduces permanently your total hit points of the difference (launching a 5 lv spell, with 4 mana points, costs 1 permanent HP).
Short and long rest -
Each day during a short rest, you can spend your PPd to recover hit points, and MPd to recover mana points.
By doing so your PPd and MPd decrease of 1 grade for each dice spent this way up to a d6, for the rest of the day (d12 > d10 > d8 > d6).
You can't spend dices during a short rest to recover hit points if you have no proficiency in a physical attribute, or mana points if you have no proficiency in a mental attribute.
After a long rest you recover all the dices spent.
Expertise -
If you get a skill expertise from whatever source, you only apply it to the specific circumstances chosen, and roll the proficiency dice twice
(If you are proficient in dexterity and constitution (d10), and gain expertise in stealth, you roll 2d10 when doing a stealth check, but if you are proficient in strenght and constitution (d10), and gain an expertise in stealth, you roll 2d6 since you are not proficient in dexterity, and the standard proficiency dice is a d6).
Buying things -
You have 10 Hero Points that you can spend however you want.
If you want to start from a virtual level above 1, you get 10 points x level, instead.
The features you can learn, and their costs are:
- Feat - n. of precepts x [n. of feats known +1]
- Learning feats is the only way to get an ability score improvement.
- At the character creation you can choose to forfeit 1 ability score proficiency in exchange of 1 feat.
- The maximum number of feats you can learn can't exceed the number of ability score in which you are proficient.
- Equipment type proficiency - n. of precepts x [n. of equipment types you are proficient with +1]
- If you are proficient with a piece of equipment, you add to the roll the PPd, or average, when using it (For weapons add it to the roll to hit, for armors add it to the CA).
- Unarmed attacks and unarmored defense can't be choosen this way.
- Languages proficiencies - n. of precepts x [n. of languages you are proficient with +1]
- Learning a language counts as an expertise when reading/speaking in it.
- Class ability - n. of precepts x [class ability level +1]
- The requirement to learn a class ability is to have learned learned at least 1 class ability from the previous level of the same class (except for lv 1 class abilities).
- To upgrade a class ability you have to re-learn it at the appropriate level (So to improve the "bardic inspiration" ability from 1st to 5th level, you must have at least learned a 4th level bard ability, and spend n. of proficiency dices x n. of class ability you know x 5).
- Spells - n. of precepts x [spell level +1]
- To learn a spell you have to learn first the right spellcasting class ability.
- You must have learned at least 1 spell from the previous spell level of the same spell list (except for lv 0 spells).
- Launching a spell costs mana points equal to the spell level. You can always launch a spell at an higher level if that spell says so, by spending as many mana points as the spell level at which is being cast.
Why?
Because levels as a measure of power, pose a series of paradox with which we all made peace without really understanding why.
Background inconsistency - You may have lived a life full of adventures, survived hordes of goblins and orcs who raided your native village, swore revenge to your cruel master from which you managed to escape seconds before he delivered the killing blow to sacrifice you and your family to a mad god, stole from kings, worked as a spy, became a pirate captain, traveled the world and the seven seas for more than a hundred years... But you're still a lv. 1, that would have died trying the first of these things.
You then luckily meet with a bunch of people in a tavern, you decide to embark on some quests, and from then on you'll gain more experience in a couple of months, or weeks, than what you will have ever gained in your whole life.
Each game has its own "in-game time", but the difference between the in- and out-game time is too extreme.
When a background is “too much or “too little”? How can you decide if a player background is right for a level 1, and not for a level 3, and viceversa? Why all meaningful experience is concentrated in the time in which the player takes control of a character only?
When a background is “too much or “too little”? How can you decide if a player background is right for a level 1, and not for a level 3, and viceversa? Why all meaningful experience is concentrated in the time in which the player takes control of a character only?
Reputation - Another problem in games like D&D is that the level is strictly connected to reputation (and DM sadism).
What if you start from level 10 instead of level 1? You should be well known right? Well, it depends on the story you're going to play.
What if you start from level 10 instead of level 1? You should be well known right? Well, it depends on the story you're going to play.
I've made my fair amount of research and i'm gonna quote some articles that can explain these concepts better than me. Let's use D&D 5 as the golden rule, and do some quick math:
"[...] according to RAW, the mechanics of 5e are designed around the idea of the 7 major encounters per adventuring day ( or 6-8, so 7 ), spaced out by 2 Short Rests on average.This means that a raw [...] 1st level adventurer can become level 20 in about 30 "adventuring days", if you divide the amount of XP needed for each level, by the XP in a level-appropriate Medium difficulty encounter, divide again by 7, and adding up the results at each level. Farm hand, to fighter, to slayer-of-gods in a month of experience.Now - a serious caveat! I know that 30 adventuring days and and 30 calendar days are not the same thing at all. Adventures are long periods of down time, or travelling, punctuated with periods of terrifying stress and life-threatening combat [...]"(https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/rules-game-mechanics/30433-7-encounters-per-adventure-day-nerfing-classes)
This, of course, is what happens only when you follow the rules by the book, and nobody ever really does that. Still, what kind of narrative value can you find in such a window of time? What does it tell us about the character we are living through, that smashing things makes you better at smashing things while those same skills can be incidentally used to solve problems without smashing things, but doing so doesn't make you learn as much as well as smashing them?
