D&D Isn't What It Used To Be : A Mixed Bag

Recently, WotC ended a retro lookback on Dungeons and Dragons for the 50th anniversary video with 'This isn't D&D anymore.' The assumption was they said that to distance themselves the language back then, the lack of diversity and inclusivity, and maybe also some of the toxic folks in the RPing community.

The RealmBuilderGuy recognized that but also looked back on what D&D used to be including the game aspects, the sense of hazard, and other aspects.

I felt it was a well thought out piece. On the other hand, I reflected on some of the parts of the game as it was in the early days that I don't miss anymore. I lie somewhere between and betwixt the game as it is now (3.5E, 5E, D & D One). That incurred me to put my perspective as someone recognizing good and less useful things in the current and near future game vs. the old game.

You may want to read his view as a contrast and an appreciation in what I think thereafter.

https://www.realmbuilderguy.com/2024/02/this-isnt-d-anymore.html?m=1

When I think of Dungeons & Dragons, I think of endless adventures, delving into catacombs, exploring the unknown, and hopefully barely surviving to tell the tale at a local tavern with a treasure hoard hidden away

I always liked the more open wilderness adventures over caverns, but otherwise, most of what RealmBuilderGuy are things I appreciate.

I also agree with his sentiment that the current edition (and by the looks, the incoming new one) is combat-centric and little attention to discovery, mystery or social interactions. I do lament mechanics over role-playing at the table. And from 3E and onward, they were so worried about character balance (a fantasy within a fantasy...) that they had to quantize everything and have a rule for ever situation and thus settled in the slowness and the crunchiness of the current iterations.

That said, I should note that I have found there are players who are not very comfortable role-playing (tongue tied, don't want to be the focus, etc) but they'd like to try a character who might have those qualities and their gateway into broadening their character choices a bit is letting them engage in social interactions that are lightweight and there is where the skills might apply.

Sure, we'd all like everyone to emote and show off their improv skills, but a lot of us aren't that guy or gal. We'd settle for 'I try to befriend the merchant' followed by a role with some feedback and maybe several of such exchanges. It's more bland, but it can be a gateway to slowly expanding the comfort in role-playing more fulsomely and it helps those who can't easily bridge the emotional parts (like some kids on the spectrum). Forcing everyone to play out your character by acting in character can make the experience very unpleasant for some and nigh impossible for others. That doesn't improve the game nor does it make a better experience for anyone at the table.

The RealmBuilderGuy identifies that, back in the beginning, we used to be afraid of the dark. That's true. But lamenting a cantrip of light is not the way to deal with that. The solution of not having a simple utility spell for light easily available while having magic missiles going off.... that just grates on me. It's like every failed fatigue/exhaustion mechanic in D&D - removing fatigue often happened as a level 3+ spell while fixing punctures and slashes and crushes by level 1; That just does not make any sense. I like the game part to be 'play to discover what will happen' but not the unfathomable restrictions that are only there to prevent a reasonable happening.

If we want to have wizards and other casters, yet limit them: exhausting casting (reduced speed, need to consume some food and hydrate), material components that are consumed, costly components, and casting that fails (no gauranteed success), and limited spell points, and easier counterspelling. Another thing is to have very few casters in your setting and a fear/loathing of casters that weren't tied to a religion. Those are things I made manifest when I ran a 19 year real duration campaign and later on, we were using D&D 2.0 with the Player's Option books. Wizards were careful about casting their big spells and often shot off more spells two levels down than their max.

DMs and players alike have eschewed things like tracking encumbrance, rations, water, and ammunition as they have been deemed "uninteresting" or "tedious" and don't help "move the story forward". Those might be correct in the very linear, rail-roady experience of adventure paths and official WotC "campaigns". Now players expect to either find a bag of holding early in the adventure to take care of the pestering question around encumbrance, or it is simply ignored completely. But in a true emergent sandbox campaign, as was more prevalent pre-3e D&D, such things are vital as they can drive the campaign (i.e., "story") in new and unexpected directions.

Why are these things more correct in a railroad than a sandbox? I don't see much support for that strange assertion. I never saw players getting bags of holding or portable holes until 7th or so level and we only ran to a 12th level cap (we liked grittier gaming). Even then, it was usually just the bard or rogue that got them as the others had things to chase.

There's also the fact that my desire or my players' desires to become fantasy accountants is non-existent. You don't need fine detail to tell if a character is encumbered; The GM and the player should recognize that. Also, IME, most players either never use a thing that hides in their backpack or it is used but they'd forget the limits of their bas or just plain forget to remove the expendable asset so it really didn't work and for the massive work involved, a bad solution IMO.

Here's an inane part of many of these games: You can pack your backpack to X weight, but add another gp? Nope. Or I know exactly how much a thing works. Or the notion that characters function as well on each day with no variation; That doesn't line up to human experience. Precision and complexity in a task does not mean the outcomes looked for have been usefully enabled. Are all coins the same size? No! And 10 of them are a pound? Are you throwing gold frisbees?

Much easier for rulings instead of rules and less character sheet delving. Everyone walked to the dungeon (9 miles, chilly wind, some cold drizzle) then headed into the dungeon. You probably count as tired (of a continuum of fresh, ready, tired, exhausted, collapsed) and the GM can just say that. Maybe there's a roll for a tough character to shake it off to ready for him or her.

Similarly, you can treat supply as a roll for something you need that is in the 'miscellaneous equpment'. If you've stocked up on something, you might get a bonus. If you haven't mentioned going to the town to reload recently, you get a penalty. Food and water acquisition can be done similarly - referenced to when the group last went to the provisioner as a modifier and a roll.Same with dealing with weather and shelter issues.

Why would I want those sorts of simpler systems? Speed of play. More time facing the situation and the fiction rather than their own character sheets. Another aspect of that: In the real world, in skirmishes, quite often people lose track of how many rounds they have fired, yet in games that have ranged combat, they always remember how many shots they've fired. Same with how much am I carrying? I can guess roughly, but it's never an exact number. And how you wear it matters. Real life has day to day fluctuations of how things are going to - didn't sleep, didn't eat much, got a sprained knee, etc. Yet game-ish rules make everything provide complete information and thus lose some of the variability of life.

Now we come to what really bothers me, the aspects of the old game that never set well or certainly doesn't now: Murder-hoboing, treatment of women, Genocide (that DMG did contain lairs with children and females (non-combatants), and the entire insanity of carrying around vast amounts of loot as if that was the only valuable thing to take from a FRPG.

