(no subject)

[technoir]

I had an interesting game design question.

Is earned advancement really needed?

Whats to say we have to have experience points in a game?

I was wondering if would hurt a system is if all the character advancement was based on how long the characters played or age. It seems to me that concept of an earned advancement through points is not inherently even. And if you are doing it in such a manner to keep everyone even then there is not point in having an earned point advancement.

Just a thought. I would be interested to see what other people thought.

Comments

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

I had this whole post, then realized I misunderstood the question. :)

I've played a lot of tabletop games, and have only had two campaigns ever which did uneven experience points. One was a 7th Sea campaign, the other is jeffrey's D&D game. Both give you extra experience points for roleplaying well. I'm not a fan of that sort of reward.

Every other game I've played, good roleplaying was a given. You don't get rewarded for it, you just do it. You don't get rewarded for not cheating, you don't get rewarded for good RP, you don't get rewarded for keeping your character sheet up do date. These are just things you do because that's how the game works. The reward is a fun session well played. That's it.

This makes me wish you'd stuck with jeffrey's game. Lots of really good roleplayers there. And hey, it would have been fun. :)

[jeffrey.livejournal.com]

Well, the reason I give the RP awards is because I have found all too often that, if I don't, there is much less actual role-playing. People will just "yeah, I do this. I do that." etc. They need more incentive to actually RP for some reason.

If you think it's a problem we could discuss possibly dropping it at the next session. I just started it a ways back because I found it ended up making a better game for everyone involved.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

The problem with RP awards as I have seen them in the past has been that no one actually wants to tell someone else, well you did not actually do as well as someone else on something. What has happened in many of the games I have seen and by no means all, is that everybody ends up with a role play award.

I am generally in favor of encouraging role play though. I think the role play award is probably more useful in games with mnore beginner players. Experienced players generally don't need much encouragement.

[jeffrey.livejournal.com]

I could see that being a problem, but... not for me. I have no qualms about not awarding extra RP xp if the person just phoned it in. And I don't just give one blanket award, either. I give awards of certain amounts (based on level, right now it's been 300xp) for moments of exceptional RPing. So if someone has two or three of those, they'll get 600 or 900. So people don't always get the same amounts.

Don't mind me, just butting in...

[gideondelnath.livejournal.com]

When I played with Jeremiah he didn't really get to see the RP award system in affect for DnD since we ran WoD for our group, but our system is more of an 'atta boy' instead of hard rewards in the tripple digits. In my group we have some fairly roleplayish people and some not so roleplayish people... we're also sadly numbermongers.

The groups' DMs (two currently) will hand out minor XP awards, at about 5-10 points at a go, -maybe- 20-30 for exceptionally good roleplay. The reason we did this is because the rewards are less noticable, but also allow for our exceptional role players to really show how they're doing later in the campaign, when they get to process a level up a good 2-3 encounters before the non-role players. We've started to discontinue the system though, as we're all getting better at falling into character and that so much of it is based on DM perception. The other DM and myself are taking a closer look at if we should keep the system, or possibly start handing out true atta-boys like rerolls or action points.

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

They need more incentive to actually RP for some reason.

See, that's totally baffling to me. That's like saying "People don't like to do the fun part, they just like doing fantasy-themed accounting." :)

I don't think it's currently a problem. I do wonder what's going to happen if the characters' levels start to spread out. I've never been a game where that's been allowed to happen before, so it's hard for me to guess how much of an issue that'll be.

[jeffrey.livejournal.com]

Well I'll do my best to keep everyone as close as possible, but not to the extent of giving awards when not earned or holding other people back. If someone is falling a bit behind, especially due to rp awards, then I will try to encourage them to rp more. Hopefully it won't become an issue, but we'll see. :)

[technoir.livejournal.com]

I did have an interest in the game. It looked be a lot of fun. The frustration with the constant failings of the program we were was the primary reason for dropping out. It drove my frustration way up. It made me also realize how much I prefer my role play in person. I can do more with my bearing and voice at a table that way.

That said I think Jeffery had some good ideas on the game. I would have liked to seen where it went. I also kind of liked my character. Just the frustration with the program we were using was overwhelming my fun.

[jeffrey.livejournal.com]

No one else had problems like that, so I wish I knew what made it so difficult for you. :/

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

It made me also realize how much I prefer my role play in person. I can do more with my bearing and voice at a table that way.

I'm with you there. Though that's not an option when playing with people in California, so it's a trade-off.

Pity about the technical difficulties, though. Wish we could have fixed that. :/