Soon this forum will be renamed from Suggestions to: What now Sturmer?

I've had a few ideas of how to make the server slightly more interesting and enjoyable through the rewarding of experience points.

My first suggestion is an exploration XP reward. Every new area you explore will give you a varying amount of xp depending upon how important the area is, or how hazardous it may be. This bonus could be anywhere from 1-100 XP. Instead of adding this XP reward to the onenter script of each area, you could add it to a trigger placed in key parts of the area. This would cause PCs to explore large portions of the area to get the reward, instead of simply transitioning in and out.

My second suggestion is more non-mainstream idea, making it my favorite out of the two. DMs can wand trusted PCs to give them an experience token that could be given out once every day/week/whatever for good and enjoyable RP that they witness. These tokens can't be used on yourself and would only give a small xp reward, like 50 or so. When the token is used, the target would received a message like: "You've just received an experience reward from bob." We all know that a DM won't be around to see every little bit of RP. Actually, the DM won't be around to see atleast 50% of the RP that goes on. So there should be a way to reward and promote good role-playing.

Well with the token thing, as soon as someone is known as a trusted PC with tokens people would be sending them begging tells and hanging around them alot more and putting on a display, detracting from the fun of that player.

With the exploring thing, I guess its plausible. I'd have it though so that there are numerous triggers in a given area and they all must have been hit in order to earn the explorative xp OnExit. That way if they have a half arsed effort when they explore they weren't really exploring. And if they get chased off they didn't really find anything so they don't earn xp from finding another place to nearly die.

I am not sure about the former, but I am all for the latter. There are enough good players who will not abuse it, and, after all, the rewards could be always logged and eventually analysed if there are suspicions about not using the tool right.

Edit after reading RD's: the rewards could be anonymous.

Well with the token thing, as soon as someone is known as a trusted PC with tokens people would be sending them begging tells and hanging around them alot more and putting on a display, detracting from the fun of that player.

I disagree, I believe our players are above that type of behavior. That brings me to another fundimental rule of server building: Build for the players you already have, not for the ones that may some day come.

I think the xp for exploring an area is a good idea for "secret areas". That is, if it's done the way RD suggests, OnExit, and only once per character (so, no exploring the same area reset after reset).

I was a member, for two years, of a fairly well-respected, and quite successful PW series that used a system very similar to what Sturmer described (good RP tokens handed out by PCs).

A few things to keep in mind:

- So, will the token be given out as an RP reward? There are certainly players who fly under the radar of the DMs who display amazing RP and would be rewarded by this system. However, it tends to shift the less gregarious characters into an even more ostracized environment, in terms of rewards. If you never hang out with the people that can hand out the 'goodies', you're never going to get one yourself, not even if you spend the whole day roleplaying to the best of your ability.

- Why make the name of the token-giver visible? Isn't there a possibility to script it so that players don't actually hand out the experience, but rather 'mark' a character for DM attention? In this way, if a character has, say, three 'marks' (which are hidden from the player, and from other players, save the one who placed them) the next time a DM comes across him, he can see those and reward a corresponding amount of XP. This eliminates the problem of having those characters swarmed by 'XP whores', even though I hardly see that as a problem with this particular playerbase.

- Kiaring

No I dont aggree. I don't think players should ever be in a position to hand out xp to other players. This can cause favoritism, eliteism and in that case, triading where a group of four players reward each other for xp. There are multiple ways this can be exploited or attemted to be exploited. Leave xp to the DMs.

If a player things there is another excellent player, tell the DMs, dont mark them for xp. The Dm can make their own judgement. The best RPer in the world might also be an exploiter of bob's woodcutting quest and do it for infinate gold, which other players may not spot but the DMs can by observing.

