Earning XP Through Community Investment

(Misleading Clickbait Title: Elevate Your D&D Campaign With Orgies, Inc.™!)

A few times on this blog I've fiddled with alternate XP systems for OSR-type games, usually in a very surface-level and indirect way that does little more than gesture at other people who already explored the concepts much more fully years before.

This time, I plan to do better with the idea.

What orgies have to do with my aspirations of doing better, I'll explain in a moment. But rest assured it's nowhere near as interesting or even eyebrow-raising as you're thinking.

Today's post concerns the 10th issue of Dragon magazine, from all the way back when they still spelled its name with a "The". Content Notice for people reading along with the archive.org copy above in SFW environments: there are elf-presenting nipples visible on page 5. I suggest covering the art with a nice, beige window or piece of construction paper depending on reading device, if necessary.

In this issue Jon Pickens debuted one of two alternate experience systems for D&D which would release that year, the other being Dave Arneson's in The First Fantasy Campaign. Unlike Arneson's rather dry title for a gameplay aid, Jon's article goes under a title that would not be out of place in today's world of clickbait, which is an impressive feat for 1977. Though, I guess advertising has always been preying on the same parts of the human psyche, just using different tools throughout the ages.

Orgies, Inc.

"Orgies, Inc." inverts the OD&D standard of experience points being awarded equal to the number of gold pieces in treasure looted from the dungeon and brought back to civilization. Instead, XP is awarded only when gold pieces are spent in a way that effectively removes them from the game without direct benefit to the players. So, coming home and blowing all that gold on a new stronghold or obtaining magic items wouldn't count toward leveling up. The article provides a list of possible income-burners, ranging from religious sacrifices whose entry ends midsentence, to philanthropy, to spell research- the last of which is cheating a little, since you actually can get material (magical) benefit out of that option.

The orgies do eventually appear, at the bottom of the list. The actual description is simultaneously tame and outlandish, glossing over the activity as "lusty indulgence in wine, women, and song" at a tavern which can somehow last as many days in a row as the participants have points of Constitution, costing up to 500gp per day. I know the PCs are meant to be larger-than-life pulp action figures in this kind of game, but when the system gives normal human beings a Con of 9-12 by default, it suddenly makes the world look way more like Oglaf than Conan.

There's also the issue of level scaling that butts up against that 500gp/day limit real quick. At low levels a weekend or a week of wild partying at most will be enough to level everyone up, but as the required XP amounts climb into the tens and hundreds of thousands of experience points per level, you're suddenly looking at weeks or months spent doing nothing but orgying or recuperating from said orgies. Which sounds exhausting at best and downright hellish at worst, if the DM doesn't provide multiple gold burners for the PCs to switch it up with.

If you'd like to know more about other attempts at "carousing" XP systems over the years that we won't be looking at, I recommend this post from Yore. Another Content Notice here, some of these early systems had gross and coercive implications about whom a PC could "wench" with.

Clan Hoards

I'm more interested in the 4th item on this list of gold sinks, however. The so-called Clan Hoard option allows characters who are dwarves or "other clannish folk" to gain XP by donating treasure to the heavily guarded public hoard owned and operated by their clan. No private individuals may make withdrawals from the hoard, and as the article puts it, the money is effectively taken out of the campaign.

This system interests me for a few reasons, not least of which being the implied lore of a public hoard operated by each dwarf clan. That terminology suggests a form of public ownership and public funding that the clan as a whole may dip into and benefit from, distinct from the private estates of wealthy clan members or a treasury owned by whatever hereditary ruler one might expect to be in a dwarf-hold in 1970s D&D.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it because I've been doing a lot of writing about working class dwarves over the past few months, but with that one line this option implies a very different society and political system than what was common in fantasy fiction at the time. And I think that's neat.

I also just like the mechanics of the system for the way they could transform a campaign and reorient it around a community. It isn't the only sort of donation a person can make under these rules- I did mention philanthropy earlier on. But philanthropy conjures a very specific mental image (for me at least) of detachment, both from the needy and from the underlying causes of need: rich folks getting a park named after them or preventing a bad harvest from getting worse, but stopping short of systemic change, and junk like that.

