[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] NPC-oriented gameplay and XP model: GURPS/EveOnline vs. D&D/Diku

[Richard Boehme]

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:34:08, "Mike Rozak" <Mike at mxac.com.au> said:

> In GURPS and EveOnline, players receive a fixed amount of experience
> points per real-time day, which they can then use to increase skills.
> XP-to-skill conversion acts as a real-time-based resource allocation
> sub-game. XP comes in at a fixed rate per day, and players must predict
> what skills they'll need in the future (over the course of days/weeks),
> then allocate the XP into the proper skills.
> 
> In D&D/Diku, XP is more of a reward, like a pinball machine. There is
> still an allocation sub-game, but it's no longer based on a real-time
> trickle of XP, so it doesn't force the player to plan as far ahead.

Interesting. I think what you might want is a hybrid of the GURPS
model and the D&D model. Scale your experience points such that the
GURPS time model gives, say, 2x of the experience that a character who
plays more often might get from actions. Thus, if you're having
trouble, you get 2 XP, if not, you complete a lot of quests and get 3
XP. By balancing your XP system heavily towards the GURPS model, you
aren't giving as much of a reward for completing actions, but the
reward is still present.

The general point is, bias your experience system to the players you
want to attract.

Thanks.

Richard