[pythian] Re: DESIGN - Experience
- From: Darryl Long <pythianproject@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pythian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 18:32:45 -0400
> So i'd like to hear some ideas about experience gathering / leveling
> up from anyone who is intrested.
Our previous discussions about experience, from a long time ago,
resulted in the idea what we would not have XP.
Instead, you would have "attributes" for everything. Each character has
"physical attributes", "intellectual attrbiutes", and "skill attributes".
"Physical attributes" include strength, dexterity, etc.
"Intellectual attributes" represent the inherent ability of your brain,
such as memory, intuition, etc.
Skills represent your mental and physical ability to do stuff, such as
reading, writing, decoding, coercing, sword-swinging, blocking, jumping,
running, etc.
Skills derive their value partially from your physical and intellectual
attributes, and the rest comes from use.
In our system you start having all skills in your knowledge, but at zero
ability. That is, if you tried to use it, you would suck so bad as to
be functionally incompetent. But by attempting this, you learn a little
about it, and get a little better. Of course, we would start the player
character with some skills at "average" or even "good" so he can fight,
run, and perform other basic skills. You can train your skills, and you
can use them, both of which increase the skill attribute value.
The skill system is quite complex, and as with all things pythian,
poorly documented. I can explain it another time, when we need it.
Ok, that was the background, on to the experience part. Typically, you
spend time collecting XP and spend that once you've accumlated enough.
Every RPG system has some variation of this to drive character
advancement. As with most game concepts, it's an approximation of real
life to keep the rules simple and to simulate "real" character
development without having to roleplay every last bit of your life. For
instance, instead of having to roleplay finding a Level 7 Ranger with
the double-weapon skill, and roleplaying training with him, etc. I
suppose there are other reasons to collect XP, and ways to spend it, but
you get the idea.
For us, the use of your skills directly benefits your skills and
develops your character "naturally". Thus, we have no need of literal XP.
There's the system we discussed and settled on a long time ago. I am
totally open to new ideas, and certainly encourage them.
Darryl
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