Complete shared campaign suggestion and transition plan.

My personal attempt to fix the XGE campaign rules and make everyone happy, while still following the

spirit of the campaign rules, trying to make the focus more on story, and making changes to existing

systems flow smoothly.

Things to make work: leveling, gold, magic items (purchased and found), downtime, DM rewards, DM

quest rewards, transition between existing characters/rewards in the prior system and in the new

system, equity between characters/players who played before this next season and people who will play

only in the new season and onward, less math.

Leveling:
My desire is to make leveling at the same pace as present, while simplifying it's tracking and still

rewarding good play.

So let's do some math (I promise your players will be doing less of it, and you won't have to track

XP per monster at the end of modules/sessions). In recent seasons, the APL of modules has, for the

most part, been standardized around levels  3/8/13/18, or at least pretty close. Using minimum xp,

you would hit the following levels at this amount of hours of standardized-APL modules. Hours are not

cumulative, but the per-level amount. Overflow from the prior level is included:

2: 2 hours
3: 2 hours
4: 8 hours
5: 17 hours
6: 7 hours
7: 8 hours
8: 10 hours
9: 12 hours
10: 15 hours
11: 19 hours
12: 6 hours
13: 8 hours
14: 8 hours
15: 10 hours
16: 11 hours
17: 12 hours
18: 8 hours
19: 8 hours
20: 10 hours

Cumulatively, that's

2: 2 hours
3: 4 hours
4: 12 hours
5: 29 hours
6: 36 hours
7: 44 hours
8: 54 hours
9: 66 hours
10: 81 hours
11: 100 hours
12: 106 hours
13: 114 hours
14: 122 hours
15: 132 hours
16: 143 hours
17: 155 hours
18: 163 hours
19: 171 hours
20: 181 hours

So you'd gain 1 checkpoint per hour always, and you'd gain a level after that amount of hours.

Buuut... we want to not just give minimum XP, that makes everyone sad. However, we want to still have

a min-max balance. The maximums at those levels are 33.3~% higher than the minimums. So let's empower

the DMs. Give the authority to the DMs to give up to .3 extra points per hour (presumably in .1 point

increments to make it easy) for anything they deem good play - creative solutions, throwing more mobs

at them than usual for that time period, great RP.  And by making it points above 1, it hopefully

seems like a bonus (DM Quest Reward interlude: Deja Vu gives .1 extra to players)

So now, the math becomes 'Well, we played 2 hours. I can award you from 2 to 2.6 points. You guys did

a pretty great job, but you hit the trap pretty badly so how about 2.5 per person' Player writes down

2.5, adds it to their existing total, let's say 35, then checks a chart just like before, sees, oh,

I'm at a total of 37.5 now, that's higher than 36, I level up to 6th. The DM didn't have to add up

monsters and divide by players, plus add in the 'all players get X XP awards', see if that's between

min and max or not, tell the players a 3-5 digit number of XP, slightly harder math to add, still

have to check a chart to see if you level.

What this does: Gives you more time at the higher end of a tier. You get all your fun toys to throw

at tier-appropriate content for longer. It exactly mimics current progression. It rewards good play,

via giving DMs more authority to do so. It provides a smooth conversion where very little difference

occurs. Doesn't require much conversion of existing content - hours played still reigns. If there's a

lull in a hardcover, you can reflect that by handing out the 'standard' 1.

Issues: Slightly more math than what XGE says, possibility of players irritated at DMs who don't

award them the max bonus, since it's discretion, not mechanical. The items in an existing module that

say give Y XP for negotiating X obstacle don't mechanically do anything and are a vestigial feature

(although they provide a good jumping point for the DM to realize they should reward that extra .1 or

more). Folks who have memorized how much XP it takes to hit the next level have to look at a chart

until they memorize the new one, but the XGE rules would still have been new to learn, too.