Murder-hoboing is horrific. You role into some aboriginal population (goblins for instance) and slay them and take all their stuff. Then you feel good about that. Reminds me of the plunderers that ravaged many such communities in our real world and for about the same reasons. That and enforcing one groups religion on another. Not something I want to see at my table.

Treatment of women: The chain bikini? Women as needing rescuing from men? All the women built like centerfolds or else they were hag-like? The list goes on. The game drew from Dark Ages and Medieval times and glorified that perspective in the early D&D. That was an injustice historically and a stupid, juvenile, diminuitive approch to the game. Not acceptable now.

Genocide: You killed all the goblin warriors. You know the women may breed and the little ones rise up to be warriors. Instead of finding other ways to not kill everything, genocide happens because advancement comes only from GPs or GP equivalents. The genocide is not something I accept and the necessary violence to improve your character at the expense of the defenseless is hard to justify in any world.

The focus on money as the primary way to advance - usually at the expense and with little justification (as its former owner would attest) - is flawed and not acceptable either. Doing great things - those should reward you. The focus on wealthy is part of what ills our larger world; Do we want that in our hobbies?

There are many good things from old school and there are some from the new. Here's my list of things I want at my table, having spent time saying what I don't abide:

• Combat as dangerous and murderousness leading to enemies banding together to take you out. Combat should be a real risk and thinking and using your brains and negotiation ability to avoid combat should seem like the wise choice.
• Exploration and Discovery is welcome. As someone I recently read (forget who) (paraphrased) "The best parts of the game are those that don't happen on the character sheet."
• Social interactions, negotiations, diplomacy, intimidation, con jobs, manipulation, etc.... they have a place and also tend to not be driven by the character sheet (mostly driven by the thoughts and stratagems of the party).
• Reactions with some variability, the critical necessity of morale checks, getting lost, trying to get less lost - these are all good things.
• Common sense - not making rules to effect a particular in-game effect caused by the McGuffins in the setting and the rules (magic, many species close together, etc). If you build your world and GM it using some common sense, your players will find playing more natural and flowing rather than balking at rules that seem out of place or that are stupid (I can burn you with a fireball, but no continual light?).
• Different cultures being showcased but not such a weak portrayal as to make it comical.
• DM trying to discover at the table with the players.
• No railroads (well, other than some that an NPC group might want to force you down) and player agency are the basis of all good games.
• Faster combat including more fluid mechanics and less necessity to dig up the character sheet or dig into a rulebook.
• Rulings in almost all cases should be good enough without need for game rulebook diving.
• As combat is dangerous, other creative solutions need to be considered. Creativity, rationality, imagination, strategic and tactical thinking, and a willingness to reach beyond the norm to find ways to avoid combat.

Final Thought: D&D is not what it was. Some of that was a loss, some of that was a necessary growing up as gamers and humans. D&D of today has a flavour that also will need to change over time. There are good aspects of some changes (not just in D&D but in other games that allow us to see other approaches) and some things have been put aside but are now being recognized as valued.

The best game is the one that plays smoothly, the one that makes combat a low-choice on the strategic checklist, the one that is inclusive and respects all people at their table, the one that makes us think in many ways - how to solve puzzles, how to break cyphers, how to protect an area, how to create more trade and properity, how to manage others so that they are valued, and how to think beyond the obvious for possible solutions. The best game is a GM who listens, also thinks, and rules decently and that keeps the game moving ahead while everyone is still enjoying themselves.

We can have better tables than either old D&D did and better tables than the current generation are getting.

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Gelitanatious Cube image https://mythjourneys.com/gallery/dungeons-and-dragons/

Real Effects Rarely Represented (Or Not At All) In RPGs [Pt. 1]

Skills In Combat Situations: Adrenalin & The Fight-Flight Effects

The military has spent a lot of time studying how soldiers operate under stress situations. Interesting results have been discovered and confirmed. Some of those discoveries have included the following things that happen when adrenalin is flowing and the fight-or-flight responses are active:

• Skills that require cereberal tasks or tasks that require manual dexterity are harder to perform.
• A person whose adrenalin is switched up can perform physical tasks and simple cognitive tasks faster than they could without the adrenalin IF the skill is one that has been trained hard and long and where any physical movements have been committed to physical muscle memory.
• Visual cues gain primary focus and other cues (such as sounds, kinethesic sensations, touch, smell, and taste may be deprioritized.This results in slightly faster responses to visually observed information.
• Parsing speech can be harder because of the brain prioritizing visual data and, as a direct side effect, deprioritizing non-visual information processing. There are loud noises and often trauma to ones ears in combat which is part of the problem hearing instructions but the processing aspect is different and additive; Reduced processing of audible information slows comprehension or can prevent comprehension.
• When adrenalin wears off (usually shortly after a threat encounter, longer if one has traumatic injuries), exhaustion sets in because the body's neuroconductors are depleted and a lot of your available sugars and nutrients have been burnt through.
• A person that suffers a trivial or light injury will not percieve the injury as much or even at all. In extreme cases, some don't even notice they have a serious injury. The fight-and-flight response includes routing the blood to the torso and away from arms in case of a slash or bite.
• When adrenalin wears off, injuries become apparent. Someone with serious or mortal wounds could suddenly collapse and potentially die. With other injuries, pain will start to be noted and exhaustion (and maybe dehydration as well) and movement may be more difficult or impossible.
• When the adrenalin wears off, physical reactions can include shaking, shivering and issues with coordination or strength. Vomiting is not uncommon.
• When the adrenalin has worn off, emotional responses may also kick in and traumatic events can lead to dissociation or a '1000 yard stare'.'
• Shock (from injuries of physical or mental nature) can set in quickly when adrenal responses are switched off.
• One thing not seen while the adrenal response and the fight-or-flight are switched up is much in the way of impairment or functional degredation (prior bullet points describe this above in more detail) unless the wound taken is one that causes serious musculoskeletal damage, a life-threatening gross bleed, or significant damage to the brain or spinal column.

Injury Impacts: Aware Of A Threat Versus Unsuspecting

Some years ago, I spoke at length with a paramedic who worked in a city that had many gunshot wounds and stabbings. We discussed various aspects of how these things work in the real world. We spoke of the Golden Hour (the hour between a person sustaining a serious injury and getting the patient to a trauma center). That conversation included how horrific wounds not impacting the brain, heart, or a life-threatening gross bleed tends not to kill the target outright (unlike many game and TV wounds...) and if you can stabilize someone and get them to a trauma center within the Golden Hour, they had a good chance of surviving.

