Gold Use, Downtime and XP acquisition

Written by ielliott

These rules are designed to synthesize together a number of different game aspects to provide a mechanical structure and benefit whilst shaping the narrative aspects of levelling up, in an attempt to improve the verisimilitude of the world.
These rules are intended to supplement the rules in the player's handbook and will replace in large part the acquisition of XP through killing creatures or 'milestone XP'
These rules are intended to create roleplaying and narrative opportunities, rather than constrain them, and to reduce the immersion breaking assumption of "I have killed enough creatures in this dungeon that I can have a sleep and then level up".
The central idea is that money is the measurable quantitative value of power. All sentients will inevitably seek to achieve power over others (or so at least so the Priests of Riceter say). The amount of money that one can use to shape the world around you is thus analogous to the power an individual can wield. There are other, indirect manifestations of power: duty, oaths, familial ties, rumor or force of arms; but all of these are simply ways to offset that fundamental expenditure of money.

Core mechanic

The core mechanic is to introduce a new Downtime activity that associates a rate of Experience Point gain to the non-refundable use of money in the world around you. A player chooses a Method for their Development of Power , and then can track the amount of money they invest in that method. As with all costs in Avaritia these costs are offered in Silver Pieces.
As a player invests money they will accrue experience points in line with the Method's rate, listed as XP per 10 SP. A player may only invest a maximum amount of money per week, as determined by the method's Investment Rate. At various points, as listed in the appropriate method's subsection, the player will unlock milestones after investing specific amounts of money. The benefit offered by these milestones vary depending on the method of Development of Power chosen.
As the different methods of accruing power advance your class level at different rates, it is possible for a level disparity to appear between party members if they choose different areas of focus. The intention however is that by acquiring different perks these characters should be interesting and engaging to play together, regardless of choice.
This will also necessitate more thought in investment in gear and its repair. Is it more helpful to stay in your studded leather armor and reach level 3 or would it be better to have that chainmail you've had your eye on?
The system intentionally offers themes and directions with its mechanics but deliberately leaves the roleplaying specifics open to the Player.
How difficult it is to find these intended sinks can be a narrative decision and should be a discussion between the player and the DM. It may be easy to find a trainer to train your Lvl 1 fighter in any inn which services washed up soldiers, but finding someone who can teach advanced tumbling talents to a high level rogue may involve trying to track down performers from a circus doing a tour of the ducal capitals. Finding the perfect trainer for a talent or finding that wizarding master should add to the overall sense of immersion, it shouldn't be something which interrupts the players enjoyment of the game.

Development of Power	XP per 10 SP	Milestone Reward	Investment Rate (Active Play)	Investment Rate (Downtime)
Class Training	5	Additional XP, Multiclasses	(CLASS+Prof)*100 SP/week	(CLASS+Prof)*200 SP/week
Talent Training	4	Talent Points	0 SP/week	(INT+Prof)*200 SP/week
Connections and Contacts	3	Connections and Contacts	(CHA+Prof)*50 SP/week	(CHA+Prof)*200 SP/week
Great Works	2	Great Work Perks, fame, additional XP	(CLASS+INT+WIS+CHA+Prof)*500 SP/week	(CLASS+INT+WIS+CHA+Prof)*600 SP/week

For example, the party is level 3 and has acquired a large hoard of treasure (10,000SP each) and intend to make use of it over the course of an extended period of downtime over the winter months. Artur's Artificer wants to level up as quickly as possible and so spends 9,500SP in Class Training with his artificer's guild and, with milestones, reaches level 5. Ben's Sorcerer has an eye on some new talents and so spends 10,000SP in Talent Training, acquiring 3 talent points and reaching level 4 but is still 1,600XP short of level 5. Lastly, Cameron's Bard wants to make sure he doesn't fall behind, spending 3,000SP in Class training to allow him to reach level 4 and multiclass into warlock. He also spends a further 2,000SP in Connections, trying to find his warlock patron, and saves the last 5,000SP to put towards that Inn he's always planned on setting up, maybe if he had a base of operations, his information organisation might take off better...