Existing players get converted to a number of checkpoints using this chart:

1	225
2	450
3	675
4	900
5	1,013
6	1,125
7	1,238
8	1,350
9	1,463
10	1,575
11	1,688
12	1,800
13	2,076
14	2,353
15	2,629
16	2,906
17	3,182
18	3,459
19	3,735
20	4,012
21	4,288
22	4,565
23	4,841
24	5,118
25	5,394
26	5,671
27	5,947
28	6,224
29	6,500
30	7,571
31	8,643
32	9,714
33	10,786
34	11,857
35	12,929
36	14,000
37	15,125
38	16,250
39	17,375
40	18,500
41	19,625
42	20,750
43	21,875
44	23,000
45	24,100
46	25,200
47	26,300
48	27,400
49	28,500
50	29,600
51	30,700
52	31,800
53	32,900
54	34,000
55	35,167
56	36,333
57	37,500
58	38,667
59	39,833
60	41,000
61	42,167
62	43,333
63	44,500
64	45,667
65	46,833
66	48,000
67	49,067
68	50,133
69	51,200
70	52,267
71	53,333
72	54,400
73	55,467
74	56,533
75	57,600
76	58,667
77	59,733
78	60,800
79	61,867
80	62,933
81	64,000
82	65,105
83	66,211
84	67,316
85	68,421
86	69,526
87	70,632
88	71,737
89	72,842
90	73,947
91	75,053
92	76,158
93	77,263
94	78,368
95	79,474
96	80,579
97	81,684
98	82,789
99	83,895
100	85,000
101	87,500
102	90,000
103	92,500
104	95,000
105	97,500
106	100,000
107	102,500
108	105,000
109	107,500
110	110,000
111	112,500
112	115,000
113	117,500
114	120,000
115	122,500
116	125,000
117	127,500
118	130,000
119	132,500
120	135,000
121	137,500
122	140,000
123	142,500
124	145,000
125	147,500
126	150,000
127	152,500
128	155,000
129	157,500
130	160,000
131	162,500
132	165,000
133	167,727
134	170,455
135	173,182
136	175,909
137	178,636
138	181,364
139	184,091
140	186,818
141	189,545
142	192,273
143	195,000
144	197,500
145	200,000
146	202,500
147	205,000
148	207,500
149	210,000
150	212,500
151	215,000
152	217,500
153	220,000
154	222,500
155	225,000
156	230,000
157	235,000
158	240,000
159	245,000
160	250,000
161	255,000
162	260,000
163	265,000
164	270,000
165	275,000
166	280,000
167	285,000
168	290,000
169	295,000
170	300,000
171	305,000
172	310,000
173	315,000
174	320,000
175	325,000
176	330,000
177	335,000
178	340,000
179	345,000
180	350,000
181	355,000


Gold: Keep the gold looting the same. Why? Currently, if you play only modules, you get roughly 1200

gold in tier 1 (calculated using an average gold of 40 per hour, which matches an average of a

handful of modules I looked at, and 30 hours for T1, although it's really only 29). If you include

the jump-to-T2 bonus, the XGE rules provide 375. That's less than a third of the current gold. You

could multiply the XGE gold by 3, but then you still hit 2 issues.

Issue 1 of fixed gold: Inequity between current characters and new characters. Some characters have

significantly more gold than others. You either leave that alone, and thus create inequity, or, you

tell them to reset their gold. But, some may have spent much more than the reset value already... but

you can't take away the armor and potions they bought, the estate they got from Fai Chen, or the True

Resurrections they provided fellow faction members. So you can't put them at negative. But you can't

just put them at the new value either, because again, if they've spent it all, you might have just

doubled the lifetime gold they will get compared to a new character.

Issue 2 of fixed gold: Semi-forced retirement @ 20. If all you get is 26425 gold, as XGE suggests,

then you can only afford True Resurrection or Full Plate, never both. that issue might be alleviated

a little if you raised that amount. But, currently at 20, you can keep playing and keep getting more

gold. If you can't do that, then each time you cast Heroes' Feast is 1000 gold closer to being at 0

forever. It's no longer an open-ended game, there becomes a point where you can't really do much

else, you can't cast anything with a valuable material component anymore, you can't buy potions.