A number of other accounts I have read of people being one-shotted and dying or being hit at the start of a fight and just dropping, incapacitated, unconscious or dead. How does this happen when other times a similar human can take horrific damage and keep fighting effectively?

The answer lies in whether the injury is sustained while the adrenalin was cranked up and fight-and-flight responses were active or was sustained while the person was unaware and unsuspecting - that difference makes a world of difference.

If one is aware of at threat and is at least moderately switched up, a wound not destroying key areas (spine, brain, heart) or a gross bleed, there is a chance to ignore the impacts until the adrenalin wears off. The degree of success at the shrugging off is related to how aware and imminent the threat was when the injury was sustained.

If one is not aware of a threat and hasn't got their adrenalin switched up, then the first punch, the first kick, the first bullet can incapacitate the injured person. Sometimes they can pass out and/or have shock set in immediately which then presents a lethal risk for the injured person.

Skill Atrophy: Use It Or Lose It

When a person does not practice a skill, that skill becomes atrophied. In the worst case, a skill could be lost entirely. A skill one had become very competent at will tend to atrophy to a particular point, but not disappear. A skill one had only a limited competence at (such as one you started to learn but were re-vectored to other things and never came back) will tend to be lost.

In most skill-driven games, character skill levels advance but no skill ever atrophies or is lost. That's just not how humans work. If we don't use it, we lose the fine points or the entire skill.

There will be some example at some point of how to integrate these facts into a gritty combat system without killing playability. I'm working at a 2D6 sci-fi game and plan to include as many of these as I can. Some are simple and some are harder to get both feeling right and also being low drag in play.

GZG East Coast Convention 18

Note: This article is being published before some photos are uploaded and linked. Visit back later for updates that will include the photo gallery for the convention as well as other resource links.

Prelude

GZG ECC (Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention) is a miniatures gaming convention I've been attending since the late 1990s. I was at the first and have been at many of the rest. ECC has seen highs and lows in attendance and changes over the years in location (from Lancaster PA to Owego NY) and the loss of the North American Ground Zero Games distributor seems to have played a role in the drift of focus away from strictly Ground Zero Games (that an no rulebooks since the early 1990s, just miniatures).

Nonetheless, the crowd that does attend are good people and the gaming and socializing is one of the attractions. It's a small convention in the 30-50 person range. It has an informality and friendliness that some of the larger conventions, by virtue of size alone, have some trouble matching. I've been to Historicon, Origins, and Gen Con and this is more like a group of friends getting together than some massive enterprise. 

Jon Davis, Mark Kochte, Jerry Han and maybe one or two others have done a lot of the organization for the last 18 years. That's quite a feat and they deserve kudos for their efforts. 

For me, the last while has been filled with challenges on the home front (my step-daughter working through the challenges of a new school in a new language and of having a new baby half-sister in her father's side of the family, my partner Catherine wrestling with work stress and a bad back/hip as well as her worries about MJ and her Dad, a pair of aging parents, my own hard work to complete a school program (Enterprise Java Developer) and get back to work after a bit of a lengthy hiatus, and my own struggles at times with my own brush with post-traumatic stress).

Last year I meant to make ECC, but had to bail due to stuff on the home front. I was darn well not going to do that unless I had no choice this year. 

I had planned an 'event' with Bob Makowsky and Carlos Lourenco, but Carlos had a work situation (someone no longer there) that meant he had to work weekends suddenly and Bob realized he was away almost every weekend in March and had to spend one at home and unfortunately ECC was the option. So that plan, after going far enough to get into the list of events, suddenly went into damage control mode. 

I did some triage, came up with a way to carry that off and to also provide a second event, an X-Wing miniatures game to help fill out the schedule. 

In the days leading up to the convention, it came to my attention the main event had nobody registered, so I inquired if it really made sense to finish it out and bring all the materials or to just bring the X-Wing game and Jon (noting lower than usual attendance as he had a lot on his plate in the lead-up to this year) felt it was reasonable to let it go and just run the X-Wing game. So that's what I worked on getting ready. 

The day before we departed, I felt a bit under the weather. I was concerned, but hoped it was just a result of having a busy week and I would shake it off.

My friend Kevin Fox of Foxhole Design wasn't able to attend but provided some prize support for the convention which the organizers were quite thankful for. One of the buildings went to a first time attendee! Some folks who saw them thought they were interesting and the material was interesting. I passed around a few of Kevin's cards to those who seemed interested. Kevin does custom terrain building and painting of figures, vehicles and other things as well as having commercially packaged terrain products. He's has won a fair few GZG painting competition awards and has painted about 1500 or more of my 25mm sci-fi troops to a standard significantly higher than my own level of skill. I'd recommend him to anyone who wants to get their gaming figures painted to a good standard or who wants some nice custom built terrain models.

Getting Down There

Tom, Jim and I started out from Ottawa around 0930. We reached the border around 1200 or so and traffic was minimal and no fuss occurred at the border. We did find out our US CBP agent was a Cosplayer so he was curious about our games.... life is strange sometimes! 

The drive down saw some unforseen and unehlpful road construction (leading to a missed exit as the temporary exit was on the opposite side of a multi-lane highway than the one we expected....) and some snow. Overall, no fuss. We stopped for bear and booze - some to bring home, some to share at the Con. 

We arrived in about 1615 or so and settled into our hotel, then went and ate a nice meal at the local diner, and headed in to say hello to everyone and to get ready for our Friday night games. 

All day, my state of health, a bit dodgy on Thursday, was declining. I started relying on DayQuil, SInutab, and Tylenol to keep me functioning. I felt a bit off but was enjoying myself.

Friday Night

My game Friday Night was "The Battle of Axanar" run with the as-yet-not-released SMITE rules. This event was inspired by the movie "Prelude to Axanar" (which everyone who ever liked Star Trek should check out). Axanar is a Star Trek Universe moment where Garth of Izar and other Federation Captains try to hold back the Klingons until the Federation can get its new Heavy Cruiser design, the Constitution class (the Enterprise is one of those) finished. SMITE is a game system that looks a bit like Full Thurst but with more complexity in places and polyhydral dice instead of FT's fist-full-of-D6s approach. 

Mark Kochte ran the game and it saw three groups of Klingons under the command of Ron Lenard, Steve Barosi, and Carl Scheu against three groups of Federation ships under myself, Thomas Scheu, and Mike Hudak. The battle took place near the planet Axanar (off board on the Federation short edge) where two Constitution class starships were being built in orbital drydrocks. They were near completion but still powered down. The Klingons, three squadrons including some D6 and D7 designs (the D7 being the powerful Klingon Cruiser that was winning them the war) were going to try to destroy the first Constitutions before they were operational.