Class Training

Class Training is a broad term to encompass any Development of Power which focuses primarily on the furthering of the core features of your class. It is the most efficient way to gain experience, as it is money spent in pure pursuit of prowess but does not offer any other benefits.
The form of Class Training will vary from class to class and player to player. It might be your fighter paying a local soldier to act as a personal trainer, your rogue buying poison ingredients and training dummies or your cleric making regular donations to your local church to advance your position in the hierachy. Regardless of how you choose to flavour the training, the sources of the training will usually be able to found in the local area without too much issue, with Tier 1 PCs able to find a suitable trainer in most small towns, Tier 2 PCs able to find a suitable trainer in most cities and capitals, etc. These can either be individuals you find in exploration and roleplay or through the finding of Contacts and Connections, see below.
The XP per 10SP gained is 5, with an investment rate of (Main class ability + Proficiency Modifier)*200SP. The main class ability is defined by the player in choosing which class he is training. For a spellcasting class like a wizard, this is clear and is INT, similarly a druid would be WIS. A fighter is less clear and might be either DEX or STR depending on how the player is developing their character. A monk might be WIS or DEX and a Barbarian may in fact feel that CON is the fundamental characteristic of his character. The intention is not to limit the choice of Ability Stat chosen and the player should feel free to pick the stat they feel most narratively and mechanically fits the PC they are playing. Player's may also add an additional Bonus to their Proficiency modifier equal to their Fame. This is to represent how a famous hero is able to draw more effective support in training them or advancing their cause.
The most efficient way to gain Class Training is to use your Downtime on it, however you might be able to convince your trainer to come with you or to apply the advice you have recieved from a sage whilst on the road, and so there is a possibility to gain XP whilst in Active Play.
Milestones for Class Training is an additional chunk of XP which is acquired immediately on attaining the milestone. The player gains an additional 1 XP per 10SP spent on the milestone. The other perk associated with Class Training milestones is the ability to multiclass. To multiclass the player must spend the appropriate sum of money attaining a milestone in Class Training associated with the class they wish to multiclass into.
In our above example, Cameron's Level 3 Bard wishes to multiclass into Warlock. To do so he must spend at least 500SP on class training with a trainer appropriate for a warlock (in this case, his fey patron).

Current Proficiency Bonus	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6
Cost in SP to reach milestone	500 SP	1000 SP	2000 SP	4000 SP	8000 SP
Additional XP	50 XP	100 XP	200 XP	400 XP	800 XP

Talent Training

Talent Training is a less efficient way to advance your main class but helps to develop additional skills and abilities as can be found in Talent Trees and Talent Points.
The form that the Talent Training will take varies depending primarily upon which talent the player wishes to learn. If the character is trying to learn acrobatic talents then it might be most appropriate to seek out a local circus, however, the player may instead feel the best local source of knowledge would actually be the rigging crew of a large ship and so search out a naval crew instead! A student of the arcane might search out a sage in a local court or library of the town, or might instead decide that the best location to learn the talent would instead be from the Battle Mage in a local mercenary company.
These forms of training provide great opportunities for NPCS and contacts to be developed and fleshed out, either through a game of 'who you know' or by attempting to cajole reluctant tutors through side quests. The development of Connection and Contacts and Fame will also impact the ability of players to find the appopriate people to offer them instruction.
The XP per 10SP gained is 4, with an investment rate of (Intelligence Modifier +Proficiency Modifier)*200 SP/week. Intelligence in this case being a function of how quickly a character can absorb new concepts. Player's may also add an additional Bonus to their Proficiency modifier equal to their Fame. This is to represent how a famous hero is able to draw more effective support in training them or advancing their cause.
The only effective way to develop Talents is to spend Downtime in their training. It is simply infeasible to perfect these specific techniques whilst concentrating on adventuring, and you may find that many scholars are simply unwilling to join you on the road!
Each milestone completed gives the player one Talent Point. The assumption is that this represents the completion of a training regime in that specific talent and therefore can be spent immediately, a player does not need to wait until a level up to spend a talent point.
The cost to acquire a Talent Point increases sharply as a character's proficiency modifier increases, representing the difficulty in teaching an old dog new tricks! It also serves to limit the potential for players to gain very large amounts of talents throughout their career.
The cost to acquire a Talent Point also increases when a character has acquired a number of Talent Points equal to their proficiency modifier. This limit resets when your proficiency modifier increases.
e.g. Ben's Lvl 3 Sorcerer spends 5000SP and unlocks 2 Talent points. He has now matched his proficiency modifier of +2 and so his third Talent Point costs another 5000SP to reach the milestone. He has also gained a total of 4000XP and reaches level 4 with 1600XP left to go until level 5. When he reaches level 5 his proficiency modifier will increase to +3, at this time his Talent Point tally resets to 0 and he can continue accruing them at the lower rate.

