Milestone Leveling and XP Leveling Compromise

The debate rages on between XP and Milestones. Perhaps "rages" is overdramatic - it's a conversation that will eternally exist because the answer is different for each table. Milestones seems to be the most popular option in the mainstream crowd, but I suspect my readers (hey, thats you!) lean more toward the older-school XP. Here, I attempt to find a middle ground. Let's create something that is neither comparable to accounting nor has the players asking "do we level up yet?" every session. We can call it Furlong Leveling, because the markers aren't as long as Milestones. Or we can call it "Experiences" Leveling, because it is based on discrete events rather than numerical values.

Goblin Punch wrote about The Legendarium and Popcorn Leveling. These are my primary inspirations, and this leveling system should be compatible with Legendarium-style bonuses (though not with Popcorn Leveling).

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Each player, in addition to their character sheet, has a list of Experiences. Each Experience is one line, and the first page should have 29 lines. This will last up to level 5. Here's a printable one with level markers on it.

An Experience can be:

• Obtaining a treasure
• Thwarting a powerful foe
• Completing the quest
• Making history

Each of these things is something that can be written down as an Experience and grants the player character a title like "Gognord the Minotaur Slayer", "Xenna, Wearer of the Flame Pendant" or "John the Negotiator". NPCs should refer to the characters this way sometimes, to give the players a sense of earning renown.

You go from level 0 to 1 with your first Experience. To use The Portal Under the Stars as an example, there are (maybe) two Experiences characters can gain here: the powerful foe and the treasure. You reach subsequent levels when you have filled a number of lines according to the following chart. Astute DCC players will see how I reached these numbers.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Experiences	1	5	11	19	29	41	55	71	89	109

Your players should be able to have one or two Experiences each session, though it's not guaranteed if they're the type to faff around a lot. All characters involved in the game session get the Experience.

Here are some more details about what counts as an Experience. These things are chosen to encourage fun adventures and are at the Judge's discretion.

Obtain Treasure: "Treasure" is an artifact whose primary value to the players is its monetary worth. It is something they can sell either for a hefty sum of gold, or choose to keep for bragging rights. The exact value that counts depends on the economy of your world, but the main point is that the Mona Lisa counts as treasure but a +1 sword doesn't, even if the sword is worth a lot of gold. Exceptions are mentioned below.

Thwart Foe: Defeating someone legendary or someone by whom you are truly outmatched. A small group of level 1 characters taking out a bugbear boss could count, but to a group of level 5 character's that might just be an average Tuesday. Note that foes must only be thwarted, not necessarily killed or defeated.

Complete Quest: Saving the blacksmith's daughter. This is usually completing a task for someone, giving them good reason to praise your name, though it could also be obtaining a particular artifact of legend or a long-term personal goal.

Making History: This can be anywhere from brokering an alliance to preventing (or causing) an apocalypse. If it goes in the history books, it counts. Being granted a fiefdom or becoming the owner of a legendary artifact can be making history.

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This system has the following advantages:

• No need for accounting, like milestones
• Players track and see their progress, like XP
• More compatible with sandbox play than milestones
• PCs get titles, titles are cool

For further reading on alternate XP for DCC, Scrolls from the Toaster wrote Fellowship Experience which is about having the players reward each other.