Prior History

[MarcCCTx]

Has anyone ever published a Prior Histories System similar to T20's for other D20 games?

Man, I hate giving out experience points to raise new characters, to the parties experience level. I would especially like to see something like this for fantasy games. And expanded versions for T20; don't let someone play an alien with Alien Levels (or a fantasy race with a level adjustment) until they buy them off with Past Histories.

 

[Reginald]

For powerful races, I am thinking of giving them Prior History XP Multiplier.

 

[Tom Schoene]

Originally posted by MarcCCTx:
Has anyone ever published a Prior Histories System similar to T20's for other D20 games?

Man, I hate giving out experience points to raise new characters, to the parties experience level. I would especially like to see something like this for fantasy games. And expanded versions for T20; don't let someone play an alien with Alien Levels (or a fantasy race with a level adjustment) until they buy them off with Past Histories.

I don't know of any published ones but QuikLink did publish Thomas Low-Jone's article on how to create Prior Histories in other d20 games.

Create Your Own Prior History

 

[Reginald]

I knew. It's a pretty good article. Unfortunately, the Prior History rules only benefit standard race, those without level adjustment, like the powerful races.

I mean if you're going to create Prior History for Forgotten Realms which have Drow Elf as powerful PC race, then they would advance slowly and won't benefit much from it.

Sorry, I tend to think in terms of the bigger picture, like the entire hodgepodge of d20 rules mechanics.

 

[tjoneslo]

Isn't the point of the level adjustment system that the powerful races advance more slowly in relation to less powerful races?

I'm not a D&D faniatic (see, I play Traveller...), but if you can explain how the level adjustment does (or should in your view) work with a prior history system, I can come up with a set of consistent rules.

For example, I have two characters, a human and a drow elf. The human starts at 1st level and levels up normally. The Drow Elf, because she has magic resistance, innate spells, and a bunch of other cool powers starts at 5th level.

If (through a prior history system) I give both characters say 2001 xp, the human is now 3rd level, and the drow is still 5th level (1st level character). So should the drow get more experience because they are higher level?

 

[BrennanHawkwood]

I am working on coming up with a set of past histories for the Wheel of Time d20 game. By and large everyone is human so I don't need to worry about characters starting with different levels. So far it looks like I am going to like using it, but it does take a while to come up with a bunch of good descriptions and getting the benefits balanced.

 

[lightsenshi]

That's where the ECL rules come into play. The character has to advance to a certain number of experience points before they can gain anothe level.

For example, my half celestial is an ECL-3. Which means to get to class level 2, he has to gain K10 experience. He's equivalent to a level 5 human (really, he is ) but his class level is only 2. Always subtract ECL level to determine class level.

Clear as mud? Good.

 

[Reginald]

Originally posted by tjoneslo:
Isn't the point of the level adjustment system that the powerful races advance more slowly in relation to less powerful races?

I'm not a D&D faniatic (see, I play Traveller...), but if you can explain how the level adjustment does (or should in your view) work with a prior history system, I can come up with a set of consistent rules.

For example, I have two characters, a human and a drow elf. The human starts at 1st level and levels up normally. The Drow Elf, because she has magic resistance, innate spells, and a bunch of other cool powers starts at 5th level.

If (through a prior history system) I give both characters say 2001 xp, the human is now 3rd level, and the drow is still 5th level (1st level character). So should the drow get more experience because they are higher level?

At least you got the gist of level adjustment or the other term, effective character level. Another way of looking at LA or ECL: it is the "monster class level."

The reason for level adjustment is an attempt to balance the inherent traits that would make the race more powerful than the standard race (human being the model for all standard races). But despite their powerful traits, it does not account for the normal rate of advancement.

For example, if you put a human and drow elf in college with the same intelligence score and receive the same grade, in 4 years both would graduate with the same newly acquired knowledge and experience in college. But in game term, the advantage would go to the humans.

So I figured that in Prior History one would compensate the powerful race's level adjustment by multpliying the XP earned during their character creation before gameplay.

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Reginald:
<snip>
But in game term, the advantage would go to the humans.

So I figured that in Prior History one would compensate the powerful race's level adjustment by multpliying the XP earned during their character creation before gameplay.

As you say that's exactly the point of ECL et al, the game is built to favor (poorly at times) Humans to make them the first choice as a PC. Hence the extra skill points and feats among other things. If you do as you want above (which is fine for your game) then no one will want to play a Human (which may be your point or not).

As for the challenge rating (not really addressed in your example) I can see that the level 1 Human going to college is going to find it a stimulating challenge (good xp value) while the level 5 Drow is going to be bored out of his mind (poor xp value) as he lived the "history" lessons (due to his long life) and already spent a lot of years in study. Just my opinion but I think the system makes some sense as it is, if you want to play differently that's fine but look out for game balance as you tweak

 

[Reginald]

Well, that depends.

I don't think one should equate powerful race as being very slow, just because the ECL rules compensate their inherent traits that to them it is perceived as "their standard" (and in their view, the humans are "substandard").

Remember, their skill point allotment is dependent on the class(es) they've chosen, and none from their "monster class." So if a human advances in level (and gain skill points to acquire & improve skils) upon completing college, the powerful race may not advance and thus will not have their college experience and knowledge reflected in their stats.

 

[tjoneslo]

I understand what you are getting at. I think it's wrong because it breaks the (all-important?) game balance.

But, there is a formula for determing the D20 XP chart. IIRC: (CurrentLevel +1) * 2 * 1000. Multiply the experience gained in Prior history by the same factor. For example, A creature with ECL:5 starts with 12,000 xp, so muliply all of their xp rewards (for prior history only) by 6. So where the human gains 1000 xp (and a level), the Drow Elf gains 6000 xp (and a level).

 

[Reginald]

Perhaps. But if this is not a level-based game, you would have no problem mixing up powerful races with humans, all of them with various experiences, like in Star Trek.

BTW, I prefer to use the Forgotten Realms version of the Drow Elf as PC (Level Adjustment +2).

 

[MarcCCTx]

Actually, I'm think more of a Past History for ECLs or Monster Levels.

MONSTER LIFE

reenlist: automatic

starting age: 15 (or whatever)
term length: 4 ( x relative lifespan to Human.
survival: 10 (CON or best trait of race)
advance: 15 (CHA)
XP: 4000 if you survive, 1000 if you don't.

Keep rolling until you pay off your Monster or ECL levels.

Then come up with a nifty Survival Failure chart.

(I wrote this thinking fantasy D20, but it could be modified for Sci-Fi races, too)

 

[Reginald]

I don't think you want to give 4,000 XP for anyone whose Level Adjustment is +1 (e.g., Aasimar).

Besides, the "monster level" is about the creature growing up from baby to an adult.