XP Is Not GP

Many newer designs treat experience like a receipt. You went into the hole, you took the coins, you bought the next piece of the kit, and the number on the sheet went up because the wagon got heavier. Palladium does not owe you XP for treasure, and I keep forgetting how much that still bothers people who grew up being paid that way.

The character is already the character. The oath, the job, the code, the skill list that only matters because the world outside the fight is still running. None of that needs a shopping trip to stay true. You do not become more of a priest because you hauled copper out of a basement. You become more of a priest because the village is still a village in the morning.

Magic items in these books are rare, and they change the story when they show up. They are not the story. You are not filling item slots, so the math works next Tuesday. If a rune weapon hits the table, the campaign just grew a new problem, and everybody at the table can feel it.

When people say the game is unbalanced, they usually mean it will not pay them in kit for doing the same activity every night. That is a fair complaint. It also will not.

A miller accused of watering the grain. A count who wants a hanging because the tax is short. A priest who knows the miller didn't do it, and a mercenary who was paid to stand at the scaffold anyway. If that night ends with the miller alive, the count embarrassed, and the road still open, the session is paid. There is no chest. There is a town that will eat in the winter.

I would rather have that than a basement full of copper. Do not put a treasure parcel at the end of the hall. Put a consequence. The miller hangs, or he does not. Level whatever you want after that.