The clan hoard, meanwhile, keeps the PC(s) connected to their community. They have to return home (or at least meet representatives abroad) in order to turn their wealth over, which encourages them to establish their base of operations at home rather than off in some chunk of wilderness recently scoured of all inconvenient life and deeded in the fighter's name.

That creates opportunities and complications you might not get from a traditional dungeon or hex crawl. For one, you have a whole lot more NPCs you're likely to run into regularly, none of whom are necessarily beholden to the players as hirelings or serfs. Different families, groups, or factions within the community can bring different flavors and friction to social interaction. Events beyond the party's control can pop up at unexpected times. If they return from a long adventure only to find a natural disaster has struck or there's a dispute going on, more than just a monetary donation will be needed to resolve the community's problems (and unlock that sweet XP). Even the least personally-engaged PC has a stake in all of it to some degree, which keeps gameplay varied and fresh.

What to Throw Out

There are a few minor parts of Pickens' take on the system that I don't like. For one, the clan hoard necessarily being limited to clan-based societies limits its applicability in a (to me) unrealistic way. Lots of societies in real life can form intricate systems of social cohesion, cooperation, and resource management beginning from radically different starting points, that would nonetheless let them arrive at the same place for this kind of mechanic. It should be even more so for fantasy, I think.

Second and less nitpicky is the idea that the money is effectively removed from the campaign once it's donated. I think that's a lazy way to handle it, akin to the religious sacrifice mechanic where all the wealth basically goes up in a puff of smoke on the altar. It doesn't feel meaningful or impactful to the fiction.

What to Add Instead

I think even if the money is permanently taken out of the hands of the PC—which is totally fine—its impact should still be felt. The PCs should see evidence of what it's being used for and what goes on in the community as a consequence.

The most obvious way to do this to me is by reflecting each character in the way the community grows, since it's the mechanism by which those same characters grow more powerful. Take each PC's character class, background, or other defining features into account and consider how that might affect the place as they grow more prominent.

For example, the fighters might grow stronger because the money has been invested in community defense with a training ground, armory, and maybe some kind of citizen militia is set up. At low levels the fighters would be training alongside the other newbies, but at higher levels of experience—literal and narrative—they might be the ones doing the organizing instead. Similarly, a magic-user's need for specialized tools and a place for magical research might spur the creation of a larger archive or public library in town.

With this little change, the PCs are no longer leveling up and growing stronger through their mix of dumb luck and Main Character power, but through the opportunities provided for them by their community. It makes the game a more social RPG with a greater emphasis on reciprocal relationships, although the potential for exploitation in the form of dungeon delving in order to acquire the wealth in the first place does still exist.

Community XP

The simplest way to implement this system is by doing as Jon Pickens did, and have each character level up independently according to their own XP track once they've contributed enough of their personal wealth to the community. One might reasonably assume wealth and therefore XP is divided up evenly and/or equitably between PCs in the spirit of cooperation this whole thing is meant to foster, but there's always room for character competition or friction in a story about people like this.

If the table doesn't enjoy lopsided leveling tracks common to OSR games and the minimal impact it can have on moment-to-moment play, you can remove everyone's leveling track and instead give one big XP bar to the community as a whole. This can represent the amount of gold stored in/being utilized by its version of the public funds hoard from earlier on, standard of living for the average person, urban or economic development, or some other nebulous indicator of growth. Remember, money locked up in the personal fortunes or private properties of rich jackasses contributes nothing.

Alternatively, if you like the milestone leveling that seemed to get popular with the advent of D&D 5E (or at least I was ignorant of it up until then), throw out all the bars and XP and tie the milestones to various public works initiated by the community. This could take the form of funding building projects or the acquisition of certain skills or resources and the like.

More hands-on involvement from the PCs like labor hours or direct participation in planning/advising on the project could also count toward the goal, making it better for games with less of an emphasis on dungeon crawling. You could also probably assign a GP value to characters' workhours if you want to use that in combination with XP tracks; after all, is adventuring not already a form of wage labor?