Use the lifestyle tier system from XGE.
T1 - Modest,
T2 - Comfortable,
T3 - Wealthy,
T4 - Aristocratic.

But allow a player to buy it higher. I used roughly the amount of downtime you acquire by the end of

each tier, times the difference in cost of the options.

Modest to Comfortable early costs 70 gold
Comfortable to Wealthy early is 500 gold
Wealthy to Aristocratic early is 2300 gold

So bumping up one step early isn't too bad, but you won't see many Wealthy/Aristocratic T1s.

In addition to scrapping downtime lifestyle cost, scrap the cost on rewards from things like Fai Chen

that say pay 2 extra GP per downtime day. The extra math for flavor doesn't really seem like much

other than bookkeeping. New Fai Chen rewards can bump up the initial cost of an item to reflect

things like that if they want.

What this does: Equity between new and old characters is preserved. There's no forced retirement at

higher levels. We allow a player to RP being wealthy if they want by a small cost, with slightly less

math. No change to the major part of the system means no few rules to learn, and no need to

invalidate all prior treasure subheadings.

Issues: Still have to do math for gold.

Magic item purchase:
I like XGEs system, but I think it's a little too easy with current gold values, as I suggest

preserving. At a moderate level, you can now walk around with all the out of combat scroll you want.

It makes it much easier to conserve your spell slot resources if you're never using them out of

combat. You could boost the cost quite a bit, but that makes them out of reach for earlier tiers but

not solving the issue at higher ones.

What people don't have at any tier is massive surplusses of downtime. So stick a downtime cost on top

of the gold cost.

The items priced at under 75 should take no DT
The items priced at 75 to 150  should take 1 DT
The items priced at 151 to 500 should take 2 DT
The items priced at 501 and up should take 4 DT

Knock Invisibility potions down to 600. 1/3 classes can cast invisibility, meaning for out of combat

uses, the 150 gp scroll is plenty. Just carry ones for yourself and distribute to the party caster as

needed. In combat, the potion has benefits because it's a touch spell and you don't have to convince

the caster to use his turn for your benefit. But not 4850 gold of benefit.

This means for 2 hours of gameplay, if you choose to use your downtime in this way, you can get:
Any number of cantrip scrolls and standard healing potions
Up to 5 scrolls of 1st/2nd level, potions of climbing, animal friendship, greater healing or water

breathing
2.5 scrolls of 3rd/4th level or superior healing
1.25 scrolls of 5th level, potions of supreme healing or potions of invisibility

What this means: Players with more gold can't become Swiss army knives out of combat. Makes DT more

meaningful.

Issues: You need a third column of info, in addition to the prior item and cost columns.

Magic items, found:
I like treasure points. They prevent item sniping, this is a great thing. But they also get rid of

serendipity, and excitement. They make it possible to engineer a build from 1-20 precisely, and

likely will promote something like netdecking, which I don't think is great.

As currently written, they also highly discourage picking consumables. They also skew value of items

greatly. Why would I pick a potion of flying from D, when I can get a broom of flying from F for the

same cost and a tier earlier? Seems awful inefficient to get a potion of storm giant strength for 8

points, versus a belt for 12.

It also means that players would be perhaps discouraged or unable to get the McGuffins they need in

hardcovers. Even if I could spend the 12 points for the Sunsword, wouldn't 8 for a plain sunblade be

better? All it gains is sentience for the 4 extra points. What happens when you can't purchase or

don't want to purchase the McGuffin in a book? So now you go face the big bad without it, when he was

designed to be hard without it? Currently the downside to picking it up is a MIC one higher for

someone at the table. Now the downside would be 'you've spent a bunch of points on a sub-par item

mostly useful for the place it was gotten in'. What happens to modules that might have given out an

item like a scroll of comprehending languages to save you from hitting a wall where you have to read

something to progress. Now unless you come in with it, you're just... stuck? End of module, thanks

for playing?