Current Proficiency Bonus	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6
Initial cost in SP to reach milestone	2500 SP	5000 SP	10000 SP	20000 SP	40000 SP
Available number of milestones at lower cost	2	3	4	5	6
Later cost in SP to reach milestone	5000 SP	10000 SP	20000 SP	40000 SP	80000 SP

Connections

In Avaritia, its not just what you know, but who you know that matters. In a city of 200,000 souls such as Frithceap, meeting and greeting everyone is both an impossibility and a waste of time! Instead, many rely on the networks set up by various informants in the know, known as Contacts who can act as introducers to important people, finds of valuable items or sources of useful intelligence.
When a character invests wealth and effort into cultivating connections they are broadly utilising one of the below aspects:

• Making Introductions

• Gather Intelligence

• Finding Contraband and Curios

• Spreading Fame

Current Proficiency Bonus	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6
Cost in SP to reach milestone	1000SP	1500SP	2000SP	2500SP	3000SP

Making Introductions involves a carefully orchestrated of 'chance encounters', gifts which are definitely not bribes and continued schmoozing to try and make an 'in' with the desired target. Characters might try and meet contacts who have a specific skill or profession they are interested in learning, to try and gather critical information only known to select groups, to forge fast friends and allys or to get access to items and wares that will be sold only to a few.
When a Character starts Making Introductions, they choose a contact they want to develop, using the mechanics detailed in Contacts.
When they have spent enough wealth to reach a milestone (see above) they make an Introductions roll on the d20 chart below. The Character makes a d20 roll, adding their proficiency modifier and their Fame to the roll. If they have now got enough Contact Points to develop the contact, their overtures have been successful, else they need to continue investing in Making Introductions to acquire further Contact Points to assign to that contact.

d20	Contact Points
1-9	2
10-13	4
14-16	6
17-18	8
19	10
20+	13
25	18

Gathering Intelligence can be a costly affair, as developing multiple lines of enquiry often entails oiling many hands, as such it is not typically used to find out the next type of novelty bread Bjorn the Baker is making, but to spy (sorry, accumulate information) on organisations, guilds, enemies or even allies. The check requires a Network (either through an appropriate contact, or an Establishment Stronghold).
The information gained should be interesting, actionable and useful to the player who invested in finding this out when successfully acquired. The difficulty in acquiring the information is based on how big the organisation is, how covert the organisation is, and how protective the organisation is.
To make the check, after a player reaches a Connections milestone they roll a D20 and add the Importance level of the operating contact. If using an establishment stronghold, the player would be proficient in such rolls and receive further benefits based on the size of the establishment.

