This section explains XP (Experience Points) and how they affect a player character.
The ultimate purpose of Experience Points and Experience Levels is to provide a means by which the player character can grow and develop. The Palladium game system promotes a subjective method of using observation and logic to determine Experience Point rewards. In some games with XP the systems have focused on the 'kill factor', but what about the thought process? Don't cleverness and a cool head count? Should the brilliant medical student playing a character with an I.Q. of 4 (and staying firmly in character, saying and doing things as the dull-witted character would, even though they realize the stupidity as a player) not also get XP for playing in character? Absolutely! Considering how flexible and subjective most other role-playing conditions and rules are, there is little logic in having a strict, limited XP system.
Each player's character involved in a given situation or confrontation should receive the appropriate XP for that event. As the DM hands out XP it is the player's responsibility to keep track of when a character hits their next level. The greater the risk or challenge, the greater the reward.
Hit Points
Each time a character reaches a new level of experience, the player gets to roll 1D6 and adds the result to their character's Hit Points. This indicates physical development and maturity of the character.
Per Level Of Experience
This phrase, or similar, indicate that the character can perform a skill, power or ability at their personal, highest level of experience. This often indicates the amount of damage that can be inflicted, or the duration of an effect from a psychic ability or magic spell.
Character Experience Levels
An Experience Table is provided for each O.C.C. and R.C.C. A character involved in
an adventure gains XP for their thoughts, deeds, and actions. As these XP accumulate, the character will reach a new plateau indicating their continued growth, development, and mastery over their abilities and skills. Each time a player's character gets enough XP to reach the next 'level' their skills and Hit Points (and P.P.E. for practitioners of magic and I.S.P. for psychics) increase accordingly. Also, the O.C.C. and R.C.C. should be checked for additional skills (usually Related and/or Secondary).
The maximum level a character can reach is 15. Higher level characters are considered too difficult both to play and DM.