In the existing system, players at small tables are disproportionately rewarded, as well. If Jim

always plays with his friends at a table of 3, and Steve plays at a table of 6, Jim will get twice

the items in his career compared to Steve.

So how do we fix this?

1. Split the treasure points in two. One for consumables, one for permanent.
2. Give treasure points based on the item tier of the item found.
3. Limit the list of selectable items to things you have encountered, plus perhaps a base list.

We already split the items into categories, we just don't have equity in their distribution.

Details:
Find and use items as normal during a session.
At the end of the session, give treasure points based on the items found.
For consumables, if the item is used before the end of the adventure, you ignore it's contribution,

it's gone. Your party got the value out of it already.

A uncommon gives 1 point to everyone in the party (1 permanent point or 1 consumable point,

depending)
Rare gives 2
VR gives 4
Legendary gives 8

The cost to buy any item is 5/10/20/40 points, based on rarity. You can buy them at tier 1/1/2/3

respectively. You can save up points and don't have to spend them at the end of any session.

Additional rule for permanent items: To buy it, you have to have seen it drop. You now need to record

the item in your log notes. Possible expansion - a base list of items everyone has 'seen'

Additional rule for McGuffins: Create a list of them for hardcovers. If it's been found by any party

member, it's available for use by the party. Only 1 of each McGuffin per table.

What this does: This gives everyone an equal amount of items they can acquire, regardless of if

they're at table of 3 or 7. It doesn't change the loot during the session. No more discussions at the

end of sessions of who is taking what item at all, no rolling for them. It doesn't invalidate the

treasure subheadings. It preserves flavor. You don't have to pick an item several levels in advance

of getting it.

Issues: One more item to log.

Depends on your point of view: Consumables are a bit more generic. Math might be more or less, not

quite sure.

Transition process: My assumptions are based on 5 people at a table, with content providing 1

permanent, tier appropriate item per 3 hours. Calculate your permanent points based on the 5/10/20/40

rule. If you're at the following level, this number is how many treasure points you should have. If

you have less, you now gain unused points to bring you to this total. If you have more, nothing

happens. This compensates people who have low MIC because they were trying to save for something.
1: 0
2: 0
3: 1
4: 4
5: 9
6: 14
7: 19
8: 26
9: 34
10: 44
11: 57
12: 65
13: 75
14: 86
15: 99
16: 114
17: 130
18: 151
19: 173
20: 200

DM Rewards: You get 1 point per hour, 2.5 downtime per hour and the gold you get is determined by the tier of the character you put the reward on. I based this on DM rewards per hour for a average level tier party.
T1 character - 50 gold per point
T2 character - 190 gold per point
T3 character - 400 gold per point
T4 character - 840 gold per point

A character built with DM Rewards only thus has the following gold at the end of each tier:
T1 - 1450
T2 - 14940
T3 - 36940
T4 - 58780

Transition process - They get converted to the new system then, based on just hours. You can apply them as-is in the month before transition.

DM Quests - The following ones change. Apply them as-is in the month be transition if desired:
Ritual of Divination
Ritual of Scrying - .5 points
Deja Vu - 1/2/3 points, .1 extra point per hour for players
Bounty hunter - 1/.5 points
Preceptor of Oghma - .1 point per participant per hour
Acolyte of Oghma - If out of game, .5 points
Zealot of Oghma - 3 points, 1 point, 2 points for the respective rewards
Level Up! - .1 points X seasons X years
Martyr for the Cause: 1 point for 4 hours, organizer gets 10 points
Adventure Calls: Double DM Rewards, except DT, plus renown
Slot 0: Double DM Rewards, plus Renown
Fanged DM equivalent: 1 point
Rotting DM Equivalent: 2 points
Scaled Dm Equivalent: 4 points
Withered Dm Equivalent: 4 points
Jungle Guide Equivalent: 1 point
Acererak's Harbinger Equivalent: 8 points