Experience Points

Tenets

Our XP system is designed with the objective of making sure that the game is is accessible for casual users (weekend-only players, those who can only pitch in a handful of hours every few days, etc) as well as power users (those who can report in every single night for multiple hours). A casual user should be able to choose to spend their limited time on higher-stakes RP (like ST-run scenes) and receive enough XP that they can stay competitive as the game grows.

How To Gain XP

Pose XP

We reward your time invested here through Pose XP, which grants a small amount of XP per pose over 140 characters, once per 15 minutes. These two sentences are 140 characters.

Pose XP is accumulated over the space of a week and awarded at the end of the week to a maximum of 1 XP. Each pose is worth 0.025 XP.

Please note that pose XP is not rewarded when you turn the pose logger off. When you do not consent to your poses being recorded we can't exactly reward you based on records of things we cannot record.

XP From Storytellers

As stated in the core books, a storyteller should be able to give you a point of XP for the following acts:

• Learning Curve: Characters who’ve learned something pivotal to either the plot or their own personal character development can earn a point to reflect that knowledge. To earn that point, the player should explain why that knowledge changed her character’s world. Acquiring a new dot in a stat does not count as “learning” in this context.
• Focus (for Mages): Belief and practice are important to a mage. A player who gets deep into her character’s paradigm, plays up that mage’s beliefs, details her practices, and uses her instruments in cleverly appropriate ways, may get a point for emphasizing the mage’s approach to the Arts and Sciences.
• Status (for Vampires): Each sect maintains their own values and social strata. A player whose character earns the Fleeting Status titles earn 0.25 XP per acquired Status Title. This is done as a reflexive feature of the +status/grant command.
• Heroism: A character who faces incredible odds to perform a memorable act of sacrifice or risk ought to be rewarded for stepping up courageously and doing what needed to be done. This can be against social, mental, or physical risks, awarding 1 point.
• (IC) Drama: A Storyteller can decide to give out extra points for especially deep roleplaying, dramatic self-sacrifice, or other memorable moments.
• Success: If a character has had a goal that has lasted through multiple scenes and accomplishes that goal Everyone involved in the adventure gets an extra point at the end of that story, assuming that they met their major goals and gained a sort of victory.
• Danger: If the characters faced major hazards (harrowing temptations, fights in which survival was seriously in doubt, etc.) they may gain an extra point. Note that this needs to be an above and beyond sort of situation. Any old instance of conflict is not going to fulfill this story point.
• Thinking Outside The Box: If a character was particularly clever, then she ought to be rewarded for using her head! This needs to be a situation where things could have gone seriously sideways had that character not shown that spark of wit.

Storytellers may award these points at will. A Storyteller in this case is someone who has ran a scene or series of scenes regardless of whether or not they themselves are part of staff. If you sat down and gave a group of players a narrative and a challenge and they met it, you should be able to allocate XP (send in a +request to do so, specifying the date and grid location of the scene so that we can review the logs, or providing the logs yourself).

While a storyteller can reward as many people as they like, any given character can earn a maximum of 5 XP per month in this manner.

+Votes

The +vote <player> command allows a player to indicate they enjoyed a scene with another player.

+vote resets once per month and +vote does not require a description or reason: it can be used for whatever reason you desire. You can +vote as much as you want, so long as you have RPed with the person you’re voting for (you need to have RPed with them, which we quantify through the pose log data).

Players who receive 1 to 6 +votes from unique other players in a month receive 5 xp at the end of the month.

Players who receive 7+ +votes from unique other players in a month receive 8 xp at the end of the month.

+Recs

Use the +rec <player> = <reason> command to recognize really good RP.

You may only +rec 3 times in a given month. Our current data shows that people tend to RP with around 5-6 other people consistently. We chose half as much so people can thoughtfully reward those they think were stellar during the month. You have to make a choice and put importance on who you +rec, and it should feel like an accomplishment to receive a +rec.

Like +vote, +rec resets once per month. At the end of the month, an @mail announces that +recs have dropped.

Each rec will grant 1 XP. You may only receive 6 +recs in a month. If someone tries to +rec you and you already have 6 pending +recs that you would get XP for, they will get told that they should spread the love a little and +rec someone else.

Running PRPs

You can get XP for running things. You get +1 XP or Karma for each scene you run.

Receive this XP/Karma by running the scene (obeying all PRP rules) and then sending in a +request to staff. Identify and describe what you ran, including IRL dates, so staff can review it and verify that it was, in fact, run.

Regardless of how much you run, you will have a maximum of 5 points given to you per month. This is a limit of 5 points of both types: you cannot, for example, earn 5 Karma + 5 XP. If you max out the XP you earn from Running PRPs in a month, anything you do the rest of that month is for the sake of doing it.

If you are running something for yourself to further your own IC goals, you may not be rewarded in this fashion.

The Dinosaur Girdle

After you earn 400 XP, that’s it. You’re (mostly) done. You don’t earn more pose XP. You don’t earn more XP from votes. You do still get XP from +recs and ST/PRP engagement.

This ceiling of 400 XP is liable to be raised, but we’ll wait once a few people hit it or nearly hit it, to see if it needs to be raised.

Once you hit 400 XP, you still can evolve your sheet over time, either by your (much more slowly accumulated) XP or thanks to the XP room’s feature where you can sell off a stat to buy up another one, so you can still try out new builds on the same character.

How To Spend XP

XP expenditures are facilitated through the XP room on the game. Attributes, Abilities, Virtues, in-clan Disciplines, Spheres, and Willpower are available through flat purchase no questions asked. Other traits (out-of-clan Disciplines, blood magic paths, rituals) are obtained through the +teach command. Backgrounds are earned through role play and request. Arete is earned through successful Seekings.

Earning Schedule

In summary, here are the avenues for pose XP and the expected (estimated) gains:

Source	Casual + Mostly BaRP	Casual + Risk Taker	Power User + Mostly BaRP	Power User +Risk Taker	Max
Pose XP	4 xp	4 xp	4 xp	4 xp	4 xp
+Votes	5 xp	5 xp	8 xp	8 xp	8 xp
+Recs	1 xp	2 xp	3 xp	3 xp	6 xp
PRP/ST	0 xp	2 xp	0 xp	2 xp	5 xp
Total/Month	10 xp	13 xp	15 xp	17 xp	23 xp

While the casual RPer who takes risk does fall behind a power user who takes risk, they still stand a fair chance of being competitive.