Keeping XP

[Lee_Szczepanik]

Okay, so we know that (typically) the benefits gained from spending XP are temnporary and go away at the end of the event (unless the player and Watcher agree to keep the benefit as part of the character's Datafile). I like that, as I feel it represents comics very well. The characters have always been what they started as, except in situations where something in a comic book event changed them as part of the story, or they were meant to grow into a greater hero (for example, Robin to Nightwing).

However, when the players earn XP during an Event-- does the XP stay if they don't spend it? For example, say one of my players earned a total of 16 XP during an Event, and only spent 10 XP during the event on an Unlockable. Does the remaining XP carry over to the next Event, or does it go away at the end of the event?

[Duck Call Lass]

You could always let them keep it if you feel like it, but as for me, I'd say it goes the same place that unspent plot points go.

(Oh, can't they spend that XP to get extra PP next session?)

[chaosnet]

I think I would be willing to either a) let them keep it as it represents their "good karma" and can propel backstories in the new events quickly, or b) let them keep half so they aren't able to just unlock my 15xp unlockables off the bat.

[MidnightBlue]

My answer would be: Depends on what you want to do.

But since that is seldom a satisfying answer, I'll tell you what I would do depending on the circumstances of the game that I'm running at the time.


1. Games where I want characters to work from Rookie to Veteran hero...let players keep XP and XP advancements from event to event.

2. Games where I want players to play whatever they have as a concept. Unspent XP and advancements go away at the end of an event and player/watcher discuss and make changes to datafiles for new concepts that the player wants to play. This could be a permenant addition of XP advancements from the last event or anything else for that matter.

3. Games where players are playing published datafiles only. At the end of the event, unspent XP goes away and datafiles are returned to their original state and thrown back into the pool for the players to choose again for the next event.

Either way, if you aren't keeping around what some players spent XP on, then I don't think unspent XP should be able to stick around either.

[Lee_Szczepanik]

2. Games where I want players to play whatever they have as a concept. Unspent XP and advancements go away at the end of an event and player/watcher discuss and make changes to datafiles for new concepts that the player wants to play. This could be a permenant addition of XP advancements from the last event or anything else for that matter.

Yeah, Option #2 was the method I was going to employ, since they are making the characters that they want to play from the beginning.

Funny thing about that: we started playing Super-Heroes back with MSHRPG in 1989 or so, and from there to Mayfair's DC Heroes, then toyed around briefly with Marvel SAGA and Marvel Universe RPG (and then finally to M&M, and only because I was a licensee at the time). Outside of M&M, which came down to making sure we understood the system inside and out due to being a licensee, we never used the character generation methods as written in MSHRP or DC Heroes. They always made their characters just as they wanted from Session #1. Typically, we didn't spend Karma or Hero Points on advancement, either. When they wanted the character to grow/change, we discussed it and agreed on it or chose a middle ground. Come to think of it, that's how we always played Star Wars D6, as well.

Reading Marvel Heroic . . . it seems to play like we've always played, outside of play testing our own products.

[MidnightBlue]

Sounds like a great way to play Lee!

Especially if you have the players to make that work.

I've been in some groups where players didn't know how to have limits or "interesting" characters. Everyone had to be gods without flaws.

[Lee_Szczepanik]

Sounds like a great way to play Lee!

Especially if you have the players to make that work.

I've been in some groups where players didn't know how to have limits or "interesting" characters. Everyone had to be gods without flaws.

I hear ya. I'd never use my core group's method with outside groups unless I knew beyond a doubt they could handle it. Luckily, some of my core group have been together since 1989 when we first started TSR's Marvel, and they've always been a story-first group.

Of course, not all game systems work well for that sort of play, but we can default to the RAW character generation easily. M&M pretty much required that (as does any d20 game), we do it as written in Savage Worlds (although having a few more attribute dice, skill dice, or Edges doesn't hurt the game-- as various Setting Rules show), and always did it as written in Shadowrun. But systems like the various Marvel RPGs, DC Heroes (and even the subpar DC Universe D6 system), Star Wars D6, and maybe a couple of others usually aren't hurt by the: make what you want to play from the start.

Of course, the players needing to understand making actual characters, and not min-max video game avatars, goes without saying.

[MidnightBlue]

On your original question, I can think of another reason not to let unspent XP flow to the next game...unlockables.

If a story is meant to build up to being able to unlock an unlockable, then characters with built-up XP stores at the beginning of the game will break that build up.

It would be like a player being able to walk into Breakout and drop down the XP to have Sentry help them out at the first sign of trouble.

That might not be a problem for some stories, but it could be for others.

Just a thought.

[Lee_Szczepanik]

On your original question, I can think of another reason not to let unspent XP flow to the next game...unlockables.

If a story is meant to build up to being able to unlock an unlockable, then characters with built-up XP stores at the beginning of the game will break that build up.

It would be like a player being able to walk into Breakout and drop down the XP to have Sentry help them out at the first sign of trouble.

That might not be a problem for some stories, but it could be for others.

Just a thought.

Exactly! And that was my original thought on it as well: immediate unlockables. I saw that as very unbalancing to the Event to have the XP sitting there to bring them in from the start.

Maybe it's just me-- or maybe I am actually looking at the concept of Events correcty-- but Unlockables are something I feel should be earned during the course of the individual Event. Not to mention, they should be a side goal of the Event. It reminds me a bit of the typical Achievement systems in current MMOs, and even the Achievement Feats in Pathfinder (never played the game, but have read it). Being a narrative fella, I just feel Marvel Heroic has done it the best so far. It was actually a concept I was working on for my own upcoming system, but will now alter a bit, as Marvel did it first [[grumblegrumblegrumble]]. Which is cool-- so far, I like MHR. Hope it plays as well as I think it will.

[Doc_Nova]

Seeing as though I am in the group of running (Watchering) a group of "novice evolving to veteran" heroes type of game, this has been something I have been working with prior to the game's start (we're finishing our Fate-based Star Trek game first). What I have come up with so far is a simple separation of XP.

At the end of an Event, unspent XP goes into a character's "advancement" pool and is only available to upgrade/acquire specialties, power traits, etc. and is not allowed to be used on new Event unlockables. Of course, newly earned XP (which, yes, must be tracked separately) can be used with the advancement pool (to gain something very expensive) or on unlockables.

It is not the most elegant of solutions, but allows uninterrupted character growth, gives players longer-term goals to work towards, and solves the presented issue of making unlockables instantly attainable.