Alternatives to Point Based Systems

I've been trying to come up with alternatives to point based systems like experience points and leveling in an RPG. The problem is these systems are usually heavily integrated to an RPG and when you remove that system it kinda falls apart. Like how would you acquire abilities then?

 

It's going to depend on your game, but perhaps the player's abilities could be effects of something like the artifacts in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. The artifacts from around the Zone can give you abilities like extra endurance at the cost of increased vulnerability to electricity, or increase your resistance to bullets/knives at the cost of taking radiation. The thing is, these effects are not permanent - if you remove one from your belt, you lose its effect.

 

I've always thought it would be cool to have a skyrim style free advancement based on skills you use. But balanced so that every time you gain a point you loose a point in something you don't use.

 

You could tie abilities entirely to equipment, and allow a flexible, in-depth crafting system. Allow enhancements, upgrades, and visual alterations to gain the look and skills you want.

Staff of Meteor Storm lvl 10, enchanted to have a larger Radius
Amulet of Lightning Bolt lvl 6.
Ring of Fireball, lvl 7
Boots of Warp, Enchanted to have lower cooldown.

Your character's entire moveset and power is based on the equipment he carries. Levels and Experience account for nothing.

 

I really liked the system in the original Guild Wars. Although there were levels and stats from gear, essentially the maximum level and max gear was all the same, and when you played PVP everyone was advanced to the full level and gear so they were on an even playing field.

What separated characters was their selection of powers. You had a limited set of powers you could have active at any given time, much smaller than your total set of powers, and the powers were designed to have multiple ways of forming interesting combos. As you leveled up you would gain new powers, and also once you were at max level there was a set of extra rare powers that you had to hunt down in the game world.

The only thing that was different from a newbie and an experienced player in PVP was the set of active powers they had to choose from.

 

One system that comes to mind as an alternative to the generic crafting xp grinds is the crafting system from Dark Messiah. It was a well fleshed out system that was entirely divorced from xp points. you had to go through each individual process in order to craft your weapon and the reward for crafting the weapon was the weapon itself.

 

What you could do is implement what I like to think of as a 'metonymic' progression system. This is what I'm doing in Sara the Shieldmage. (So named, based on this dissection of Final Fantasy VI)

The way my system works, is by first accepting a simple truth: the basic unit of action in an RPG is the quest. You're not out wandering the wilds, killing everything, and/or looting chests, because it's fun to do so; you're there for a different reason, the quest objective (whatever it is.) Instead of designing a game around a story, or a mechanic (like battles or puzzles), or even something as ephemeral as characters (which, you need in order to have a story, so it almost doesn't count), a game is based on quests that are put back-to-back and off to the side. If this is sounding a bit like Dr. Who, we're not into the weeds yet.

That said, we've got to enable our characters - a necessary conceit of a RPG - to progress. You could grant XP from completing quests and/or defeating monsters, but that's been done - a lot. Instead, what if what's important isn't an arbitrary amount of points, but instead what the actual player - the one holding the controller - experiences? That's where we get into metonymic perception of time - it's all about the artistic perception of a series of events, as opposed to real time (I've played X for 13 hours straight!), measured time (I've been adventuring for 13 ooms, and 36 kiblargles!), or described time (did you know Kefka screwed the whole world a year ago!?)

Metonymic perception is all about the person experiencing the work. If we base our game on the quest, not the narrative, and not some real mechanics, this changes a lot. For one thing, since character levels are no longer a thing, you've got all sorts of new options - you can have items that permanently increase stats. Quests can confer stat increases. Quests can award skills. Quests can grant equipment.

I personally prefer equipment, because as the FF6 dissection notes, "it's really satisfying when outfitting your party for the final battle and you can say, 'Oh, that piece of armor is from the cave we found Phoenix in, that Locke looted!' or whatever." You have little mementos of your journey that stir up emotions - good or bad (OMG I spent 36 hours looking for Doomgaze, then he flew away for another 13 hours with one HP left!!!!)

