Re-Imagining Character Progression For WILD

I generally don't really vibe with EXP. It's fun in JRPGs to watch number go up and stroll around the field farming for EXP, but at a table with friends playing in our limited time? Ehhhhh.

In trying to keep with a more Old School tradition, WILD was initially going to have EXP (Etheric Xanic Pebbles or w/) which you could gain by killing shit or completing quests and then trade in for Perks or upgrading your Stats. This was going to be a separate (though somewhat intertwined) currency from honest to goodness Money - Probably doing Gold-For-XP (well 1 Dollar for 1 XP, and 1 Lost Gold Coin for 2 XP) on top of quest/killing XP both to keep things retro and to keep players greedy for more cash. This will still stick around in a smaller capacity but more on that later.

If I had to boil down my main issues with XP it's that 1) XP is vague and un-immersive as far as meta-currencies go and 2) XP is usually really fiddly and I want to get right into the play of the thing rather than counting hundreds of XP (especially when I'm already doing that with other more immersive currencies like cold hard cash) - Which again is totally fine (and actually quite fun) in a video game, especially grindy ones. But in tabletop? It just feels so UGH.

So when trying to think of how I want to handle character progression in WILD, I (of course) look to a game that has quite a lot figured out: Fortnite.

To be clear there's about as much Fortnite blood in WILD as there is OD&D. Mono-Ammo being as good an example as any[*1]. And also to be clear Fortnite's battle pass is still very much EXP based. But the best way to get through that Battle Pass is Quests and Milestones, and that's exactly what I plan to do with WILD.

First thing's first though, "Milestone" means something very different to us Fortnite 1337 Gamers. Where in Dungeon's & Dragons Milestone leveling might mean something like "Kill this dragon and get a level" instead of tracking every little detail, Fortnite Milestones track the number of times you do cool shit cumulatively, over your whole career (until you hit a Milestone). Get 30 Headshots for this Milestone. Drive 50,000 Miles for this other one. Reload 100 times. Survive 1,000 storm circles. You get the vibe.

In WILD there'll be 2 types of Milestones: Perk Milestones and Patron Milestones (for context the Player "Account" in WILD is the Patron).

Have an empty Perk Slot and want to learn a Perk? Well if you're not currently working on a Perk Milestone, pick one and write it down in one of your open boxes. Let's take for example "Mad Loader" [Any time you Reload one Weapon, it Reloads all your weapons]. To get this Perk you need to reload 30 times in Combat. Alternatively if you can find a trainer you can spend the required gold and downtime to simply gain the Perk! This kind of "improvement through experience" feels far more diegetic IMO. It also means that you're incentivized to do a bunch of whatever the Perk is geared towards you doing, meaning you'll gain a reputation with a given mechanic before enhancing it. Neat!

Once you unlock a Perk on one character you can mark it on your Patron sheet, and all your future characters will only have to do half of the required work or pay to learn it! If you learn all 3 Perks in a Perk Class, you now only have to do/pay 1/4 of the Perk's original cost. [*2] This is a bit inspired by how much I love filling out all the Perk Trees in Stranger of Paradise and getting long-term rewards for it. I think each Perk Class might have additional rewards for filling them out to completion (maybe like Stranger of Paradise it adds new Perk Classes for Patrons to pull from!~)

Next are Patron Milestones, these are listed at the start of each season (and some goals are even hidden to the Players). They could be milestones like "Get to depth level 3 in a dungeon" or "Plant and Harvest 3 different crops" or (in keeping a bit with Gold for XP) "Bank 1,000 Dollars" - By completing these Milestones between all your characters you (the Patron) gain Extheric Providence (EXP for short :^) ) - Yes, yes, we do a little EXP as a treat. Extheric Providence is usually granted in low single digits, and its spends are just as low. [*3]

You can spend EXP to upgrade your characters' Stats and Proficiency dice as well as buy more unique effects as a Patron. There'll also probably be a way to spend EXP to outright buy up a Perk as well... just need to make sure all Perks roughly divide out nicely...

Anyways that's all for today! Hopefully progression in WILD will feel fun and fruitful ~

[*1 : In WILD there's what's called Mono-Ammo - Instead of needing to know real gun stuff, (most) Ammo is divided into Light, Medium, Heavy and Shelled which all Pistols, Rifles, Heavy Rifles and Shotguns take respectively.]

[*2 : Another note about Perks - Some Perks used to give Skills (which granted extra dice in Manifest Checks), these Skills are now instead acquired any time you gain a perk in a Perk Class. You can also gain these skills via self teaching in downtime or hiring a trainer.]

[*3 : Why Extheric? Well I knew I wanted some kind of 5th element Aether/Ether vibe, but both of those have been heavily played in a way that might lead to people making assumptions about how this element operates. Hence Exther is a theoretical 5th magical element in WILD.]