ReWriting Dwindle pt 10 Advancement

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 Advancement is an important part of any RPG. It gives players a feeling of advancement, and gives them a chance to change their character as they develop. With the Tier system, I needed something that would allow investment into both the group, and the individual. I also wanted something swingy, and related to the story.

The outcome is a system of Loots and XPs. The original had me rolling for Loots when something was...well....looted. It also became payouts for running the speakeasy and the other, various side-hustles hustled by the party.

Advancement

Advancement in Dwindle requires Experience Points (XP), which may sound familiar from a host of other games. Players may choose to place their XP into either the Team XP Pool which will raise the group Tier when the goal is reached, or they may invest in their own character.

Team XP Pool

The Team XP Pool enables the players to advance their group Tier; an endeavor explored elsewhere in this document. In general there is no rule for determining who invest points into the Team XP Pool. I am assuming that as a pack of functional humans you can work out a fair system.

The XP needed to advance between tiers is:

  • It takes 10 XP to reach Tier 2.
  • It takes 15 XP to reach Tier 3.
  • It takes 20 XP to reach Tier 4.
  • And it takes 25 XP to reach Tier 5

Character Investment

Players may wish to invest in their characters. In this case there are a bunch of things 1 XP can buy you.

  • 1 XP can increase a Skill by 1 Rank
  • 1 XP can increase a Resource by 1 Rank (except for the Class Resource)
  • 1 XP can increase an ability by 1 Rank
  • 1 XP can allow you to create a new ability, gaining Rank 1 in it

Gaining XP

Now that you know what XP is, I'm sure you want to collect a bunch of it. There are 2 ways to do this. The first is through suffering setbacks. The other way is to collect Loot.

Setbacks

Whenever you suffer a setback (a 1 on any of your rolled dice) the Player to your right will narrate what exactly goes badly for you. Then both you and the narrating player receive 1 XP.

Loots

Four Loots equals 1 XP. Luckily there are a myriad of ways to gain loots. 

Looting, you may loot things. Whether it is a treasure chest, a still warm corpse, or a rival's posh mansion, looting such a thing grants you 1d of loots, where the die size is determined by the Tier of the thing / faction / individual being looted.

Income, if you set up some sort of industry, you may roll for loots (as long as you are in a position to collect the profits) at the beginning of each session. For each endeavor you roll 1d. The GM may impose an overhead to your endeavors, which is simply subtracted from the final roll. If you end up owing Loots, that can be a plot hook for the session.

Payments, made from buying or selling items found during play. Loot can be thought as items to be bought or sold, as odd currencies, or as wheels of cheese. It is the bundle of fresh bread pressed onto you by a thankful mother. It is the bounty payment for the head of Carlos the Jackal. It is price of a good bottle of spirits. Think of Wealth points as the platinum coins of the game. Loots are the Electrum. 

When you get a bunch of loots, simply tell your GM you want to change it for XP. Divide your loots by 4, and apply the quotient to whatever ends you wish (see previous sections).

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