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Old 03-16-2008, 02:49 PM   #28
ender
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Re: Guidelines for an RPI mud.

Skill based experience system rather than a level based experience system.

The goal in any RPI is realism and the skill based experience system does a better job of emulating that than a level based system and here is why.

In a skill based system you receive bonuses in a skill for actually practicing it as opposed to a level based system where you get boosts or the ability to learn skills from completely unrelated actions.

If you want to get stronger, you lift weights.
If you want to get better at a sword, you spar with a sword.
If you want to get better at pickpocketing, you actually practice pickpocketing people.

A lot, if not most MUDs already integrate a skill based and a level based system, RPIs just do away with the need for levels. Instead of focusing on an ultimately arbitrary level, they focus more on their IC accomplishments and goals.

As for the analogy of the use of ranks in everyday life, these are completely subjective ranks not given to you by how many smurfs you kill. I'm playing a leveless RPI right now in a military organization, and we just assign ranks ICly by merit and experience, not experience points. Infact, sometimes people who are less skilled than others can become higher ranks based on their ability as leaders rather than their hard coded stats.

The point here is while -yes- we as humans love to categorize and identify absolutely everything, these classifications should not have any bearing on stats of a PC. If Delerak is a level 10 PHP admnistrator he still might have less HP than a level 5 PHP administrator because ultimately it's an utterly superfluous distinction.
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