(fwd) Re: Roleplaying

[J C Lawrence]

From: cimri <cimri1 at gte.net>
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin
Subject: Re: Roleplaying
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 22:31:46 -0800

KaVir, Richard Woolcock, and Aristotle, in their brave fight
against spam wrote various words more or less summarizable as:

- life has levels
- no it doesn't, it's more like skill-based
- no no, life is like both skill-based and level-based systems

and the phrase 'a single level' (apparently meaning using a single
value to express a complex set of attainments, experiences, powers,
and the like) was used, presumably to distinguish it from having
'many levels.'

</synopsis>

Like that fella from Fiddler on the Roof says: you are all right.

A working definition for the sake of discussion: I propose that 'level'
mean 'level of experience' and refer more or less to what we mean when
we say 'that person has a great deal of (or not much) experience.

Yes, level has been used as a single expression of power, where your
level expressed how good you were at everything, or at least how
good you were in the collection of powers and skills related to your
chosen profession.  This is clearly silly, though I don't think any
where near as silly as most would have us believe.  That is, though
I think there are better ways to do it, still, using level as a
single expression of power can be defended fairly well without
stretching too much.

And yes, the idea of HPs rising with level stretches things a bit too.
ALSO not as much as people would have us believe.  For instance, it
is not that great a stretch to look at HP as some sort of expression
of one's ability to absorb/avoid/maneuver away from damage, not JUST
bodily physical damage.  So as one 'rose in level' one gained more HP
which represented a certain experience reflected in combat survivability
through (for example) wiser use of maneuvers, or whatever.  I do think
it makes more _sense_ to leave HP pretty much constant and to vary
your 'survivability' by adding in combat-related dodge or parry or
whatever skills.  But rising HP with level is by no means totally
indefensible.

---

Okay, all that said, one could easily still have a skill-based system,
or at least a system which includes skills/abilities/etc which are
somehow increased in effectivenes through use or practice, and each
may be increased independently of the other, generally.  And this
skill-based system could still use the idea of 'levels of experience.'
And this could still represent, in some meaningful way, an analog
to real life.

For example, I know people in my field that are wildly experienced,
much more than others, and I know people that are totally inexperienced,
and all sorts of folk in between.  Some of the newbies to my field are
very good at one or two things, and know much more than, say, someone
very much more experienced.  Still, their level of experience is a
real and approximate-able thing.  And it's meaningful to use the
expression.  Level of experience in this case refers, more or less,
to a sort of weighted average of all the skills attained, with a
random factor of sorts thrown in for just plain service time or
years of life.

Over and over again I've seen it -- more experienced people just do
better at things, even things where the less experienced people
(in the field) may have a few individual skills that exceed those
of the more experienced people.  Okay, it might be arguable that
that just means the more experienced people have some obscure
'skills' at higher levels, but we just didn't know what they were,
like, hmm, "thinking on your feet about matters related to your
field" or "improvising jury-rigged solutions" or whatever. Fine.

Either way, levels of experience, or just levels, can be meaningful
as an expression of some sort of overall attainment, and levels are
not at all incompatible with skill-based OR roleplaying systems.
Or so I would happily assert.


Best to you all,  Jay // Cimri

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...