Experience points (XP) are the currency by which players gain benefits for their characters. The most common ways to earn XP are through GM intrusions and by discovering new and amazing things. Sometimes experience points are earned during a game session, and sometimes they’re earned between sessions. In a typical session, a player might earn 2 to 4 XP, and between sessions, perhaps another 2 XP (on average). The exact amounts depend on the events of the session and the discoveries made.
At any time, the GM can introduce an unexpected complication for a character. When they intrude in this manner, they must give that character 2 XP. That player, in turn, must immediately give one of those XP to another player and justify the gift (perhaps the other player had a good idea, told a funny joke, performed an action that saved a life, and so on).
Often, the GM intrudes when a player attempts an action that, according to the rules, should be an automatic success. However, the GM is free to intrude at other times. As a general rule, the GM should intrude at least once each session, but no more than once or twice each session per character.
Anytime the GM intrudes, the player can spend 1 XP to refuse the intrusion, though that also means they don’t get the 2 XP. If the player has no XP to spend, they can’t refuse the intrusion.
If a character rolls a 1 on a die, the GM can intrude without giving the character any XP. This kind of intrusion happens immediately or very soon thereafter.
While GM intrusion is interesting, the game also has a more conventional method of awarding XP between sessions. But it has nothing to do with killing monsters.
I know—that’s weird for a lot of players. Defeating opponents in battle is the core way you earn XP in many games. But not in Numenera. I’m a firm believer in awarding players experience points for the thing you expect them to do in the game. Experience points are the reward pellets they get for pushing the button—oh, wait, no, that’s for rats in a lab. Well, same principle: give the players XP for doing a thing, and that thing is what they’ll do.
In Numenera, that thing is discovery.
The core of gameplay in Numenera—the answer to the question “What do characters do in this game?”—is “Discover new things or old things that are new again.” This can be the discovery of something a character can use, like an artifact. It makes the character more powerful because it almost certainly grants a new capability or option, but it’s also a discovery unto itself and results in a gain of experience points.
Discovery can also mean finding a new numenera procedure or device (something too big to be considered a piece of equipment) or even previously unknown information. If the PCs find an ancient hovertrain and get it working again so they can use it to reach a distant location, that’s a discovery. If they locate a signal receiving station and figure out how to turn off the transmission from an overhead satellite that’s causing all the animals in the region to become hostile, that’s a discovery. The common thread is that the PCs discover something that they can understand and put to use. A cure for a plague, the means to draw power from a hydroelectric plant, an operational flying craft, or an injection that grants the knowledge to create a protective force field dome over a structure— these are all discoveries.
Last, depending on the GM’s outlook and the kind of campaign the group wants to play, a discovery could be as abstract as a truth. This could be an ethical idea such as “What goes around comes around,” or it might be an adage such as “Everyone has their price.”
Typically, the PCs will earn about half their total experience points by making discoveries.
Sometimes, a group will have an adventure that doesn’t deal primarily with uncovering the past or exploring ruins for artifacts. In this case, it’s a good idea for the GM to award XP for accomplishing other tasks. A goal or a mission is normally worth 1 to 4 XP for each PC involved, depending on the difficulty and length of the work. As a general rule, a mission should be worth at least 1 XP per game session involved in accomplishing it.
For example, saving a family on an isolated farm beset by abhuman raiders might be worth 1 XP for each character. Of course, saving the family might mean relocating them, parleying with the abhumans, or chasing off the raiders. It doesn’t have to mean slaying all the abhumans, although that would work, too.
Delivering a message to a remote village high in the mountains that requires the PCs to climb in dangerous conditions and risk possible attacks by bandits is probably a mission worth 2 XP per character.
On the other hand, if the PCs can fly safely over the mountains or teleport to the village, the mission is probably worth just 1 XP per character. Thus, GM awards are based not only on the task, but on the PCs and their capabilities as well.
However, that doesn’t mean the characters should earn fewer XP if they make a lot of lucky rolls or devise a clever plan to overcome obstacles. Being lucky or smart doesn’t make a difficult challenge less difficult—it just means the PCs succeed more easily.
Players can create their own missions by setting goals for their characters. If they succeed, they earn XP just as if they were sent on the mission by an NPC. For example, if the characters decide on their own to help find a lost caravan in the mountains, that’s a goal and a mission.
Sometimes character goals are more personal. If a PC vows to avenge the death of her brother, that’s still a mission. These kinds of goals that are important to a character’s background should be set at or near the outset of the game. When completed, a character goal should be worth at least 1 XP (and perhaps as much as 4 XP) to the PC. This encourages players to develop their character’s background and to build in opportunities for action in the future. Doing so makes the background more than just backstory or flavor—it becomes something that can propel the campaign forward. With GM approval, players can also earn XP advances for building a background.
Experience points are meant to be used. Hoarding them is not a good idea, and if a player ever accumulates more than 10 XP at once, the GM can require them to spend some immediately.
Generally, experience points can be spent in four ways: immediate benefits, short-term and medium-term benefits, long-term benefits, and character advancement.
