Mechanics for Roleplaying?

[Illysia]

If you never use baking, how will losing skill in it be a punishment?

And if you want to account for only becoming rusty then you can have the mechanism only lessen the skill up to a set percentage of the skill level at the time you last used it.

[Pelinal]

I guess that if you haven't practiced something for a long time, the skill level will decrease, but as it happens in real life, when you start doing it again, it comes back quick.

So for someone who hasn't played an instrument, this is easily verifiable, but to some (and to me) if you start playing it again, you won't take the same time to relearn as you did to learn.

Implementing this would add to realism, and thus IMO add to RPing possibilities.

To a instrument player, it wouldn't matter that much, as he could practice a little again to relearn it.

But to a person that suddenly only has a bow and some arrows in combat, and hasn't used them in a long time, then it will make the difference.

[Thoss]

I'm gonna go try some things out in-game...anyone care to join?

If so see:  http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=35142.0

[Rigwyn]

What about having a mechanism for locating others who are currently on line and who want to rp ?
Perhaps something that would anonymously match players according to their alignment and RP preferences ?

Regarding leveling mechanics they are not perfect but I think they are good enough for now. I think making
the leveling system dynamic/automatic for some skills would make sense.. ie - endurance/stamina and strength should increase by itself with frequent use.

[zanzibar]

I still think that limits and caps are a bad idea. Better to leave it too open than to clamp down to hard. People who want to level probably don't care about RP is it takes time away from training and people who RP won't max a ton of skills at once as it will interrupt RPing.

I think that leaving it open and one day having a mechanic that will allow your unused skills to gradually lower in level will be enough to prevent people from being able to do everything all at once. Although, as the renaissance proved, having people proficient in a wide variety of skills isn't a bad thing. (i.e. Leonardo da Vinci) But any skill that isn't used will eventually be forgotten in real life.

Regarding player interaction, the only thing that will promote player interaction is player interaction. Players will have to step up on this one. If you want to get more player interacting with your character you will have to get creative and be proactive. Find reasons for your character to engage other characters. It is out of the comfort zone of most RPers but it is what needs to be done.

To me all this sounds true. Although a mechanic that would lower unused skill has downsides (people always practising every skill to prevent them from lowering, for example), it also has very good sides, which might be bigger than the downsides.

Regarding the Player-to-Player interaction, I agree that your suggestion is out of the comfort zone of most RPers. But, maybe an update of the Guide to Roleplay should be updated to add a list of tips to help RPers slowly integrate that in the comfort zone of the RPers.

But people shouldn't be practicing levels just for the sake of having high levels.  That's treating levels as their own ends, when levels should only be a means to an end.

If you're using your skills to actually do things, then you won't need to practice them.

[Illysia]

Actually making things is practicing Zanzi.  In terms of game mechanics they would be one and the same.

[zanzibar]

I guess that if you haven't practiced something for a long time, the skill level will decrease, but as it happens in real life, when you start doing it again, it comes back quick.

It depends.  I think this is less true when you were at a high degree of competency before you fell out of practice.

One solution might be to make the benefits of each level nonlinear.  So the raw difference between level 2 and level 3 is less than the raw difference between level 3 and level 4.  It would be like compound interest.  So someone might drop from level 50 to level 49 in the same time someone would drop from level 5 to level 4.  The person who dropped to level 49 lost a lot more skill than the person who dropped to level 4, even though they both fell by only one level.

Actually making things is practicing Zanzi.  In terms of game mechanics they would be one and the same.

Typically, practice means working on the skill for the purpose of maintaining or bettering the skill, as opposed to using the skill at your job etc.  When you use it as part of  you're occupation, you don't usually call it practice.

[Pelinal]

I guess that if you haven't practiced something for a long time, the skill level will decrease, but as it happens in real life, when you start doing it again, it comes back quick.

It depends.  I think this is less true when you were at a high degree of competency before you fell out of practice.

One solution might be to make the benefits of each level nonlinear.  So the raw difference between level 2 and level 3 is less than the raw difference between level 3 and level 4.  It would be like compound interest.  So someone might drop from level 50 to level 49 in the same time someone would drop from level 5 to level 4.  The person who dropped to level 49 lost a lot more skill than the person who dropped to level 4, even though they both fell by only one level.

Yes, I agree, but relearning should also take less time as higher you are.

[Illysia]

Not that I don't think it should be realistic but keep in mind we are talking mechanics not real life.  For the sake of the game, making an item and practice should be the same thing and for the sake of the programmer, the system should probably be linear.

[Wrzlprmft]

Like I said earlier, someone that determined to level is probably less concerned with RPing. The idea is not to force people to RP but to help out those who already wish to do so.

You may not be able to force people by such mechanics, but you can give them a little push, that might have a strong long-term effect. I would certainly be helped into roleplay by such pushes, and I am quite sure not to be alone.

Besides the already suggested mechanics to completely avoid people to be able to mine, cast, smith and kill at the same time, you could just make it extremely difficult in comparison to being able to do just one of these jobs.
Mechanics, that could do that, were skill costs that rise with the PP, that were already spent (instead of a cap).
Another option would be a maximum rate of PP, that can be spent per day (RL day to prevent ressource wasting AFKers). This might be combined with unspent PP decaying over RL time to prevent players from rotating characters.
All the suggestions about limiting the number of crafts, etc. could be modified in such a way, that you can get quite far in every job, but can only excel in one or few, so to create an item of extraordinary quality it needs more than one player.


