Experience and Loot

Experience and loot in Cormyr is given on a standardized basis. Each encounter run in Cormyr has a point value associated with it, which results in a standardized reward of EXP and gold. An adventure or encounter is rated by the number of 'points' it is worth, with each point corresponding to between one and two hours of continuous game play during an encounter. This allows for GMs to scale the effort involved with an encounter based on their own time limit and that of the players.

Cormyr has taken an approach based off of the systems used for real-world living campaigns. Instead of awarding items for adventures and encounters, players receive points which correspond to experience and gold amounts. This will be explained below. For now, just understand that  a character will never receive an item from an adventure  (Unless it's simply a roleplay tool with no gameplay mechanic advantage, that's okay.), but instead will receive gold value.

Players can voluntarily pass on experience and gold gained from an encounter, but if they do so they gain neither experience or gold (a PC must take both or pass on both as if they had never been on the adventure). To do so, simply do not include the encounter in the points log. Experience and gold can only be applied to a sheet outside of encounters. You may not level up a character durring an encounter, it can only occur in downtime between encounters.

Experience and Loot
Experience and Loot are delivered on a point basis determined by the value of an encounter. Experience and loot are linked via the point reward system to ensure a proper cadence between character wealth and level, so each time a point is a awarded through an encounter, the character will advance closer to the next level and also gain a portion of gold based on the Pathfinder character wealth table from the Core Rulebook. The number of points necessary to gain a level increase as a character levels up, similar to traditional experience systems.

Points will only be awarded to a character if the encounter being run presents an appropriate challenge level for the character. (No experience if a level 10 runs an encounter against four goblins, for instance.) However, GMs have the option, at their discretion, to allow higher level players to adventure alongside lower level players, if they specifically and effectively account for it within the design of the adventure. GMs will make efforts to include mis-leveled players in encounters in this manner when possible, but are not required to do so if it will disrupt the integrity of the gaming experience for those involved.

Points to Next Level - This table lists each level, and next to it lists the amount of points required to achieve that level. The amount is cumulative, and represents total character lifetime points. For example, if your character has 54 total points on their character sheet, they have achieved level 7.

Gold Value of One Point - When your character receives a point, that point is worth a gold value in addition to the experience advancement. The value of the points varies by level for two reasons. The first reason is that the number of points required to advance in level increases over time.The second reason is that to ensure that character wealth scales to match the intended values described in the 'Character Wealth by Level' table in the Core Rulebook, the value of one loot point changes to ensure that as a character reaches each new level, their total gold value will match the listed value in the Core Rulebook for that level.

Total character value derived from points can be calculated by taking the gold value of points earned and adding them together. The points' values should be tabulated in the order in which they were received. For example:

A first level character who has earned three total points will have earned -- 3 x (250 gp) = 750 gp total character value

For a more complicated scenario: A character who is second level, with eight points, runs an encounter and earns 3 points. This brings them to a total of eleven points and they level up to third level. What is their total character value? We must start by knowing their value at second level prior to the encounter they ran. It took four points, according to the chart, for them to level up to second level. Each first-level point was worth 250 gp. 4 x (250 gp) = 1,000 gp. Therefore, this character had 1,000 gp when they reached second level. From there, they earned another four points before the encounter. Each point at second level was worth 334 gp. '''4 x (334 gp) = 1,336 gp. '''So, a character with 8 points earned is second level and has 2,336 gp to their name. The character in question then earned another 3 points, moving to 11 points. In this case, they straddled the line between second and third levels. When this happens, you apply the points in order. With nine points, the character is still second level, and so another 334 gp is added, for a total of 1,670 gp. With the next point, the character reaches third level! However, the character was still second level when they earned the point. This is important, and the character may only take credit for the second-level gold value of the point. Therefore, another 334 gp is added, for a total of 2,004 gp. Starting with the last and final point, however, the character receives the third-level value of value of 375 gp. This is added to the last total, and the character's final total character value is 2,379 gp at third level with 11 points. This is the character value of any character with 11 points, regardless of circumstance, class, or race, due to the way the system is structured.

Availability of Items
The items available for purchase within this campaign are limited to those items which satisfy two conditions -- the item must be legal for play within Pathfinder Society play, and the item must come from one of the legal source books listed in this wiki. Similar to building a character using legal rule sets, it is recommended to use the AON PRD to cross reference Pathfinder Society legality and source book provenance:

https://aonprd.com/

Keep in mind that current Pathfinder Society errata and banned list information apply to item usage within Cormyr.

