Incentives
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@icanbeyourmuse said:
Just to note.. I'm not a huge fan of the PRP thing.
Can you elaborate? See, to me that reads like "I'm not a fan of chocolate", only chocolate actually has drawbacks to go with being chocolate-y.
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Well depending on her background they might just not be called prps.
For example I was running things for small groups of folks i knew on Dark Metal during Treason, essentially PRPs before anyone used the term, and likely would not have been approved of.
In most non-WoD games small stories that do not effect the over all meta-plot do not often have a name nor many limits on them beside just doing them, at least the ones i have been on.
As far as PRP in general I am rather neutral towards them .One runs by people I know where they are pointed at he characters involved are great. In general even the good ones that ore general public first come first serve affairs always feel to me like gaming through a module, they can be fun but really do not compare to a scene where my character has a real reason to be there.
Of course that does show my bias. I am very character focused not story focused for online games. -
@icanbeyourmuse said:
@Rook said it is like EVE when I was explaining to him on what I wanted. He can probably explain it better than me.
I think it's a great approach, myself. The idea is that the player simply builds a 'queue' of Skills/Points/Areas that they want to spend XP. The game system figures out a time span that it takes the PC to learn each stat, mathematically. It timestamps the character with a secs() of when that training would complete if the PC has all the XP needed. When the PC reaches that timestamp, the skill training is completed.
Up front, you need to make a design decision. Either the player must have the complete amount of XP to put that skill/stat/whatever in the queue to begin with and the XP is deducted immediately, or the game system does some sort of 'ticks' over time as the skill/stat is learned, XP deducted when available. Actually, both could be built into the system. The game simply 'halts training' when the PC is at 0XP, until they earn some.
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@Rook said:
I think it's a great approach, myself. The idea is that the player simply builds a 'queue' of Skills/Points/Areas that they want to spend XP. The game system figures out a time span that it takes the PC to learn each stat, mathematically. It timestamps the character with a secs() of when that training would complete if the PC has all the XP needed. When the PC reaches that timestamp, the skill training is completed.
It is a great approach. But unless I'm missing something, I thought you didn't have XP in your system and time was the only limiting factor there? Based on this:
@icanbeyourmuse said:
Just to help for where I'm coming from for my place...
We're not going to have XP. Earning dots/levels/whatever for skill ups and the likes will be done with a sport of tier system. Everyone will get X number of training points a week to put towards the next level of their skill/attribute/whatever.
Either way it sounds like it's pretty similar to how SHH handles skill raising, with the exception that your implementation handles this automagically (they simply open a +job when you put in a spend and make it come due when it'll be ready to go through), which is pretty neat.
It will still come down to the same thing if you plan to offer conveniences for Storytellers though. For example making the whatever-waiting time less for plot-runners isn't that different from handing out Beats in a traditional system, as the actual perk itself at that point is a matter of semantics.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Arkandel
I don't think @icanbeyourmuse is going without XP usage. Her site explains the system that she plans to implement here.As for me, yes, I plan to have XP. I have been reading through Sunny's XP rules that she has spent painstaking hours building (and posted above) out of all of the RPGs that she has access to. There are a lot of gems and wisdom in her list. I've always seen ways of spending XP outside of +sheet improvements, such as exchanging for money, real property, equipment, whatever, too.
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@Rook Oh, my bad. I thought you guys were running the same game.
So in regards to the thread, what are your thoughts on implementing incentives in general in a normalized spending system such as yours?
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Arkandel I am helping @icanbeyourmuse with code.
I am in agreement with the adage: "You get what you [incentivize] for" as discussed by several of those here in the thread. I don't think that XP is the only thing that encourages good RPers to play, but I do wonder at how things have shifted over the last decade when it comes to MU*ing. It remains really a function of what people you can attract to your game, and how you can hold their interest, of course.
If you can somehow 'reward' players with things other than XP, then you should. The issue is that there is little other than tangible reward/increase to offer, in most cases. The other real-life incentives that, say, a job offers are not possible or useful in a MU*. Cash and vacation are two of the biggest people motivators. Recognition is another strong motivator for some, so perhaps a game-wide recognition mechanism for Best Pose of the Week (as voted), Best Group Support Move (as voted), Best Story Moment (as voted), etc? Maybe the results of these motivators are just 'badges' of achievement, not 'worth' anything, or maybe they can be 'cashed in' somehow.
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@Rook There are ways to advance characters without giving XP in particular. For example STs can be offered in-game benefits (gain the Prince's favor, a spot on the Primogen council, be deputized by the Sheriff), be offered tokens for game functions (instead of receiving 50% of your XP when your PC dies for next character get reimbursed of X% instead), etc.
But any social perks are very hard to regulate because it's so easy to discriminate despite the best of intentions ('PrP of the Week' always seems to go to staff's friends, because that's whose PrPs staff usually see in the first place) and because it takes so much work.
Handing a ST a Beat for a 3-hour long scene is easy; reading that 3-hour long's scene to determine its worth then coming up with a unique way to say thanks is a bitch of a task over time.