The easiest, most straightforward way for a player to use XP is to reroll any roll in the game—even one that they didn’t make. This costs 1 XP per reroll. The player can reroll and use either the new roll or the original, whichever is better. They can continue to spend XP on more rerolls, but this can quickly become an expensive proposition. It’s a fine way to attempt to prevent a disaster, but it’s not a good idea to use a lot of XP to reroll a single action over and over.
As mentioned earlier, a player can also spend 1 XP to refuse a GM intrusion.
By spending 2 XP, a character can gain a skill—or, more rarely, an ability—that provides a short-term benefit. For example, let’s say that a character notices that all the locks in the Citadel of the Iron Saint are similar to those crafted by a locksmith who worked in her village when she was young. She spends 2 XP and says that in her youth, she visited the locksmith and learned the inner workings of those locks. As a result, she is trained in picking the locks in the Citadel of the Iron Saint. This is just like being trained in lockpicking, but it applies only to locks found in that particular location. The skill is extremely useful in the citadel, but nowhere else.
Medium-term benefits are usually story based. For example, a character can spend 2 XP while climbing through mountains and say that she has experience with climbing in regions like these, or perhaps she spends the XP after she’s been in the mountains for a while and says that she’s picked up the feel for climbing there. Either way, from now on, she is trained in climbing in those mountains. This helps her now and any time she returns to the area, but she’s not trained in climbing everywhere.
This method allows a character to get immediate training in a skill for half the normal cost. (Normally, it costs 4 XP to become trained in a skill, as explained in Character Advancement.) It’s also a way to gain a new skill even if the PC has already gained a new skill as a step toward attaining the next tier.
In rare cases, a GM might allow a character to spend 2 XP to gain an entirely new ability— such as a device, an esotery, or a mental power—for a short time, usually no longer than the course of one scenario. The player and the GM should agree on a story-based explanation for the benefit. Perhaps the esotery or ability has a specific, rare requirement, such as a tool, a battery, a drug, or some kind of treatment.
For example, a character who wants to explore a submerged location has several numenera components, and they spend 2 XP to cobble together a device for breathing underwater. This gives them the ability for a considerable length of time, but not permanently—the device might work for only eight hours. Again, the story and the logic of the situation dictate the parameters.
In many ways, the long-term benefits a character can gain by spending XP are a means of integrating the mechanics of the game with the story. Players can codify things that happen to their characters (or that they want to have happen to their characters) by talking to the GM and spending 3 XP.
For example, a Jack named Therik spends a long time posing as a librarian in a huge library in the river city of Charmonde so he can intercept messages secretly disseminated from the head scribe to a group of criminals. During that time, he becomes very familiar with using a library. Therik’s player talks with the GM and says that he would like to have the Jack’s experiences have a lasting effect on the character. He spends 3 XP and gains familiarity with research of all kinds.
Some things that a PC can acquire as a long-term benefit are story based. For example, in the course of play, the character might gain a friend (a contact) or build a log cabin (a home). These benefits are probably not the result of spending XP. The new contact comes to the PC and starts the relationship. The new home is granted to them as a reward for service to a powerful or wealthy patron, or maybe the character inherits the home from a relative or just stumbles into it.
Things that affect character abilities, like a familiarity or an artifact, are different. They likely require XP and time, money, and so on. Long-term benefits can include the following.
Progressing to the next tier involves four steps. When a character has spent XP on each of the four steps, they advance to the next tier and gain all the benefits of that tier, both from their character type and from their character focus. Each step costs 4 XP. The four steps can be purchased in any order, but each can be purchased only once per tier. In other words, a character must buy all four steps and advance to the next tier before they can buy the same step again.
Tiers in Numenera aren’t entirely like levels in other roleplaying games. In Numenera, gaining levels is not the players’ only goal or the only measure of achievement. Starting (first-tier) characters are already competent, and there are only six tiers. Character advancement has a power curve, but it’s only steep enough to keep things interesting. In other words, gaining levels is cool and fun, but it’s not the only path to success or power. If you spend all your XP on immediate and short-term benefits, you would be different from someone who spends their points on long-term benefits, but you would not be “behind” that character.
The general idea is that most characters will spend half their XP on tier advancement and long-term benefits, and the rest on immediate and short-term benefits (which are used during gameplay). Some groups might decide that XP earned during a game is to be spent on immediate and short-term benefits (gameplay uses), and XP awarded between sessions for discoveries is to be spent on character advancement (long-term uses).
Ultimately, the idea is to make experience points into tools that the players and the GM can use to shape the story and the characters, not just a bookkeeping hassle.
It’s worthwhile if all characters advance through the six tiers at about the same rate—an important issue for some players. A good GM can achieve this result by carefully handing out XP rewards, some during play (which will tend to get used immediately) and some after play concludes, especially after completing a major story arc or quest so the GM can hand out 4 XP in one go (which will tend to get used for advancement). Many groups will discover while playing that equal advancement isn’t an important issue in Numenera, but people should get to play the game the way they want to play it.