Crafting is Prohibited
Crafting is something we all love, but the amount of tracking and GM approval involved, as well as the ability to disproportionately empower certain characters beyond their wealth level, is something that just can't work in a community based on very large amounts of players and an open door policy. Under no circumstances will crafting be allowed in Cormyr.

However, if you want to roleplay your character as a crafter and claim to have crafted your items in character, that is perfectly fine, so long as the items are purchased behind the scenes at full book cost.

Trading and Selling Between Players is Prohibited
Because the first and foremost concern of Cormyr has to be equality and balance between a very large community of players, trading and selling items to other players, or giving them as gifts, is not allowed.

Examples
Example 1:

The Noble Knight Sir Cinna of Bon has traveled all around Cormyr, vanquishing monsters and spreading his ideas for a delicious cinnamon-based dessert treat.

He is a level 4 Paladin.

Sir Cinna has completed 26 points worth of encounters since arriving in Suzail, and his player has all of his Encounter Records from his GMs to prove it! He's still 2 points shy of leveling up to 5th level.

Sir Cinna is sitting in the Dragon's Jaws Inn, regaling a serving girl about his latest heroic deeds and dessert menu options, when two of his best friends walk in. They chat for a while, practice some fun skills on each other, and their players are having a fun time with free and open roleplay.

Just then, in Out of Character Chat, a wild GM appears! He has two hours to kill, and asks the players if they want to run a quick 1-point encounter. The players agree, and the GM uses an Encounter Record to spontaneously plan a quick outing for the adventurers. The hear a crash outside the tavern and find a wounded guard complaining of Ogres in the woods! The Adventurers plug the guard for some more info, wander out to the woods, make their way through a series of ogre traps, and fight a band of ogres that have taken residence. They return to Suzail satisfied of their good deed.

The GM awards each player a copy of his encounter record, which gives a general outline of what the encounter entailed. It also details that they earned one point which goes toward their character's advancement and wealth.

Sir Cinna's player applies the point to his total on his character sheet, making sure to write the ID of the Encounter Record next to it. Dang! Sir Cinna still needs one more point to level. Oh well.

He then looks to his gold. He's currently 4th level, so his newly-earned point nets him 450 new GP to spend! Good deeds pay well. He records the 450 GP increase in his gold log. Like all good players, he writes the Encounter Record ID next to the entry. This helps the GMs understand why he was able to afford such shiny armor.

Example 2: Sir Cinna, fresh off the victory of his ogre encounter, has only just returned to the Dragon's Jaws when suddenly the player hears another Out of Character call from a different GM. This GM has about four hours to kill, and wants to run a nice 3-point encounter for the party. The players agree, and the GM uses a 3-point encounter record template to create a fresh 3-point encounter for them. This time, a strange merchant enters the Inn and tries to sell Sir Cinna an item with the royal crest on it. It's surely stolen. What will Sir Cinna do!?

Long story short, he asks around town, gets lead to a seedy black market, fights some thugs, solves a riddle to enter a back room tavern, fights another set of thugs, presses one for information, find a big boss hideout, breaks through the barricaded doorway, fights the thief boss, and retrieves dozens of stolen royal artifacts!

When he returns to the Dragon's Jaws, his player receives the encounter record from his GM. A 3-point adventure awards 3 Points! Awesome! That means Sir Cinna now has 30 points, which puts him at 5th level. Time to level up! He adds the points to his log, making sure to write the encounter record ID next to it, and proceeds to level up.

He also looks to his gold log. Sir Cinna's player looks at the available chart on this page and realizes that when moving from 27 points to 28 points, Sir Cinna should take the fourth level gold value of 450 gp. But for the remaining two points to get to the total of 30 he can take the fifth level gold value of 459! How exciting! So, he adds it together, and lists 1368 gp in his loot log, making sure to write the Encounter Record ID next to it.

Unfortunately, while Sir Cinna had an opportunity to curry favor with powerful NPCs by freeing captured slaves, He was so blinded by justice and vengeance that he also accidentally burned down a market stall and kicked a puppy. He freed the three slaves, but additionally screwed up big time. Poor Cinna!