Finding Contraband and Curios is an essential part of a budding adventurer becoming a famous professional hero. By utilising fixers and other contacts well used to hunting down such items, characters can ask for guidance of where they would acquire specific items which would be hard to find just walking the stalls of the Old Frithceap Market. Whether you're searching for elusive magical items, illegal goods or the perfect buyer for a unique item, the use of fixers is perfect for tracking down such leads. The difficulty is set by the rarity of the item in question - some might be so well known that just a few silver pieces in the right hands will do the trick, whereas others involve a roll, with the difficulty in question created by the scarcity of the item in question, the location being searched, the reputation of the investigator and previous attempts
To make the check, after a player reaches a Connections milestone they roll a D20 and add the Importance level of the searching contact if any. If the player chooses to make known that they are searching for such an item, they can also add their Fame modifier.
Lastly, utilising Connections, characters can attempt to increase their Fame. Fame acts as a metric of success for the myriad competing bands of adventurers in Frithceap. After all, you can't call yourself a hero if the bards aren't singing your exploits in taverns across the City.
When adventurers complete great deeds of interest to bards, they can approach them to ensure that everyone else hears about their exploits. With the investment of suitable coin in the right bard(s) hands you can ensure that your name is on the lips of every man, woman and halfling in Frithceap, but be warned, whilst tales of giant-slaying remain on gossipers lips for posterity, smaller victories tend to fall by the wayside quickly.
When a suitably famous act has been completed, completing a connections milestone and assigning it to paying for bards, will increase a character's fame by 1 and earn them an epithet. In rare cases of extraordinary performances by PC bards, the party may be able to write and propagate their own epic telling of their deeds.
(N.B. I'm planning some kind of decay rate for Fame, such that adventurers who fail to continuously perform are quickly forgotten)

The XP per 10SP gained is 3, with an investment rate of (Charisma modifier+Proficiency)*50 SP/week. If the character spends their time actively involving themselves, with schmoozing, carousing and generally overseeing matters this investment rate increases to (Charisma modifier+Proficiency)*200 SP/week. Player's may also add an additional Bonus to their Proficiency modifier equal to their Fame. This is to represent how a famous hero is able to draw attention and support more easily.

Great Works

The intention of this section of options is to give players mechanical support for interaction with the world around them in running businesses: I intend to use rules from both Stronghold and Followers, by Matt Colville and Acquisition's Incorporated by WOTC. I have both sets of rules available, but as they are not in the SRD cannot upload them here.
As a category, Great Works advance a character's experience by not nearly as much as other options, however, the campaign and world impacts can be much greater. The intention is to have this be the catchall for expenditures on a grand scale that characters might make, whilst not constraining a character's choices. Broadly speaking wealth will be spent in two subcategories:

• Construction Projects

• Running a Franchise

When investing in a construction project, the player should work with the DM to come up with a narratively appropriate goal to invest in. This should be something that has a personal significance to the character and will carry with it strong mechanical advantages for its completion. Furthermore this is something sure to catch the eye of interested parties, increasing a characters Fame. The suggested options in Stronghold and Followers give ideas broadly divided into 4 categories: Keep, Temple, Tower, Establishment. Each option provides a mechanical and narrative advantage based on the category but also based on the class of its creator. For example a Tower allows the research of powerful new spells, and a Wizard's Library grants the wizard the limited ability to concentrate on two spells at once. They also gain further, more powerful, abilities when in the vicinity of the Stronghold, similar to a Villain's Lair actions.
As characters become more famous, their adventuring may take on a buisness aspect of its own. Many adventuring bands find they eventually end up running their own franchise of the Adventurer's Guild, cultivating their image, running their own premises and dispatching hirelings on missions below the notice of the faces of the band. This will utilise the Acquisitions Incorporated rules and the upkeep costs associated with running the franchise can be counted for the purposes of XP gain.
The XP per 10SP gained is 2, with an investment rate of (CLASS+INT+WIS+CHA+Proficiency)*500 SP/week. If the character spends their time overseeing matters this investment rate increases to CLASS+INT+WIS+CHA+Proficiency)*600SP/week.. Player's may also add an additional Bonus to their Proficiency modifier equal to their Fame. This is to represent how a famous hero is able to draw more effective support and can hire on more skilled workers more easily.