Another key part of metonymy, though, is the ability to change the world. In the dissection, the airship - which functions as your character select screen - changes over time. You start with just Celes. Over the 'World of Ruin' sequence, though, you slowly find your erstwhile allies from the first two thirds of the game. By the time you're ready to show Kefka how a world-screw is properly done, the airship's hold has gone from being a barren relic to being practically party central.

However, I don't think it's necessary to limit the metonymy to just a single location. A key part of an RPG quest - mechanically speaking - is a 'sequence trigger'. You have to do things A, B, and C in order. It's not hard at all to say, "If sequence X is at state 1, have these NPCs available; at state 2, these other NPCs; etc." As you complete quests in the world, you change the world. The sense of agency imparted by changing a game world is second to none, and a key reason I love RPGs - Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and World of Warcraft (back in the day before it was ruined by GearScore).

Points are just a construct that you can do as you like with. Under the hood of my game, there's still HP. There's still Attack points, ATB points, Magic points, Gold points, etc. It's how you dress them up that matters.

Everything said, though, don't underestimate the value of established genre 'rules'. There are players who like a good grind, just as there are players who hate numerical HP. Playtest religiously, and post in the WIP thread!

 

The two easiest ways to measure character progression are by what you are (stats) and by what you have (gear/loot/heart containers). These aren't mutually exclusive either as items can level up and be used to improve stats of a character.

A third option, although substantially more complicated to make it mechanically relevant, is what you have done. What's been mapped is the usual example, but a more translatable example to character progression is building things that act as unlocks.

 

An interesting thought is to use age and game play experience tied to player skill. The basic idea can be applied to a ton of concepts so I'll leave that open to the imagination.
And a progression web/tree based on activities and experience related to each other that ties things together - allows for advancement into more sophisticated character abilities.
Random thought - you play around in the woods, then start climbing rocks to gather a quest item, which leads you to rappelling or more professional rock climbing, spelunking and volcano exploration.
Areas could be open to all but if a young, inexperienced, ill prepared character attempts to climb "mount too tall to climb" without proper gear and experience they die or get mauled by the yeti family and live to tell the tale but loose years of life and fortune.

The game length per player could be based on the type of food the character consumes and his activity level. Maybe even his mental state. Is he a glutton for the easy foods and a main stay at the local tavern or does he dedicate his time to growing and protecting crops and animals. Is he a political person or a criminal with stresses always on his mind that keeps his heart rate elevated.

 

I really like skill based systems for RPGs. I'm aiming to make an RPG, and then I'll likely use a skill based system similar to what was used in Ultima Online. No levels, gain skills by using them, gain stats by using skills.

 

What about getting rid of points entirely, or at least reducing them down to a single 0/1 (true/false)? Adventure games do this. You either have the Red Door Key or you don't. You've either defeated the Pirate King or you haven't. You've either learned Thunder Punch from the mountain hermit or you haven't.

The downsides are that it's more work for the developer, and it only appeals to certain types of players. It doesn't work for grinders who want continual incremental progress, where everything they do adds a small percentage to some goal. But it works for story- and role-playing gamers who play for stories, quests, exploration, and character interaction.

I'd be happy to play a game like this, and/or one that depends on player skill versus character skill, which is another alternative to point-based systems. If the player's good at taking cover and shooting enemies, then the character's good at it. If the player can cleverly craft unique magic effects from a pool of resources, then the character's clever.

 

I'd take bools over floats any day of the week.

 

I was thinking in terms of content. For the developer, Fighter Level 1, Fighter Level 2, Fighter Level 3, etc., just scaling up the same thing with different values, is easier than implementing separate content-based bools for new skills or items such as, say, Thunder Punch, Lightning Kick, Tornado Throw, etc. But those content-based bools sure seem more unique and interesting, don't they?

 

I always liked the idea of what I coined 'Silent leveling'. SO you level up through doing stuff, but you can never see your levels or that you leveled up, you just notice you can kill that sheep faster than you