Axanar has a ring system and so there was a band of slowly passing rocks in the mid board. Axanar itself was off the Federation short edge and the Klingons entered from the opposite short edge. 

The Klingons split into three groups - two going down the sides and one down the center. The federation was essentially one battle line, but practically was split into three groups. 

Klingon strategy appeared to be 'Go in quick and blow stuff up' (reasonable given their goals) and Federation strategy was 'Come out slowly, use the rocks for cover against the D7s, and hold them off long enough for the Constitutions to join the fray' (reasonable given their limitations and the advantages the D7 gave the Klingons). 

The Feds had a mix including 2 Ares class medium cruisers, an old Texas class light cruiser, several Destroyers (class name eludes me), and several multi-engine ships whose class I don't recall but seemed like light cruisers to me). The Ares were our strongest ships. The drydocks had almost impotent defenses but a fair bit of damage soaking. The Constitutions were brutes, but needed to stay in dock long enough to enter the battle with working systems (including hull). 

The battle had some highlights: 

• Steve had one Klingon cruiser serve as a key example for a Klingon PSA of the danger of intersecting asteroids (pristine to hot plasma in one easy step!)
• The Ares, 3 Destroyers and the Texas shooting it out with what ended up being I think 2 D7s, three D6s and holding their own until the Feds were forced to reverse course and go after the fast moving Klingons and thus expose their backs to the opportunistic Carl whose battle strategies usually involve a late game engagement with high degrees of opportunistic predation
• On the other flank, the other Ares class ship and the light cruisers did well in holding off the hordes of Klingons

I think the Federation won in that neither Constitution was destroyed at game end. Both were coming out of drydock with a lot of systems active. Indy thought one dock was in peril, but they have a LOT of hull boxes and it only takes one turn to sortie. Thomas' Constitution was almost clear of the dock and Mike's could have been the next turn before the dock could likely be destroyed. Both had most systems active and enough hull to have a few turns of laying down the hurt. The Federation also had several light cruisers (the four engined ones) left and the Areas class were either both alive or one was (although in rough shape). The DD's got whacked by Carl's Klingons and the Texas may have died too, albeit doing damage as she went out. 

The SMITE rules play well, but there is a major difference between how much damage you are likely to take in the third range band against front shields and in the rear in range band 1 with a D7. It's the difference between about 1-4 points and 13-20. For reference, that's about 1 DD pristine to dead in one shot from the rear. 

Federation deployment, given their maneyverability, is not how I would have set things up if I was the command admiral. It was too close to the ship docks. It lacked defensive depth (docks and Axanar at our backs, fast incoming Klingons, ring system at our front, and low agility ships). I'd certainly have tried harder as that admiral to get early warning and have the Federation ships up and moving sooner and further from the shipdocks. Active patrolling would have been useful too. Of course, more nimble destroyers would have been a good idea too. 

Mark ran a good game and I think everyone had fun.

Saturday Morning

We got up early, hit the hotel lobby food area for a complimentary breakfast (pretty good), and I loaded up on drugs as I felt myself worsening, waking up at 5:30 am with sinuses on fire, head congestion, and gunk in my throat. During the day, I must have sucked on about 20 peppermints and as many cough drops and drank lots of water to try to keep myself hydrated and my throat lubricated. 

David Skelley ran Bare Jump which was an X-Wing Miniatures Game. In that game, an all-star cast of competent rebel pilots, loaded with missiles and torpedoes, were attacking a Star Destroyer to try to knock out the shield generators that protect it from other capital ships. The Imperial defense was an ever reappearing supply of TIE fighters and an interceptor crewed by not-terribly-good and outright inept pilots. Imperial losses were replaced, rebels were not. The Turbolasers would shoot until the dogfight was joined but weren't very effective against the Rebel fighters (every bit helps). 

Fighting around the Star Destroyer ( a huge 6' prop about 18-20" high) was challenging - your ships tended to run afoul of ship contours that resulted in fighters losing actions. As the Imperials moved first (low pilot skill), it was possible for them to jam up some key maneuver lanes close to the sides of the Star Destroyers making Rebel plans go awry and attacks be thwarted. 

Both sides started on a long side edge of the star destroyer. The Rebel deployment had their heavies (2 Y-Wings and a B-Wing) in closest to the shield generator and the fighters (2 X-Wings and an A-Wing) further out. The Imperials all came in fairly close to the shortest path to the Rebels. The Rebels might have managed a victory in this scenario had all their ships raced at the first shield generator from the closest entry point. Instead their interceptors took some time to close in and lost shots. 

The Empire went full bore. Out plans were simple: Get in close, clog up desirable real-estate, gang-beat single rebel ships until they died (having 6 damaged rebels was less useful than having 4 pristine and 2 dead). We figured we'd die in droves, but we'd come back quick. 

The shield generators had no agility (defense) but had 8 shields and 2 hits before they died. 

In the final result, the Imperials won. We had one shield generator left with no shields and one hit left. The last X-Wing had whiffed on his attack which could have won the Rebels the game and then been gang-blasted into space dust. The only rebel ship left was an out-of-position A-Wing with concussion missiles that likely wouldn't have been able to attack the next turn and might have died (with 4 nearby imperials and 2 more soon to arrive (they'd been off chasing off one of the Y-Wings)). 

The final tally was: B-Wing dead, 1 Y-WIng dead, 1 Y-Wing runFF-off (out of munitions, nearly dead), 2 X-Wings dead, A-Wing undamaged, several kills of TIE interceptors and a few of TIE fighters, one shield generator dead, another all but dead. 

Jon Davis and I commanded the Imperial defense squadron. David Skelley and Martin Connell (in his first X-Wing game) led the spirited Rebel attack. I also would love a huge Star Destroyer like that! 

For a game that lacked time for a playtest (Ron Walls and David Skelley who had planned to run together had late breaking stuff interfere), it was scenic, fun, and worked out in play as well-balanced. It was fun. 

My personal compliments to Jon Davis for being an excellent team-mate; even when he did steal my ships and shoot them, he did so with expert dice control and good results.

There are some things I think David should be careful of in future iterations (the 'Rebel Closest Point Rush' particularly) but otherwise the game is fun and has good repeatability.

