Achievement-Based Character Advancement?

[Yipyioh]

Alright I'll be very straightforward here; I'm looking to see if anyone knows of a supplement or homebrew set of rules for the d20 system in general in which character advancement is not class based... But "Achievement" based.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I'm planning on starting a blind campaign in which I simply tell my players to roll up a statline for a d20 game and then I just start them out describing "You wake up to a dull roaring sound and somewhere close by through your grogginess you hear someone shouting about "flak" and "the DZ" etc etc... I'm going to make a WW2 game with the players starting right in the action as paratroopers and going from there, but I want to give them blank character sheets for them to put their statline on as well as their gear (which I will fill out for them) and nothing else.

So here's the catch; they don't have classes per se... I want them to "level up" based on what they do in the field. They'll all start out as standard GI's with familiarity with American weapons and full proficiency with the basic weapons (M-1 Garand, Cole M1911) but none of them are 'trained' with machinegun use... So if one of them is pushed into utilizing a machinegun and does so well, perhaps after a bit of use he gains full proficiency with it, to the point where he may be designated as the squad machinegunner.

So there's what I want; a system where based on what the characters DO they fall into their classes and roletypes; the guy that crits a lot with his rifle may become the sniper, the man who is most intelligent and happens to patch up his friends falls into place as the medic, etc etc...

I started working on the basis for a simple "achievements" system for this but I wanted to see if this wonderful community has seen or come up with anything like this before. If nothing comes up that fits quite well enough, then I'll dig in and start a thread in Homebrew for my own system :smallcool:

Thanks for any input you guys have!

[HurinTheCursed]

I also prefer this kind of progression when I DM, where you advance your skills, feats and attributes depending on your actions rather than a template. I feel it gives more personality to the character who's less generic and provides a stronger link between roleplay and the character sheet.
But I've never seen that applied to a d20 system so far.

[Callin]

I feel this would be better done in another system. WoD for ease. You use that gun really well you gain 1 dot or for some more indepth GURPS.

[OzymandiasX]

An 'unlock' system might be better at keeping game balance than an 'award' system, which could end up with some characters that are just plain better than others. They'd still gain XP normally, just they could only buy a feat or level up in a class/level they've unlocked, etc.

This could work pretty well for d20 Modern/Past (if that is what you're using, considering you mention firearms) where Base classes and feats are easy to unlock and Advanced Classes are more likely to be only unlocked intentionally.

Examples:
-Successfully convincing an NPC to help the party unlocks Charismatic Hero level 1&2
-Successfully convincing an NPC leader to follow the plan thought up by the party unlocks Charasmatic Hero levels 3&4
-Successfully injuring an opponent with an M1 unlocks the Personal Firearms feat.
-Successfully injuring an opponent with a machine gun unlocks the Advanced Firearms feat.
-Successfully stopping bleeding on 3 fallen allies unlocks the Medic Advanced class

And when your character levels up, they can level in any class that they've unlocked that level for. (Hopefully they'll have several to choose from if they've done some roleplaying and participated in a few combats) If they qualify to get a new feat, they can pick up any feat they've unlocked... etc.

[00dlez]

I feel this would be better done in another system.

I agree - Battletech (IIRC "A Time of War" is the version I am referencing specifically) might be able to give you some ideas.

The basics are that you put X eperience points into a variety of skills and based on reaching certain benchmarks, you get a certain + modifier. Off the top of my head, I think 20 XP was +0 (trained), 30 +1, 50 +2, 80+3, 120 +4 etc etc

Rather than allow players to chose where to place their XP, you could award the XP based on tasks accomplished - for examples sake, say you take the DC-10 for the award of a specific task.


A player scans a tree line before crossing a road and sees an enemy MG nest waiting in ambush, DC 17. That player gets 7 XP towards their Spot check.

The player tips off his sniper buddy who tries to take out the main gunner so they can dash across the road safely - he hits AC 16 and gets 6 points to his BAB.


Feats might be earned differently, such as, well... performing a great feat.


A close quarters fight goes south and a PC is about to be shot by an enemy soldier. On a fellow PCs initiative, they start to grapple with the enemy to prevent the shot, despite being 50 lbs lighter and a few inches shorter, clearly outmatched. However, they end up succeeding and as a result, earn a grappling feat

[Yipyioh]

Thank you guys for your quick input, it's actually helped a good bit in this little time.

I thought it over today and decided I'll leave this thread open for now to see if anyone pops in with a full system they've come up with, but I'm going to start devising my own system as well, which I'll post in the Homebrew section when I get the basics written down.

Essentially I do like the ideas that OzymandiasX posted, but if I use d20 Modern (which I'm pretty set on because the only other systems my group really knows are 3.5, PF, Saga Edition, and Shadowrun) then I wish to do away with classes entirely; this campaign is meant to be an experiment in freeform character "development" as opposed to character "generation."

To that end, my thinking is, broadly, to attach "achievements" to each feat and talent in the d20 Modern core rulebook and keep track of the achievements each character gets. I'd also like to throw in some humorous but flavorful and "historical" feats. An example or two:


[LIST]
Agile Riposte (Feat): Hit an enemy in melee the turn after they miss an attack against you 3 times (can be done in three different occasions against 3 different enemies, or 3x in a row).

Acrobatic (Feat): Either succeed on a great feat with Jumping or Tumbling (DC 20+) or have a knack for the skills (succeed 3x on DC 15+ checks).

Evasion (Fast Hero Talent): Succeed on 3 reflex saves from any sort of attacks which allow a character to attempt a reflex save to halve damage.

Million Dollar Wound (My own feat): Get hit for base damage (weapon's damage roll is 1, before modifiers) 3 times.
Benefit: 1 time per "week" (per session perhaps?) you may turn the damage roll of any attack to its base damage before modifiers. Your ass might turn into swiss cheese but at least it's better than your head.

At the end of each period of play whether it's decided to be an entire session or every encounter, I'll award any achievements that the players get. However, to balance out the fact that some players simply may not have the luck of the dice on their sides and others may be getting achievements left and right, I'm thinking I'll devise a "GI Joe" class for all players who didn't get an achievement to go down the path of. That way if for some reason one player isn't getting any achievements it will only become easier for him to get more achievements as he "levels up." After all, while there may have been plenty of crack snipers, field medics, support gunners, and tank busters in WW2, there was always a call for the solid mobile infantryman. Ain't no shame in just being a rifleman.

[Grinner]

Cascade Failure (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/96589/Cascade-Failure) has something like this.

They're called Minor Ambitions. Basically, any of the players can, at any time, make an offer to complete any sort of task, and the DM chooses to accept or not. Assuming he accepts the offer, he then assigns the task an XP value, and the player may choose to accept the reward value or not.

I actually had an idea for a system based on this mechanic, FATE, and an obscure skill-based d20 variant. Never got beyond the planning stage, though.