Willie the Duck
Hero
It's worse than that. This is the edition where acting outside of your expected role could effectively double to quintuple the effort/adventuring of gaining levels. This happened through the training rules*. Since most of your XP came from GP acquisition, you tended to have approximately as much gp as xp. If the DM determined that your thief character had poorly followed their alignment, done such un-thief-like actions as boldly fighting or failing to show self-interest in acquiring treasure, or failing to pull their weight*, you could end up with a poor performance rating. That means you would need 4 weeks and 6000 gp to level up to level 2, but would only have a little less than 1250 gp to spend. The character would then have to adventure** for another 4,750+ gp (which otherwise would provide 4,750+ more xp to devote towards levels 3 and up), all without gaining new xp.Wow. I had forgotten how punishing the alignment changes were.
*if used, of course
**see contradiction with previous clause
***or work in servitude, exactly what you want to do with your PC when 1 game week was also supposed to equal 1 week IRL.
Suffice to say, this is one of the reasons I'm particularly nonplussed at the value of 'playing Rules As Written' (or claims that one did, BitD) with regards to 1E.
Per AD&D DMG, p.86:
GAINING EXPERIENCE LEVELS Experience points are merely an indicator of the character's progress towards greater proficiency in his or her chosen profession. UPWARD PROGRESS IS NEVER AUTOMATIC. Just because Nell Nimblefingers, Rogue of the Thieves' guild has managed to acquire 1,251 experience points does NOT mean that she suddenly becomes Nell Nimblefingers the Footpad. The gaining of sufficient experience points is necessary to indicate that a character is eligible to gain a level of experience, but the actual award is a matter for you, the DM, to decide.
Consider the natural functions of each class of character. Consider also the professed alignment of each character. Briefly assess the performance of each character after an adventure. Did he or she perform basically in the character of his or her class? Were his or her actions in keeping with his or her professed alignment? Mentally classify the overall performance as:
E - Excellent, few deviations from norm = 1
S- Superior, deviations minimal but noted =2
F - Foir performance, more norm than deviations =3
P- Poor showing with aberrant behavior =4
Clerics who refuse to help and heal or do not remain faithful to their deity, fighters who hang bock from combat or attempt to steal, or fail to boldly lead, magic-users who seek to engage in melee or ignore magic items they could employ in crucial situations, thieves who boldly engage in frontal attacks or refrain from acquisition of an extra bit of treasure when the opportunity presents itself, "cautious" characters who do not pull their own weight - these are all clear examples of a POOR rating.
Award experience points normally. When each character is given his or her total, also give them an alphabetic rating - E, S, F, or P. When a character's total experience points indicate eligibility for an advancement in level, use the alphabetic assessment to assign equal weight to the behavior of the character during each separate adventure - regardless of how many or how few experience points were gained in each. The resulting total is then divided by the number of entries (adventures) to come up with some number from 1 to 4. This number indicates the number of WEEKS the character must spend in study and/or training before he or she actually gains the benefits of the new level. Be certain that all decimals are retained, as each .145 equals a game day.
Not only must game time be spent by the character desiring advancement, but treasure will have to be spent as well. The amount of gold pieces, or the equivalent in value in gems, jewelry, magic items, etc., is found by using the following simple formula:
LEVEL OF THE TRAINEE CHARACTER X 1,500 = WEEKLY COST DURING STUDY/TRAINING.
The level of the aspiring character should be computed at current (not to be gained) level
...
[asides related to independent study for ratings below 2, for Name Level and above, and for Bards]
...
ONCE A CHARACTER HAS POINTS WHICH ARE EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN THE MINIMUM NUMBER NECESSARY TO MOVE UPWARDS IN EXPERIENCE LEVEL, NO FURTHER EXPERIENCE POINTS CAN BE GAINED UNTIL THE CHARACTER ACTUALLY GAINS THE NEW LEVEL
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