Resources: 

• Full Card List for X-Wing
• Squad Creator for X-Wing
• Pilot Card Maker for X-Wing (in French... you can use Chrome and Google Translate to learn which buttons mean what in English, but that process munges up the Pilot text, so just learn which button is which then use the French version and it works awesome)

 Example output from the Pilot Card Maker:

Saturday Afternoon

Lunch saw us hit the Panda Wok. Sadly, no Pandas in the Kitchen making soup and teaching Kung-Fu and none on the menu. False advertising! The food was okay albeit I did have some digestive issues around dinner time that may trace back to lunch. 

The game I played in the afternoon was run by the Odd Couple: Martin Connell and Steve Barosi. They have some off the wall concepts (sometimes with some technical constructions involved in support of) and their games are usually a lot of fun. This one was called "Research Station Belewbeloid".

The game was Stargrunt II. A team of Scandinavian Federation (ScanFed) soldiers was guarding a research installation on an ice planet where some boffins had 'found something'. What was unclear to the security people (first sign of something likely to blow up in your face) and which was (again unknown to the security team) of great interest to other parties.. The other side was a mercenary strike force - highly mobile, high in firepower and with some armour - intent on securing the scientists and/or discovery. 

The map had the research station on one half and the other half was dunes and rock outcroppings the mercenary strike force had to approach through. Half the defenders were on station, the other half in barracks. The scientists were in the central station complex. 

Complex defensive design failures included: 

• VTOL Pad outside the perimeter with no protection for the vulnerable air asset
• Nobody on watch in the elevated central tower. 
• No remote sensors set in place in a wider perimeter around the base to detect movement or EM sources
• No perimeter barrier (enemies could waltz right into the encampment)
• barracks buildings whose ONLY access and visibility was through a door and window pointed inward towards the main complex - no side or rear windows or door
• No active patrolling by Scanfed fireteams

So, as you can see, the installation just wasn't very well defended. 

The Scanfed had 6 squads with no command squad and one of the squads was green-3 (poorly led novices). That was the point of heaviest attack on behalf of the enemy force (quelle surprise!). 

The mercenaries appeared to have 4 units of high speed armed and armoured skimmer mounted troops (think speeder bikes). The armour was enough to shrug small arms fire a lot of the time and the mounted MGs outranged and outfirepowered anything any single ScanFed squad could manage. They also had an APC with a high quality command squad in it and with a roof mounted weapon and some armour (but not very much actually). 

The mercenary attack was not cautious. They came in very fast (for the defensive benefits) and never entered the central compound for the majority of the game. They used longer range bands and heavy skimmer FP to suppress and smash several squads dug in around the edges of the facility and to rip apart any squad trying to get out of the death-trap barracks to someplace they could be effective (usually in the open and thus subject to much machinegun damage).

Stuart Murray, Brian Howland, and I ran the defenders. Mark Kochte, Jim Bell, and Mike Hudak ran the attackers. 

Jim went hell-bent for leather, recognizing speed and firepower as the principal advantages of his skimmers. He actually was able to destroy the VTOL in turn 3 before the defenders could even get a pilot (at gunpoint) to it. (poor landing pad choice)

Jim also demonstrated that 12" range bands and lots of D8 FP dice meant that skimmers could fire at range band 3 at emplaced troops and cause casualties while return fire, effectively in RB 5 of the defending forces, could bounce off the armour or miss entirely. 

To sustain movement bonuses to defense, the skimmers had to spend one action moving each turn more than 13". Jim proved a complete circle using the turning template was 14". So Jim's skimmers did several 360 circles during combat to maintain movement without closing distance with the foe.

The move was legal if odd and certainly coined the name 'The Bell Bowl-Circle" and later "The Bell Circle Jerk". 

The scientists eventually bolted and ran and Stuart (either ticked off at our failure to hurt the enemy or not wanting them to fall into enemy hands) decided to shoot them down as they ran. They released something which started burrowing underground and then eating bodies. 

The attacker's first casualty occurred 2 hours and 37 minutes into a 4 hour game slot. I pointed out to Stuart (rightly) that we could not consider a casualty caused by the alien worm to be a victory for us.

For some part of the game, our only inflicted casualties were on fleeing civilians. The mercs had no such difficulty. They smashed two squads of our troops and drove off at least one more, maybe 2. 

The alien kept eating people and growing. Stuart doggedly pursued the scientist with an ice tractor and kept shooting them. I asked him why he didn't just run them over, but fleeing scientists are apparently FASTER than the ice tractor.... 

Mark (merc commander) felt emboldened by Jim's bulletproof nature and by Mike's successes in close assault. He took the command APC over to capture fleeing scientists. 

This was the first time in the entire game, well past the 3 hour mark, where the defenders were able to roll better than the attackers. The APC brewed up, command squad had casualties, more nearby scientists died.. Finally our casualties inflicted list included enemy combatants! 

As Mark was planning to rescue a wounded scientist for the mercenaries, Brian or Stuart shot again and headshot the mercenary CO. That plan died a-borning. 

At the end Jim's skimmers came without opposition through the compound and picked up a wounded scientist. The alien continued to rampage. 

I think the mercenaries notionally won if that scientist survived his injuries. The defenders had high casualties and several units fled or surrendered.

During the whole four hours I shot a Jim Bell, I never beat his dice enough to kill one skimmer or pilot. My dice tried (9, 7, 6 roll.... Jim rolls a 10). The few times I hit him, it failed to penetrate his body armour or bounced off the skimmer armour. 

The scenario had worked more evenly in playtest with timid playtesters. Jim is not a timid strategist. Mark and Mike went along with the boldness and it mostly worked out for their mercenaries. 

It was a fun game. It would be easy to address a few of the glitches:

• Give the VTOL some cover (a berm for instance) and maybe a guard fireteam )
• Assume the barracks have some windows
• Give the ScanFed a command unit
• Break Jim's fingers so he can't roll dice

The game was scenic, fun, and I will continue to seek out and play anything Steve and Martin bring to the Convention. The fact they are both great guys is a bonus.

I'm sorry Brian Howland got such a rough introduction to Stargrunt. Things don't usually go that poorly for one side.

Saturday Night

I opted to work on preparing my game as I was in fairly rough shape by this point. My voice had went to nothing (laryngitis) and I was worried about my game so I worked on setup and tried to hope my voice would come back. I watched some other games, took more drugs, and did hang around long enough for the 2300 - 0100 chatting and reminiscing session to conclude. Then there was more of that in the hotel room with Jim and Tom. I think Tom stopped drinking beer around 2:30 pm and we went to sleep for an 8:15 checkout. 

