I have switched my ongoing Middle-earth d20 campaign to The One Ring RPG. I want to give the player-heroes the benefit of the earlier sessions in terms of Experience Points and Advancement Points. Experience Points are no problem as they are more dependent on the total number of sessions ran. Given the randomness of Advancement Point awards though, I was wondering how many Advancement Points your player-heroes seem to have been earning for each Adventuring Phase (i.e., session)? I am thinking of having each player roll a d6 for every session played ... maybe I should add a bonus of +2 per session? Does 3-8 points seem too generous ... too lenient? Should I just award a flat number to each? Thanks for any advice offered.

I would say,roughly twice as many as experience points. More than that and the emphasis will be taken off combat skills, valour and wisdom. Less than that and it won't be long before the common skills are left behind. So 1-2 experience points and 2-4 advancements seems about right to me.

The advancement points have been working out as around the same or less than the experience points, especially with a combat intensive session. The advancement points are mainly being attained during the journey and in social situations. Maybe I'm being too mean, only really awarding them for exceptional successes. I need to remind players to tag their traits when applicable to gain advancement points.

We've been averaging 2-3 Experience points per session, and 4-6 Advancement points, I'd say, so yeah, roughly 2-1.

John

Player-heroes will be gaining 1-2 Experience points at the end of every session to spend, but they will not spend any Advancement points until the Fellowship phase begins.

On page 120 of the Loremaster's Book, it states that an average year of Adventuring is 4-6 sessions in length. It says that this will yield an average of 13 Experience points per year (but I don't see how that adds up if they are only getting 1-2 points per session). My understanding is 8-12 points per year. These will be used to increase Wisdom and Valour and Weapon skills.

Heroes can gain a maximum of 18 Advancement points over the course of an Adventuring phase. These will only be used to increase Common skills and will only happen during the Fellowship phase, NOT at the end of every session like Experience points. So, I encourage players to really utilize tasks and as the Loremaster, I try to build creative tests so that they are using Common skills quite often. I make it the goal for my players to gain as many of the 18 Advancement points as possible.

Okay, I have to correct myself on this issue (Stop it James, I'm tired of the arguing!).

On page 17 of the Loremaster's Book it states that up to 2 supplementary Experience points may be awarded per session. This makes it possible to get 3 points per session. That third point can be awarded to players who have shown exceptional roleplaying and cleverness.

So, with 4-6 sessions per Adventuring phase, player-heroes can earn 4-18 Experience points. If an average adventure is five sessions and they earn at least 3 points during three of those sessions, they will have earned 13 points.

I just realized that if you had 6 sessions and earned 3 points per session, you could potentially earn MORE Experience points over the course of an Adventuring phase than Advancement points.

Ok, I need to correct myself again!

BOTH Advancement points and Experience points aren't spent until the Fellowship phase.

If an average Adventuring phase comprises of 5 sessions, heroes would earn 5 Experience points, plus 5 more additional points for making progress toward the Company objective. That's 10 points.

Then, the Loremaster can award a number of supplemental points for good roleplaying equal to no more than 1 point for every two sessions. That's 3 more points (if you round up).

Therefore, an average Adventuring phase will yield 13 Experience points per player.