Once a goal has been reached by whatever means with the indispensable aid of the PCs (not because they're better than everybody else but because the story kind of hinges on them), a level-up may be had.

Leveling Tables

Each level-up, a PC gains all the generic benefits: increased HP, attack ability, etc. This represents a mix of their own personal growth from adventuring, and what their community helped foster in them during downtime.

The player also rolls on the [Great Big Table of Community Upgrades]. This is a general table that everyone has access to regardless of class, background, etc. An upgrade is checked off after being rolled, and repeats are rerolled unless specifically noted in its entry. If XP curves are flattened so every character levels up at the same rate, or the table uses milestone leveling like the above, the whole party rolls at once.

The table can just be a regular old d100 or similarly large roll. Example:

Nergui advances to 2nd level and rolls on the table. They roll a 46, which means that greater investment in local food resources has given the community a Food Surplus. Rations and meals are always available for purchase in town, the population is healthier and well-fed, and rolls on the Complications table (more on that below) that result in famine might be cancelled out/ignored.

Later, Nergui advances to 4th level and rolls 46 again. This upgrades Food Surplus into Improved Nutrition, which improves the general quality of life for the people, gives the community as a whole a bonus on rolls to avoid plagues spread by malnutrition, and also gives the PCs a +1 to their next Hit Point roll.

Alternatively, the table could be much more narrow and use a smaller die such as d10 or d20, with higher results being better, but also gated in tiers by being far higher than the die size naturally allows one to roll. Only one roll is made per level for the whole party, but the party's total level is added to the roll. Example:

The party reaches 3rd level. Because there are 4 of them in the party, they add a +12 modifier to the community roll. This increases their roll of 10 to 22, kicking it up to the 20-25 tier. They roll 1d6 for the tier and get a 2, netting their community the Minor Magic Shop upgrade. This makes minor magical trinkets available for purchase in town. Or, if the table refuses to break the 'no buying magic items' taboo, each PC is gifted 1 (and only 1) minor magic item for all their help around town lately.

In addition to the Great Big Table, each character has their own Class/Background table that represents how their own personal contributions have affected the community. These should be smaller than the general table, but they can be full d20 or even d100 tables if you're feeling motivated/masochistic enough. Example:

Nemo the cleric advances to 5th level. They roll on the cleric table and get Local Devotees a second time. This represents the growing community of their coreligionists in the area, and allows Nemo to upgrade the little roadside shrine they had previously constructed into a modest temple/sanctuary/sacred grove/etc.

Opposite the table of Upgrades is the table of Community Complications. This table is rolled on whenever upgrades are rolled for, representing the unexpected incidents or setbacks that go hand-in-hand with the community growing and changing over time. They don't have to be straight-up penalties; the complication can instead be an encounter the party/PC is forced into, with consequences resulting from how well they handle it. Example:

The party advances in level and rolls 14 for complications. A climate-appropriate natural disaster strikes the community, forcing it and the party to devote considerable time to cleanup and repairs. This might strengthen bonds between survivors, or cleanup might uncover a hidden secret somewhere.

Characters could have their own personal complication tables, again dependent upon class, background, or anything else relevant to the campaign. Depressing!Example:

Outis the tiefling advances to 6th level and rolls the Not Welcome Here complication. Their growing fame and apparent acceptance within the community has drawn other tieflings to live in the area recently. Their more visible presence has riled up the local bigots, who only tolerated Outis as "one of the good ones" up to that point. Now an incident is about to occur, and needs intervention.

You could also put together some kind of cumulative group level complication table in the interest of maintaining pointless symmetry with the group upgrade table mentioned above- I know I'm certainly tempted to do that. But I'm unsure how high the stakes should be for something like that. Where does it top out? Plague? Invasion? A wizard tripping and spilling the entire contents of their forbidden tome collection out on the sidewalk? I'll leave you to decide that one.

I realize this still isn't an actual system, but I do hope that this offering of bigger- and crunchier-than-usual breadcrumbs might be useful in designing a community-oriented progression system of your own.