[MUD-Dev] Commercial value of RP

[The Eternal City]

On Thu, 8 Jan 1998, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> Sometime at or around 08:01 AM 1/8/98 +0000, I personally witnessed Miroslav
> Silovic jumping up to shout:
> >
> >I'd think that it would be
> >possible to design a way to financially compensate players who turn
> >former hack/social MUD into immersive roleplaying experience (MUSHers
> >do it for free... ;) ) - in the form of free hours, for instance.
> >
> >Of course, the challenge is to do it in the way that'd be fair to all
> >the players.
> 
> A similar situation: In most RPGs, you receive XP bonuses for good
> roleplay. On
> most MUDs, you receive XP for combat. Period. A challenge I've often looked at
> and considered is how to reward the roleplayers without being unfair to the
> combat folks -- for example, on most White Wolf-based systems, you receive XP
> *only* for RP and never for combat. As a result, combat is rather rare. On
> most
> MUDs, as I've mentioned, there are XP for combat but never for RP. As a
> result,
> of course, RP is considered a waste of time (what does it get you?) and hence
> not invested in. I've considered a few ways of handling this, but I'm having
> real difficulty coming up with something fair. Has anyone managed to come up
> with an equitable method of awarding RP-based XP with an automated system, or
> does anyone have any thoughts on the matter?
> 


I think I posted recently about the system that we use on The Eternal City.
I think it at least addresses these issues, although I'm not sure I'd
claim it was an ultimate 'solution'.
 
Our skill system rewards by doing. You engage in combat, you get better at 
it. You spend all day picking and making locks, you get better at 
lockmithing. 
 
Players also accumulate something we call 'role-points' for simply being 
on-line. However, the rate at which they accumulate depends on the
player's demonstrated role-playing interest/ability. If a player engages in 
role-playing sessions and make an effort to stay in character, we reward 
himm with an increase in the rate of role-point accumulation. If he isn't 
interested in role-playing, and spends all of his time fighting, the rate 
of accumulation won't change. Some players pursue both 'interests' quite 
avidly.
 
Players can 'cash in' role-points on various things, including luck rolls, 
credit to start another character at higher-than-beginning level, the 
'privelege' to play a noble character (and work their way into the
political realm), an in-game dwelling or inheritance, etc. 
 
We also take another step to reward players who engage in role-playing 
sessions by giving them discretionary skill increases (pretty much similar 
to what I think of when I think of experience points).
 
This is not automated given the fact that our staff has to actively make
awards to players at various times. It is, in that once a player has 
demonstrated her role-playing ability/interest, she gets a higher 
accumulation of role-points per hour for hanging out in the baths talking 
to her friends.
 
Scott Martins
Worlds Apart Productions