A lot being said about levelling, I will throw in some general ideas, for the details of which I have no idea yet, but someone else might have:

• For completness's sake and knowing well, that this is a real challenge: What would really improve RP is a realistic PvP-System, that is able to prevent mindless player killing.
• The non-violate conflicts could also use some support, since they cannot be felt: The races get along fine with each other, there seem to be no big political debates, only the religions seem to squabble a bit. Of course there needs to be some background for a good debate, which would be a task for Settings, but I think, Game Mechanics could provide something too.
• What about guild houses? On one side, I have not yet been inside one, so I might not be that qualified for this topic. On the other hand there is a reason, why I haven't: As far as I understood it, a guild can open the house or parts of it to the public for sales, games, recruitment, advertising, etc. However there is no way to find those open houses without checking all of them (I want big flashing neon signs, telling me, that they are open). So this is something, that could be improved.
• There could be help to people playing merchants: Different buying and selling prices in different locations, that change over time; big carts, that can be used to carry around huge amounts of stuff, but cannot be disbanded and inhibit from anything but moving and trading.

[Illysia]

Making things more difficult tends to be slippery territory especially as attaining higher levels in anything is already rather difficult. However, decaying PP sounds like a good idea. Goodness knows I have tons of them that I never use as I dislike training.

The only thing that can be done to improve PvP from an RP standpoint is to make it train something. Like dueling with a dagger will train use of dagger and gradually raise your speed as it is a light weapon. Or, dueling with a warhammer will train hammers, gradually raise strength but will gradually lower speed as it is so heavy.

Non violent conflicts only need player creativity. Like a recruitment drive of Laanx worshipers outside the temple of Talad in Gugrontid. Perhaps when factions are more developed, they will provide a catalyst for conflict.

As it stands, Guildhouse are not sectioned off. There is one great big fairly open space. Look in the Octarchal residence to see what the inside of a guildhouse looks like, texture aside. If it could be sectioned off, that would be wonderful and parts could used for all sorts of things, but that will require a new guildhouse model and that most definately would take time.

Different prices and carts would be nice, but for the carts storage and ownership become a problem.

I personally would like to be able to purchase containers outside of the winch, so I can store cooking ingredients when I am trying to do restaurant style cooking. For all the various ingredients, there never seems to be enough places to store it all. t could help merchants as well, as you should be allowed to put stuff in without others being about to take it out. This would allow people to browse, be not necessarily take when the owner of the stuff moves away. I find that guarding doesn't extend quite far enough. When I cook in gugrontid, I have to set ingredients on the counter but when I go to cook or serve people, a new person generally comes in takes everything then is gone before I can do anything about it.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

I find that guarding doesn't extend quite far enough. When I cook in gugrontid, I have to set ingredients on the counter but when I go to cook or serve people, a new person generally comes in takes everything then is gone before I can do anything about it. <-- sounds like mechanics are forcing you to cooperate and get a helper.

[Under the moon]

Where to start... (those with short attentions spans or do not like to read my wordy ways, skip to the end)

Roleplaying, to most people, seems to mean players interacting with other players in an in-character manner. A lot of ideas posted above are fine, but are putting the cart before the horse. Most are trying to force people to RP instead of leveling by making leveling either harder or easier, both with the intention of making people prefer to roleplay...

Not going to work, simple as that.

The core of what needs to be done is making roleplaying (the interacting of player characters) more beneficial, so more people will choose that path and actually get something out of it, mechanics-wise. Yes, you can get things from friends, but so what. With enough training you can get all those things yourself.

So, what player to player interactions can we have that benefit players and give them what they want, yet allow for 'rewards' for doing so in a not GM hand-holding manner. Being that what most players want (including me, Mr. RP)... the obvious choice would be the dreaded Levels themselves, and letting players teach each other. Ignore all the current mechanics in that suggestion, as most of the system relying on NPC training would have to go (death to PP).

My suggestion to guide more people to roleplaying is to start with the base idea of player to player training.

[Illysia]

I find that guarding doesn't extend quite far enough. When I cook in gugrontid, I have to set ingredients on the counter but when I go to cook or serve people, a new person generally comes in takes everything then is gone before I can do anything about it. <-- sounds like mechanics are forcing you to cooperate and get a helper.

Yeah, I've tried that too but easier said then done. People prefer to join an up and running operation to helping build one from the ground up.

Where to start... (those with short attentions spans or do not like to read my wordy ways, skip to the end)

Roleplaying, to most people, seems to mean players interacting with other players in an in-character manner. A lot of ideas posted above are fine, but are putting the cart before the horse. Most are trying to force people to RP instead of leveling by making leveling either harder or easier, both with the intention of making people prefer to roleplay...

Not going to work, simple as that.

The core of what needs to be done is making roleplaying (the interacting of player characters) more beneficial, so more people will choose that path and actually get something out of it, mechanics-wise. Yes, you can get things from friends, but so what. With enough training you can get all those things yourself.

So, what player to player interactions can we have that benefit players and give them what they want, yet allow for 'rewards' for doing so in a not GM hand-holding manner. Being that what most players want (including me, Mr. RP)... the obvious choice would be the dreaded Levels themselves, and letting players teach each other. Ignore all the current mechanics in that suggestion, as most of the system relying on NPC training would have to go (death to PP).

My suggestion to guide more people to roleplaying is to start with the base idea of player to player training.

I've tried this too and basically. new players are the ones that would benefit the most but getting one that will hang around is very hard to do. (but not impossible. I've met and trained a few. )

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Form a guild for "Illysia's Eatery" or something. Get some people, host some bake sale events, buy a guildhouse, host a restaurant.