A long time ago, when I was more invested into TTRPGs, I grew increasingly frustrated with the system of only distributing advancement/experience points at the end of a session.
This always made me think that certain challenges could be better dealt with if the players could access/develop abilities as the game progressed in real time.
At some point, I started to divise a play system that relied on a split experience atribution system, with players being able to automatically rack experience points from directly using their skills/habilties, while the DM would keep a tally of points from goals/missions achieved, distributable at session end.
A practical example: a burglar would have the lockpick skill. The skill would be tiered, with each tier having 100 points to max it out, and the higher the tier, the less experience would be given by making use of the skill, as the skill would be further and further refined and new breakthroughs in its understanding become harder to achieve. But DM attributed XP could either be spent towards maxing out the skill faster or gain a new or linked one, like disarming booby traps.
I drifted away from TTRPG and simply let my idea sit in a drawer in a notebook. Today I found my notes again as I was rummaging through the junk and the it brought some nostalgia.
To those with more experience in TTRPGs: would this be feaseable? Or enticing? Interesting?
Hm, the first session I ever ran I had this mentality. The session would entail meeting in a tavern, talking to the locals to gather info on a nearby tournament, and get ambushed on the road by undead. I had listed out every bit of XP that my players could earn along the way, plus a little over in case they did something cool. Both combat XP from killing monsters, as well as passing planned social and exploration checks and player-initiated social and exploration checks.
It was hell. I had a spreadsheet on one screen checking boxes to automatically add stuff (so as easy as it could be), for even the smallest stuff possible. The XP was shared as well, so I wasn’t even counting each player individually. The very next session I decided I’d start doing narrative level ups instead.
The problem with XP systems, especially the ones like Elder Scrolls which levels skills through use, is that it adds a ton of homework to the DM. On top of prepping encounters, quests, maps, NPC’s, oh-shit situation scenarios, etc., doing XP is a bit much, at least for me.
Part of the entire reason I moved away from DnD was the level up system. Savage Worlds is much better in that regard, since on an advancement players can upgrade combat skills, social skills, exploration skills, or gain the equivalent of feats (or remove what would amount to anti-feats) after an important story beat - all from the same point pool. So, an advancement could be achieved after a particularly important conversation or exploration event, and result in non-combat skills being upgraded.