Fellowship of the Dice

Yeah, we know ninjas live for flipping out and killing people.

Is it wrong that I've been to this web stie before?

In case anyone missed this on the OOC forums of all the games I'm running. I'm going to start a nice new XP award system. It follows as this. I believe TetNak also said he was going to start using this as well for his games. Any suggestions, or alterations that others think could improve this, please post here and lets hash it out!

I will be tracking five various attributes and awarding XP based on these items. They are, in no particular order.


Combat - Combat XP will use standard D&D XP award for victories in combat. You only recieve Combat XP if you defeat enemies, either slaying, capturing, or overcoming them in some way. You do not get XP for enemies that escape. All the math for this is in the DMG. (This includes overcoming traps or other encounters as listed in the DMG). Variable

Activity - I will award bonus XP for players that are active. This mean those players that post actively will recieve more than those players that fail to meet the 3 day rule. This includes time away from the site such as vacations and things. As long as you stay within the 3 day rule you will receive atleast the average award. 0-750

Post Quality - This award reflects a players post quality, not the content of the post, but the post itself. Is it easy to read, did you spell check, did you use punctuation and captilization correctly? Can I understand what you said? Good use of spoiler and other formating tools counts for this. I know I don't always post perfect (don't you dare comment!), but someone that checks over their post atleast once should never have an issue with this award. 0-500

RP Quality - This is a big one. This one counts your ability to roleplay your character, and roleplay him well. Character depth, acting IC, and good use of your character's merits and flaws. Always keeping the theme and situation in mind. This is why we play here!!! 0-1000

Storyline - This is a plot award. I base this off of what you have acomplished throughout the chapter. This one really is an award that you don't have much control over. Various chapters have various goals in my head, and when those goals are met I award XP for it. No plot survives contant with the PCs they say, so this award is liquid. 0-1000 (Or More)

This system might require tweaking at various levels. This does not work well for first level characters, as it may award too much XP to a character causing a speed boost in levels. However depending on the chapter lengths, it might be worthwhile not to worry, to simply limit the max award for early levels, or increase the max award at much higher levels.

I like the new system that you've laid out here.

Also agree with your comments about the tweaking. Might wish to make the Activity & Post Quality maxes be relative to the Storyline max? I dunno.

Controlling the total max award per level is probably a good idea and sidesteps the need to really define the maxes for the various components at each level.

Yeah, some sort of max variation is in order, since a 1st level character can really shoot through the roof on a single chapter if they were to get max everything as I have set out, and a 18th level guy would hardly advanace at all. So expect some tweaking, it seems to work well for the guys in Maha at 7th so that's a good judgement tool.

Why not use a percentage scale?


Combat: 0-15%
Activity: 0-20%
Post Quality: 0-15%
RP Quality: 0-25%
Storyline: 0-25%


So if you decide to give 1000 total xp, then the ranges would be:

Combat: 0-150xp
Activity: 0-200xp
Post Quality: 0-150xp
RP Quality: 0-250xp
Storyline: 0-250xp

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Or you could use a factor.

Combat: x1
Activity: x2
Post Quality: x2
RP Quality: x4
Storyline: x4

So if base xp was 100, then:

Combat: 0-100xp
Activity: 0-200xp
Post Quality: 0-200xp
RP Quality: 0-400xp
Storyline: 0-400xp

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That way you could just rate based on a scale of 1-5, then multiple that out using the factor or percentage.

Those are also some good options, as for combat however I use the standard D&D awards from the DMG, Encounter Level based on Character Level, so wouldn't need Combat factored into any of that. Whatever I end up useing, those are the caritgories that I am awarding things based on, so atleast everyone knows.

This situation came up in Mahasarpa and Brennor and I pieced together a viable option. When someone wants to knock someone out, but not kill them, and that person is helpless we use a Knock Out Coup-de-Grace.

All the rules for Coup-de-Grace apply, except that you are dealing non-leathal dmg, perhaps with a pommel strike, a brick, or a punch for example. All damage done here is non-leathal. You can also use such feats as power attack, or wielding a weapon two handed for a bonus to dmg.

If the target is helpless you can Coup-de-Grace.

As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a knock out coup de grace to a helpless opponent.

You automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the non-leathal damage(by not being knocked out already), he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or be knocked out as per the non-leathal rules. A rogue does not get her extra sneak attack damage against a helpless opponent when delivering a knock out coup de grace.

Delivering a coup de grace provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening opponents.

You can't deliver a knock out coup de grace against a creature that is immune to critical hits. You can deliver a coup de grace against a creature with total concealment, but doing this requires two consecutive full-round actions (one to "find" the creature once you've determined what square it's in, and one to deliver the coup de grace).

Class and Cross-Class Skills

It appears I have been doing class skills incorrectly for a while now for multiclassed characters. Acording to the rules for multi classed characters once a skill is a class skill, the maximum number of ranks you can have in it is equal to your total character level +3. This part is fine.

However I had mistakenly used this rule to mean you could buy any of your class skills at normal price regardless of which class you were currently leveling up in. This is not the case.

ie. From the players hand book and example is given for a rogue taking a level in wizard.

"...She could spend some of her 4 skill points to improve her rogue skills, but, since they would be treated as cross-class skills for a wizard, these skill points would each buy only one-half rank. (The exceptions are any Craft or Profession skills she may have, since Craft and Profession are class skills for both the rogue and the wizard.)"


So if Toranoshi (at 9th level) chose to level up as a Monk (1st level)/Ninja (8th) instead of a Ninja (9th), he could raise his Disable Device to a max of 12, but it would still cost him 2 of his monk skill points for the level to raise it 1 rank.


Make sense? If not read the book, don't be a mook like me and skim parts and not real all of it!

Anyhow...this could tragicly effect character already in use. As a result, I'm going to Grandfather in all characters in all my games. They stand as is, but from here on out please make sure if you level up as a fighter that yous pend your points as a fighter, etc. This goes for Prestige Classes as well!

I hope that other DMs who were using me as an example will do the same. I applogize for this mistake, and point the finger of blame at Bitom for pointing this out to me.

(Star Wars has other limitations as well, please read up if you plan to malti-class in Star Wars)