An interesting take on diegetic levelling based on Anne @ DIY&Dragons Landmark, Hidden, Secret method.
Been finding something like this developing fairly naturally, though not nearly codified enough maybe? in my West Marches game.
Imagined I’d be doing gp-for-xp as a result of buying in on testing Shadowdark. Quickly realized I just don’t operate that way: instead find myself doling out small quotables after sessions; things I jotted down; hopefully reflective summaries of character play.
Examples:
+1 xp for note taking even in the black night
+1 xp for “Death would like to take more space”
+1 xp for setting the stakeout
+1 xp for a well-stitched camp in the boonies
These are drawn from separate characters. Obviously tied numerically to Shadowdarks low-number xp system. Imagining though, that when one stacks to the 10xp required for a level 2, sure there’ll be some hit point gain, but also, there’ll be a sort of ‘Chronicle of Experience’ that I’d push the individual character to say, given these experiences in total, what do you think would be a reasonable development your character goes through. What sort of epiphany might be drawn that would take you from one plateau to a new plateau so you gain a sense of perspective on what came?
I think Zak H has it right. We do tend to want some scaffold to climb, numerically. Luke’s inital anti-xp suggestion of leveraging titles, friendships, equipments, to signal ‘capacity-gained’ isn’t wrong though. Players do fill their chests when they’re awarded X or Y from the world, rather than from the DM.
My weight’s behind neither is wrong, celebrate your players for trying. In this way, game manager roles become creative interpretation. If creative interpretation is managed by numbers because numbers help the game manager focus or feel safe in their role, avance, baby.
It’s an interesting idea. I offered journalling XP when I ran a West Marches game, and in my experience, it’s hard to get the whole group to engage with the mechanic. And the more mechanically sophisticated it gets like this, the more Goodhart’s Law becomes an issue. But I could definitely see it working for the right table where everyone is onboard.