Of course there's not only D&D 5 on the market, and maybe i should finally learn how to play LOTFP ("Lamentation of the fire princess" for the heretics), or better study for that exam is coming up, but i want to use D&D 5 as the golden standard of the mainstream RPGs that flood the industry and that inspired the use of "XP progression" we are so fond of in videogames.
Now, there are alternative ways in the game itself for a character to progress, the milestone achievements for example, but i want to be a little nihilistic here and talk about the futility of learning something new, since what you will learn has already been decided by the path and the structure you have chosen at the creation of your character.
Long time ago i heard that levelling up "is a virtual simulation of the trial and error process that happens while you play, but since it's not interesting or useful for the story, it doesn't get told". So it happens in the background, and we all know that it's happening, but some of those "errors" carry a weight and others don't? Doesn't make much sense.
Even if "experience" as it's used is not a good medium, it helps streamlining so many things that it's impossible to completely get rid of it, but it doens't mean that we can't put it in perspective.
This kind of levelling up can work for a regular Dungeons and Dragons story, in which you go in dungeons, fight dragons, and get treasures, but doesn't work very well in every kind of story you'll want to play in it (or every other game that just copy-pastes the levelling up mechanics without giving much thought to what they're telling).
This kind of levelling up can work for a regular Dungeons and Dragons story, in which you go in dungeons, fight dragons, and get treasures, but doesn't work very well in every kind of story you'll want to play in it (or every other game that just copy-pastes the levelling up mechanics without giving much thought to what they're telling).
As a thought experiment i'm gonna use some other games as guidelines to rebuild a "levelling up" system for D&aD 5:
- In 7th Sea, you decide how much you'll become stronger step-by-step, and you do it only by developing your personal story.
- In the Cypher System, you get more powerful by discovering and learning the world you play inside.
- In Dungeon Worlds (and PBTA in general), the most efficent progression is by failing and learning from your mistakes, or by sticking to your character personality. (some sources)
- In Lady Blackbird, the once The Shadows Of Yesterday (download link here), you grow by facing your personal desires, but letting them go gets you more than fulfilling them, so on the long run you'll gain less and less until you are no more.
- I also like the Shadow of the Demon Lord, in which levelling up means having to master a more complex game, not only having higher stats.
Many others are listed in a thread i found on reddit, check them out (https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/3grf1k/favorite_xpleveling_system/).
"[...] the hallmark of a highly immersive rule is when it aligns the interests of player and character so seamlessly"
"Anything that is plot driven rather than an abstraction of body count, and rewards roleplaying over rollplaying"
What?
Let's talk about the game implications of such a system going step by step:
Why i choose the ability score proficiencies, instead of the skill proficiencies?
The first reason in linked to the fact that, in my opinion, it doesn't change anything: in D&D 5 the skills are too little and many are too little useful, to make a difference in builds, and more than one time player found an overabundance of the same skill proficiencies in their team.
This also removes the risk of DMs not using that particular skill much, helping anyone who wants to do "something", to do it by simply being good enough with that attribute.
The second reason is that this way physical and mental builds are really something distinct and unique, and by linking the proficiency to the passive scores as hit points and mana points, the builds vary vastly.
Best and worst case scenario are full magical builds with someone with a lot of mana points and no hit points, that can even die of natural causes because of their negative constitution modifier, or a full macho build who can run, jump, and break bones like Dwayne Johnson, basically immortal, but that will be helpless against a magical build.
The game is going to be more fast paced: you'll start with a lot of hit points, but you'll lose permanently a lot of them.
I've always disliked the "level up = get beefier" attitude of rpg, and i prefer the combination of natural attitude, past training, and personal potential.
This is a double edge sword, players gonna feel a lot more safe in the beginning, but with time they'll lose a lot of hit points and become more cautious, but will also learn that this attitude won't help them: if they want to improve and learn from the world, they'll have to risk.
Many will die naturally, but with time they'll also learn to consider hit points as a precious resource instead of something that can be recovered anytime anyway. Mages will also naturally kill themselves if not aware.
Combat is a lot more fluid and tactic, since even magic-based characters will now want to spend at least one proficiency on those daggers, so they can at least get the chance to hit 2 times once in a while if necessary, thus helping character to kill things faster and preventing the "natural" losses they would suffer with death saving throws.
Your growth will depend on the sacrifices you make, and what you'll learn from them.
You can build more organically your character. Also between the DM that can decide the pace with which points are gained, players will want to get involved in meaningful interactions to fullfill their precepts, and occasionally spend points to reroll a die and succed.
Precepts and crisis are the true motor of the game: you create your story and grow by developing it, or by sacrificing some of the aspects you aren't interested in for a nifty payoff, so on the long run you will gain less and less points, but also learning will become easier.
This is all a work in progress, in the future i'll add more details or make another article developing this ideas by applying it to other games, so i would like some opinios regarding that.