There wasn't the usual late night/early morning board gaming - maybe not having JP there cut the energy level. It was more in the line of casual reminiscence and sociability. This meant of course that I had unconsumed beer and liquor to deal with before returning.

Sunday Morning

I looked like crap. I felt like crap. But I had an X-Wing game called Space Rent Asunder to run. So, got up, ate at the hotel, and got to the game area to setup. 

I had 4 players signed up. As it turned out, I had 7. I got Mike Hudak (first half), Jim Bell (second Half),  David Skelley, Thomas Scheu, Carl Scheu, Leo Accord and his dad Jerry Accord. 

The board had 4 quadrants and the whole board was suffused with wormholes (teleporters) and asteroids (hazards). The Imperials had used a new weapon to smash a planetoid containing a Rebel intelligence station (Oracle Station). The main force then departed but left starfighters on patrol in case any Rebel force attempted a rescue or investigation (which is what ensued). 

The Rebels arrived scattered across the system, hyperspace having been affected by the new Imperial weapon. On the board, nearest the station, 3 Rebel ships appeared - 2 Z-95 Headhunters and an A-WIng. The Imperials nearby started appearing including 2 TIE Fighters and a TIE Advanced at the start. 

The Rebels and Imperials wanted to scan all 4 sectors for any intelligence buoys (the Rebels knew what they were looking for but the Empire would scan once it noticed the Rebels doing so). 

Victory conditions were that the Rebels locate some intelligence buoys. They also receives some VPs for destroyed ships. The Imperial VPs came from destroyed ships (a few more VPs than the Rebels) and from recovered buoys (they canted to recover them to backtrack intelligence leaks and assess the penetration, less VPs than Rebels per buoy). 

Carl, Thomas, Leo, Jerry, Mike and Jim had never played X-Wing before and Dave was well experienced. The early turns were mastering maneuver in an obstacle laden stretch and figuring out how to navigate the wormholes.

Carl made a point to avoid the Imperials and pursue scanning as his main intent. Leo seemed to enjoy hopping his Z-95 from wormhole to wormhole. The only one who appeared willing to meet the Imperials was the A-Wing driven by Jerry. 

There was some early combat, but it wasn't very effective, People were dodging vulnerable spots by ducking out in wormholes making the game more like hide and seek and other maneuvers ran afoul of asteroids. The wormholes placed stress tokens at times on ships so that also tended to reduce combat efficiency. Everyone seemed to be getting the hang of flying, but were avoiding fights. 

The Z-95 can stand up to tie fighters. Fighting was entirely feasible if the players had chosen it and felt more comfortable. I admit I expected Carl and Thomas for some reason to have X-Wing before. 

Midgame casualties included a bunch of Rebel shields (but no ships) and the TIE advanced. As the game went on, chances to discover intelligence started to happen in some sectors. 

As the game went on, ships were concentrating in one sector and engaging each other. That streak of combat saw both the original A-Wing (Jerry) and a better A-Wing reinforcement (Carl) die. Carl died somewhat cruelly after outguessing his son Thomas and ending up in his 6 o'clock position then whiffing on the attack roll while Mike Hudak got his TIE interceptor in behind to turn Carl into hot gas. 

The late game saw a couple of TIE interceptors on the board with a TIE piloted by a good pilot ("Dark Curse"). One of the intereptors was piloted by Carnor Jax. On the Rebel side, there was Gemmer Sojan's A-Wing (Carl), a Rookie X-Wing pilot, Leo's Z-95, and eventually a Gray Squadron or Gold Squadron (have to check) Y-Wing (Jerry). 

The final loss count was two A-Wings, and an X-Wing for the rebels, a TIE Advanced and a TIE Fighter for the Imperials. In the last couple of rounds of the game, the Rebels discovered one intelligence buoy and were in a position to recover it (the Y-Wing has a lot of shields and hit points).

I declared a marginal victory for the Imperials based on the fact they had gotten more points of reinforcements and had a slight lead in the VPs assuming the Rebels got the buoy. The Rebels had had a chance at finding the buoy in another sector, but Carl consistently whiffed on the 1 in 8 roll (even when using 2 dice). If the game had went on, perhaps 2 other sectors would have yielded buoys and it is hard to say who might have picked them up. 

The important take away was that everyone got a chance to learn how to fly and shoot in X-Wing and to try both basic ships and more capable ships/pilots. They did so in a tougher environment (the asteroids and wormholes) than normal too.

Folk said they had fun. We let Leo pick the first prize. His ship did contribute to the Rebel victory, both damaging an Imperial in the dogfight and in accumulating a lot of scan points while playing cat and mouse around the boards using wormholes. Besides, everyone likes to see the young ones getting into gaming! 

I thank the players for giving the scenario a try and the game. X-Wing is faster and a little less challenging in more open space. I hope everyone came away with a good impression of the game - they seemed to. 

I am sorry I couldn't speak above a whisper and I'm thankful most people (with a few notable BELL exceptions DAVIS) chose not to mock me for my laryngitis. I was lucky to be vertical and partially operational (much like both death stars....)

The Trip Home 

I was sad to go. We said goodbyes to many friends of many years and talked about next year. We were already looking forward, always a good sign. So was Jon - an even better sign.

I got to leave Jon a small bottle of goodness I had hoped to share with him. He deserves more recognition than he gets (as does Mark) for their legwork and patience and time commitment in making the convention happen. 

Departure around 1330 hrs. We hit a Cracker Barrel at Cicero. I ate pancakes that weren't cooked through but otherwise the meal was good. I felt like crap all the way home - huge headache, congested head, problems equalizing as we went up and down the NY mountain terrain, dehydration, etc. My ears were partly plugged meaning I didn't hear much from the front, but on the other hand my voice was gone so that's probably okay. The Cracker Barrel yielded Zig-Zag, the zebra Beanie Boo. 

We breached the border about 1700 with another latex-free crossing. YAY!

I got home to my partner's place at 1905 and helped with bedtime routine. Zig-Zag made me a momentary hero as my step-daughter is collecting Beanie Boos.

I got a lift back to my apartment at 2015 hrs and crashed around 9 pm for about 12-14 hours of much needed sleep. Now I can just do one thing at a time: Try to recover from this nasty bug. 

A fun convention, some fun games, some great people, and more good memories. I look forward to next year already.

Session Report: [Wardens of the Selarin Forest] - The Journey To Blackstangate Castle

Preamble

For many decades, the men of Ninnegal had been seeking ways to secure their lands from the depredations of Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Ogres and Giants from the Blackstone Mountains running along their Eastward border. The Ninnegalese had every intention of driving these creatures back, deeper into the Blackstone range, to preclude the regular raids and incursions these creatures staged upon the eastern farmlands of the Duchy of Nordland.

