Wrinklegrassers rejoice! I have solved the system of non-human player character idealism!
We understand that experience points are largely metaphysical and spiritual in the context of TTRPG especially at higher levels of play. In this way they represent essentially a divine order or divine right as they provide the authority to rule land and subjects. The majority of experience points are handed down from God with perhaps a 20% margin representing the existential experience of the character. If a character is not human their relationship with God is changed.
The key to unlocking additional gameplay in roleplaying games through the avenue of non-human PCs is changing their relationship with earning experience points. If the method through which experience is handed down is interesting and unique then new and worthwhile gameplay can be added to the system. I will be using “elves” and “dwarves” to describe the two experience systems relative to humans that I have explored and developed. This is not to assert that elves and dwarves in the implicitly Tolkien sense are my idealized non-human player character races.
Humans earn experience primarily by defeating monsters and acquiring wealth. Monsters are defined herein as alignment enemies, and wealth is implicitly taken from alignment enemies in order to be worth experience. Humans are also generally capable of earning experience for wealth acquired as REWARD for alignment war objectives in proportional amount. Human rulers gain experience from domain income as a manifestation of power transfer through divine right. This is the traditional system of earning experience points. There are two categories of experience defined here, power in the form of material wealth and power provided by God in exchange for deeds. The dichotomy I am constructing is that elves only receive the latter and dwarves the former.
Elves will earn no experience from recovering treasure, but they earn normal experience for defeating monsters. Elves will earn additional experience equal to four times the monsters defeated if these monsters threatened domains of the elf’s alignment and he or she was aware of the threat. This constitutes a quest against a given set of monsters. Elves also earn normal experience for gold pieces rewarded for the accomplishing of alignment goals if the provide of the reward is another elf in good alignment standing. Dwarves will earn only 20% experience for defeating monsters and normal experience for recovering gold. However, Dwarves will be able to earn additional experience by setting aside collected gold into hordes. Wealth from a horde cannot be spent willingly, doing so (or allowing it to be lost to theft or destruction) will incur penalties including experience debt or even curses. Contributing gold to a horde will be worth experience at the 1:1 gp for exp rate.
At high levels of play, dwarves will accrue magical power (understood in the context of Kodiak-Game as gold pieces which can only be used for ritual magic) and experience from maintaining a large horde, while elves will do the same from managing a properly consecrated place and remaining in good (or perhaps evil if you wish to humor “dark elves”) alignment. Neither race will be greatly incentivized to manage domains, though this will be possible. Domains are always comprised of the race of the ruler, of course.
The thematic through line with these systems is that humans are implicitly protestant Americans who earn their power through manifest destiny. They destroy Indians and take their land and their wealth, though the aesthetic trappings and secondary themes of the TTRPG environment are essentially northern European. Their power comes in equal parts from God and their own works. Elves represent a “European” catholic inflection of the adventuring archetype. They are less concerned with the actual accumulation of wealth, all of their power is handed down directly by God. Dwarves are conversely consumed by the accumulation of wealth and derive all their power materially. They are the Nibelungs.
In practice, elves are characters that are possessed of much less agency. They represent a questing playstyle where their goals are set by outside forces (here, God). This will bring them into conflict with human and dwarf PCs constantly. Dwarves conversely are possessed of almost the ultimate agency and will take on a profit-at-any-costs sort of playstyle. Both of which are tangibly distinct from the default and human playstyle within the sandbox TTRPG environment.