Why make the name of the token-giver visible? Isn't there a possibility to script it so that players don't actually hand out the experience, but rather 'mark' a character for DM attention? In this way, if a character has, say, three 'marks' (which are hidden from the player, and from other players, save the one who placed them) the next time a DM comes across him, he can see those and reward a corresponding amount of XP. This eliminates the problem of having those characters swarmed by 'XP whores', even though I hardly see that as a problem with this particular playerbase.

I share your opinion that it wouldn't be a problem with this playerbase, but also see the merit of making it anonymous (and yes you can do it, it actually requires adding a line of script other than the default xp function to make the message appear).

No I dont aggree. I don't think players should ever be in a position to hand out xp to other players. This can cause favoritism, eliteism and in that case, triading where a group of four players reward each other for xp. There are multiple ways this can be exploited or attemted to be exploited. Leave xp to the DMs.

I honestly don't think this will be a problem if trusted PCs were given this ability. I think 75% of the people in the #EFU IRC channel (which is about 15 people) would receive these tokens to hand out, so it wouldn't be just three or four people with the ability. Also, the reward would be rather insignificant: maybe 50 xp, and the tokens fairly infrequent: maybe one token every 4 days, so I highly doubt people would exploit them. I think it may be best to give the players a chance. If they do abuse this priviledge, simply take it away. As mentioned above, all this could be logged to moniter it's use.

The best RPer in the world might also be an exploiter of bob's woodcutting quest and do it for infinate gold, which other players may not spot but the DMs can by observing.

It's not up to players to punish exploiters. If they see good RP then they could reward it. If that person then turns around and gets caught exploiting, there's no harm done for the exploiter will be banned.

-- This suggestion was my way of rewarding good RP through XP. To reward those people who make weak combat characters and often don't survive on quests. I think that DMs just simply don't see enough of the RP to reward it.

There are servers that have attempted this and it is too easily exploited. If it is an automatic exp giver it can be abused. If, however, a Dm want to reward someone for being brave/foolish enough to do something beyond safe like say charting outlying areas with nothing more than a loincloth and a dagger, that would be different. If it was automatic you could just go to that area, stealth, go to bed, wake and go to work, come home and level up.

There are servers that have attempted this and it is too easily exploited. If it is an automatic exp giver it can be abused. If, however, a Dm want to reward someone for being brave/foolish enough to do something beyond safe like say charting outlying areas with nothing more than a loincloth and a dagger, that would be different. If it was automatic you could just go to that area, stealth, go to bed, wake and go to work, come home and level up.

Well, in the short version: "No." The long version: The variables that determined whether or not an area is explored are saved on the character token which is persistant and can't tampered with. Players will receive only xp reward per area per character throughout their existance on the server. No exploiting.

I think there's too much "what ifs" and it walks a very very thin line. I would forsee arguements and debates about this in near future.

In my opinion, as it is, the DMs are doing a wonderful job and keeping watch on everyone, even at a 25+ players.

If a character wants to do something outlandish like walk into an uncharted area in a loincloth and dagger, it's the players responsibility to inform the DMs that he wants to do that. It's not hard to send a message to the DM channel saying "I'm in [so and so area], looking for exits to the surface." If there is no DM available at the time, keep going, then write about your characters findings and ideas in your journals so that the DMs know what your character is up to and eventually reward him/her.

Also, I feel that everyone should give in 100% (if not more) to their RPing and shouldn't EXPECT to be rewarded. Having expectations and then not recieving them can be disappointing. Not having expectations and being rewarded is always a nice surprise and is motivational. It's not about XP and loot. It's about roleplaying.

Not happening.

XP based rewards for exploring are definitely planned (actual quests run through the Seekers).

PCs giving XP away is not happening.

If you want to tell a role player you like their Roleplay, do it with your words, not 50 XP.

Everytime I've gotten XP from DMs, it's cool because I'm getting rewarded for something they thought was neat. However, when they reward me AND compliment me on the specific thing I did, telling me how great it was or whatever, It makes me feel a lot better about myself than an anonymous 50 XP. You don't even need the XP to give out a compliment and make someone's day.