TT 205 Try Old School Idea of Gold for XP in Savage Worlds tabletop RPG

[@ivancarabano]

I had a similar problem in my games of "Beasts & Barbarians", a Conan-esque setting where the gold the characters earn is lost between games. What I discovered is that, paradoxically, this meant that for players, gold and treasure were not a good reason to change their plans and take risks for the reward. My solution was to use the "loot counter" concept, gold still exists but great treasures are measured in the size of loot counters that can be exchanged for skills, edges, drawing several event cards between games and choosing one that you like, etc. That and the possibility of buying important things, for example, in my last campaign they decided that they wanted to spend a large treasure and convert the campaign to a pirate campaign buying a ship with crew.

[@sequoyahwright]

Monsters: In OSR, the monster xp is based on their Hd/Level, and in SW I would build a rudimentary scale based on Toughness and modified by abilities. In OSR, at least BX/OSE, the deadliness of monsters cannot be overstated. A simple snake can end a character's career with a bite if two die rolls go against the player. Regardless of level. It gives a survival horror vibe. Sensible players will avoid any monster if possible. Some players will insist in fighting and they dont last long. This takes a good deal of adaptation to get that vibe in SW. For me, I would rather keep SW as intact as possible, use some setting rules like maybe gritty damage and hard choices and allow the vibe to be more pulp and heroic than osr. An interesting idea and worth exploring. I might try it out in fact. If I want the OSR experience, I play an OSR game. And it is perfectly fine. Thank you for the clever ideas! Also I'll check out G&G.

[@havasigabor9986]

I'd skip XP for monsters and give only for gold. Players tend to indentify monster XP as "unmissable" and won't want to skip fights. When running D&D, I told my ~20-year-old gaming group multiple time that Monster XP is also awarded when they overcome the enemy by stealth or guile. And still, most of them prefer fighting, they only back down when the enemy' overwhelming force is evident. What I would also do is asking the players to set up personal goals and than assign an XP value to that. This can be anything, like "founding the lost temple of Tsalamath in the the Ctaran Jungle" or "defeating a minotaur in one-on-one combat". They can declare their goals before the session and if they can achive, XP is awarded. If not, XP for gold is always there.

[@ASavageWorldsGM]

That's a fair point on monster XP. If you can still award for clever methods of avoiding or interacting without combat, I'd still give the XP. I like the idea of setting some goals as well.

[@GromMolotok]

I love Savage Worlds. It's far and away my favorite RPG system, and highly flexible. But . . . If you want to play in an OSR style, why not use an OSR system? There are a number of well-regarded ones, including more than a few that are free to download under CC and similar licenses.

[@ASavageWorldsGM]

Totally agree. if you want a complete OSR feeling, going with a OSR game is the best. As you say there are many good ones (I dig OSRIC). You could call this a little experiment in bring some of the feel to my favorite game.