The men of Ninegal also felt a kinship with the Freeholders of Shanador for some of them had originally come as political refugees from a civil conflict in Ninnegal. There were thus some blood ties with the Freeholders albeit a few generations removed. The Freeholders had made some of the valleys in the Blackstone range theirs, forming small Freeholds - independent, hardy and militant by necessity. The Freeholds unfortunately were pressed on all sides by threatening raiders of the same nature as those that threatened the Duchy of Nordlund in Ninnegal.

Ninnegalese merchants also recognized the great value that secure trade routes through the mountains, connecting Nordlund to the Kingdom of Larboma by way of the Freeholds of Shanador, would create for all parties. This would also help ensure Shanador could import badly needed military aid to help push back the raiders and thus to shore up their economy.

To this end, the Ninnegalese of the Duchy of Nordlund had dedicated themselves to the notion of creating such a route, from the eastern farmlands of Nordlund through the Blackstone ranges and the Freeholds of Shanador to Larboma close to the important population center at Axer and giving access to the trade traveling on the large body of water known as Crystal Lake.

For the past two decades, the forces of Ninnegal had been contesting with their foes in the foothills of the Blackstone mountains to establish a foothold. This involved survey, temporary military encampments, engineering work, and eventually protecting miners and stonemasons during the construction of a castle (of the keep and bailey design) on a significant rock rise on a hillside. The valley was the one through which the river known to the Selarin Elves as Induin-rhunen (the Western Heart River) flowed on its way to the the sea and through which a small road wove from the farmlands to the of eastern Nordlund deeper into the Blackstone ranges.

The entire effort took 20 years, but the castle has finally been completed and now is ready to extend its garrison and increase its population of tradesmen, merchants, soldiers and clergy.  The castle was named Blackstangate as it is indeed the gateway to the Blackstone mountains. The keep stands on the borderlands between the goodly folk and the raiding marauders of the Blackstone ranges.

Recently, the Eorl of Blodstanshire, His Lordship Emeric Griffin, sent forth notices far and wide seeking traders, scouts, engineers, smiths, merchants, men-at-arms, archers, landless knights, yeomen, caravaners, surveyors, healers, and 'a special few independent souls willing to risk danger for the good of the realm'.  The Eorl was sure to include carefully diplomatic messages to the dwellers in the Selarin forest, the Dwarven communties and Gnomish communities to their West, and to the various non-human races who might be willing to lend a hand.

Chapter 1: The Journey to Blackstangate Castle

The Senior Warden of the South-Eastern Extents, Celebril Caranmir (uncle of Merril Caranmir) received a request from Eorl of Blodstanshire requesting politely any possible assistance the Wardens of the Selarin Forest could to the new Castellan of Blackstangate Castle, Lord Gerrart Kendrick. As the Eorl had been a good neighour and ally to the forest dwellers, as had his father and his father's father before him, and as the Eastern Extents were not under excessive pressure at the present, it was decided that a small unit of Wardens would be sent to the aid of the Castellan of Blackstangate.

And thus, on the 1st day of the 4th month, 4 Wardens set out from the Eastern Extents bound for Blackstangate. The company was led by Merril Caranmir, a Selarin Elf ranger trained by Celebril himself. With her would come a Forest Gnome Druid named Aspen Asperia with her badger "Scratch", a Tallfellow Halfling rogue of the Tallbows known by the name Rowan Thistlefoot, and a visiting Searethan Elf Wizard known as Telephinion Iouristan or "Finn" to his friends. The Searethan was participating in an exchange program, learning more about his forest brethren while one of them spent some time in the City-State of Seareth's academies.

4th Month Day 1

The weather was sunny and cool when the venturers set out. The first day and night passed without event - pleasant travelling with easygoing companions. The Wardens shared their knowledge of the forest and the outside world with one another and talked of family lives. Foraging was good.

4th Month Day 2

The second day brought an encounter with Merril's keen Elven vision spotting some approaching Centaurs. The Wardens elected to conceal themselves and observe, both to avoid detection and to take a better estimation of the Centaurs nature and purpose. As the Centaurs appeared to be harmless and respectable travelers, the Wardens let them pass unaware they were ever observed.

4th Month Day 3

The third day brought moderate rain as they traversed a mix of forest, fen and forested hills. The rain was intermittent to start with and travelling was not onerous, just damp. Not as much wildlife was seen and the temperatures were cooler.  As night approached, the rain intensified and the group sought a decent place to spend the night and make camp. A small rise in amidst the scrub served to locate their bivouac above the puddles forming in the lower areas. A small fire, sheltered from the rains, was built and the team turned in, with the Elves taking turns on watch.

Night Encounter: Goblin Raiders

In the wee hours of the morning, in full darkness, a hapless band of Goblins - likely a small raiding party - happened upon the campsite of the Wardens. As Telephinion was on watch and does not have the most well-tuned woods senses, and with rain beating down, nobody saw the Goblins approaching. The rain works both ways as the Goblins similarly did not see the encampment until they were almost on top of it.

The six Goblins spotted Telephinion about the time he spotted them. His cry awoke Merril who had been in Reverie, dreaming about the bright white flowers of the ancient silverwood trees. Rowan and Aspen roused, but both were unarmoured and had to grab up their weapons. In the meanwhile, Finn and Merril elected to try to hold off the Goblins.

The Goblin party outnumbered the Wardens, being six in number with two archers in their number. The archers moved to firing positions and engaged the Wardens and Finn and Merril returned fire. The return fire was very effective, felling quickly two Goblins. The Goblins, being somewhat callous and inured to the misfortunes of others, continued their attack.

A Goblin archer grazed Merril and a charging Goblin's blade slashed Rowan after he failed to down another Goblin with his bow, instead wounding him. The melee-armed Goblins pressed in while the archers manouvered for clear lines of fire. Aspen took up a position from which she could move to aid the injured as needed and provide missile support with her sling, scoring a wound upon another Goblin, as did Merril with her bow.

The Goblins pressed hard and Finn re-positioned to help cover the unarmoured Rowan and Aspen. Merril continued to down Goblins with her well placed arrows, missing only once during the entire fight. Rowan shifted to using his short sword and Finn switched to his magic, blowing a Goblin's chest open with a magical force projectile. Aspen healed Rowan as a precaution using one of her weaker healing spells.

