Favorite experience or skill advancement system in an RPG?
What kind of experience system do you guys prefer?
Do you like games where you earn generic EXP to use as you wish? Games where using a skill or spell enough will improve that particular skill or spell? Something else?
8 years ago by Zeus
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I like the D&D system for pen and paper games and the Elder Scrolls system for video games.
I love the system from Neverwinter Nights I & II. It's hard to explain for people who never played it. Basically it's "the same" system Dungeons & Dragons & Pathfinder uses.
Nice. D&D is the iconic advancement system, in all its iterations.
I love the Elder Scrolls system of gaining EXP personally. Using spells and skills improves them over time, makes it feel a bit more authentic.
I like it too! It feels closer to actual "training." Need to raise your Agility?
1. Cue 80s ninja master montage. 2. Start jumping.
I like how Fate does it, though I have to admit I'm only familiar with the Dresden FIles way.
When you fill up on Stress you take a Consequence, which is a type of negative aspect. The GM can tag these aspects to make your life difficult.*
*Nothing stated here should be taken as fact, it's been a while since I read the book, but this is the general idea.
I'm partial to Shadowrun, which works mostly like D&D (in that you earn EXP, or "Karma" for beating battles and problem solving), but then when you apply it to your attributes and skills, the skills are tied into your attributes.
For instance, under Body, you have your melee combat skills, etc. You can't raise Hand-to-Hand combat skill past level 5 until you get your Body skill to level 6. I'm probably not explaining it that well, but it's pretty simple once you get the hang of it.
It makes for some interesting short term / long term strategic decisions. "I have 5 Karma. I can either use it to raise my Body to 5, thus giving myself more options down the line, or going for a quick and dirty improvement that'd help more right now"