In short order, only one Goblin remained and he had no longer the stomach for the fight. Merril made the call to attempt to slay the last Goblin as he fled, feeling their was no intelligence to be gained from an interrogation and wanting to rid the forest of such foul little menaces. A volley of fire from the Wardens, no doubt impeded by distance, darkness, and heavy rain, only succeeding in winging the last fleeing Goblin before he escaped into the brush back the way he came.

Aspen healed Merril and the team settled back for the remainder of the night.

4th Month Day 4

The rain continued the next day as the company made its approach to Blackstangate Castle down the North Eastern Trade Road (Provisional). The valley containing the castle was sided by large hills with thick stands of forest, centered by the Induin-rhunen (Western Heart river) and some marshy sections, and traversed by the trade road. Blackstangate stood on a treeless rock outcropping, carefully selected to be very difficult to assail by the creatures of the mountains without great effort.

From the dead Goblins, who had obviously been the recent end of some wealthy traveller, a purse containing 20 golden Lions (Larboman coins) and a vial containing a strange glowing light blue liquid. The vial appears to cast light equivalent to moonlight when shaken. This item would require further investigation after reaching Blackstangate Castle!

The journey ended as the the company ended its fourth day, having faced its first, albeit only moderately hazardous, combat encounter. This was the first time most of the party members had actually had to take the life of a living being in pursuit of their duties. A solemn and thoughtful company arrived to the gate of the Castle, joining a short line of people seeking admittance before the gates closed for the night.

Notes for Journey To Blackstangate Castle

Special Note: This was Catherine's first D&D session, her first visit to the World of Kaladorn, and her first role-playing session ever. She did very well for someone picking up the nature of the game and the decision making as well as dealing with encounters. Next time, hopefully she'll get to interact with some townsfolk. Sometimes soon, I hope to move her from solo play, once she is comfortable, to group play with some other folks in Ottawa. 

Experience Awards: Merril Caranmir - 225 xp, Aspen Asperia - 170 xp, Telephinion Iouristan - 160 xp, Rowan Thistlefoot - 150 xp

Treasure: 20 Larboman Gold Lions, 1 potion to be identified

Next : Chapter 2 - Blackstangate Castle (meet the Castellan, explore the outer bailey, meet local personalities, then maybe begin work)

Game Design 101: Experience Points

What Role Do Experience Points Play In An RPG?

Experience points (XP) exist to provide a method of character advancement. That's really just another way of saying a way to reward players and to give them the feeling their characters are alive because they can change and grow in response to their experiences.

So the first, and obvious, use of XP is to give the player's a reward and to show that the game world is not static, that their character's have a reward motivation for doing what they do, and to let the player's feel like they are getting somewhere. Character's progress in ability, perhaps from neophytes capable of only the most basic and simple operations to hardened professionals (or feudal lords and mighty wizards, depending upon the genre).

Less obvious, but no less important (and moreso to the GM), is the notion that a system integrating experience points progresses the game world. Not only do the character's grow in capability, but the game world adapts to that change by constantly providing them with 'just right!' challenges that match their level of power. In a spy game, this would take the form of new agents becoming experienced and then eventually creme-de-la-creme '00' agents with a license not only to kill, but to engage in massive, thrilling, over the top spy-thriller action.

But how necessary are XP? Are they a needed mechanic? How do we best implement them?

A lot depends on the sort of game system you play under. Some are very granular and have skills that go up regularly by very small amounts but have no levels (or do have levels but the skills still operate in a similar fashion). Some are less granular and have skills but increases are fewer and further between. Some have levels and levels bring skill gains, feats, new aspects, class advancements, you name it!

Experience points aren't necessary for short story arc games with a very limited number of playing sessions. In longer campaigns, it is almost a certainty that the game will benefit from characters who can grow and change. How you implement XP best would relate to the particular mechanics of your game system, but here are some general thoughts that you might consider...

• Tracking XP towards skill advancement or level advancement can be a simple thing with one broad award for a game sessions result which was arrived at fairly simply or can boil down to painstaking calculation of XP returns from each adventure goal, class action, item of treasure, etc. throughout the session. In the intensive form, there is often a task in partitioning off awards for each character and a lot of bookkeeping.
• XP can be determined in a very granular fashion with intense attention to what exactly and precisely was done or much more generally in terms of how the story progressed. You can guess which method is faster.
• XP can also be determined in a narrative-driven fashion by deciding just how many sessions you want to have between each advancement, either as a function of a pre-conceived advancement rate (for example 4 sessions per level in a level dependent game) or based on how many sessions you wish an entire campaign arc to fit in (50 weekly sessions to get to level 15, so 3 sessions to a level). In skill dependent systems, this would translate to how many skill-specific XP you might want to award in a session.
• You can decide (if you are scheduling advancements) whether they are 'everyone up at once' or staggered (if one class might need more XP to level or if some player is clearly better than the others at the table for instance).
• Ultimately, my experience has been (as someone who calculated painstaking individual awards and then later just made arbitrary decisions on when to level people up) that the end results are about the same, the only difference is a big one in how much bookkeeping you do. If the players never see what the GM does exactly, they are honestly none the wiser.

I have found, in my experience, that just deciding on a progress rate (in a level based game) and levelling up characters either all together or one or two sessions apart (to reward good play or show that some classes are harder to level in) is just as effective and feels the same to the players as doing all the painstaking bookkeeping. What's more, they never need know you did this. Or you can just tell them, if they won't fuss.

In a skill based game, if you know you want character skills (looked at on a per-skill basis) to go up at a particular rate, the same logic applies. Award increases (or skill tallies, if you need to let the players see the progress between skill level gains) in accordance roughly with that schedule and player gameplay.

In the long run, by doing advancement in a somewhat arbitrary but considered fashion, you eliminate bookkeeping for the GM and players, the outcome feels good at the table, and you can significantly reduce the amount of column-inches in game rules covering XP awards. (Which is simpler: XP totals for each monster, each encounter, each class or alignment correct action, some of these pooled then divided out to players and some calculated per player... or just deciding when it is time for a player to advance?)

Conclusion

Your XP concept only really needs to exist insofar as it lets the players feel progress and growth in the characters and the players can grow to allow their challenges to grow bigger, building tension and cresendo as the campaign reaches its climactic moments. As long as the players feel their PCs are developing (and the developments are fair in proportion to player choices of class or actions at the table), then the mechanics (or lack thereof) of XP awards are largely irrelevant.

Advice: Go with the less pain option, spend the time on stories and characters in your game rather than accounting.