Consolidated Discussion of RPG Mechanics

[Kaden]

I would have to say that it seems silly (to me) to have a DBZ RPG if you don't have Power Levels. I mean, that's like, the basis of the series' combat. It didn't matter what style or moves you had, it was all about the Power Level. Now, how you plan in implement that is something, or if the writers don't mind drifting away from traditional DBZ archetypes (I don' have strong feelings one way or another).

I generally agree. I prefer having some sort of "Power Level" mechanic for a DBZ RPG, though I understand not everyone agrees.

I said in another thread I would post of the roughs I've come up with while turning some of these issues over in my head. Here they are:

Unified Currency
The basic idea behind this one is pretty simple: players accumulate one thing, let's call it Prestige, and that is used to make any purchases that affect their character. Increasing "Power Level" would be done by expending Prestige. Buying items would be done by expending Prestige. Any form of Technique or Custom Tech would require the expenditure of Prestige.

One of the things we tried to do with the current system is reward "quantity" with XP and "quality" with zeni via the Profession system. That really didn't work out. Zeni was perceived as either being too hard to get or not worth the effort of accumulating. By significantly scaling back the amount of Prestige earned per post and augmenting that with Prestige rewarded through Quests and such we avoid disconnects like the one between XP and Zeni. This also allows players to determine what Prestige is worth to them (a Custom Tech vs some cool new item, for example). It could even be tied into the PP System, forcing players to expend Prestige in order to activate a power-up and gain the upper hand in a fight.

Regulated XP Rewards
If anyone plays or is familiar with White Wolf RPGs, think the XP system from those. Players are awarded a few XP points at a time (like, 1 or 2) and then spend them to make purchases. We'd probably standardize Custom Techs to be 1 or 2 XP and keep Techniques with standardized prices. Power-Level, if we chose to incorporate it would probably be based directly on XP earned. 1 XP = 100 PL or something like that, or we could say that PL has to be purchased, similar to the Unified Currency concept.

The pros and cons in this system seem a lot more risky to me than something like Unified Currency. Obviously players have to be willing to invest a lot into their characters and they need to be willing to see the worth in a relatively minimalistic system. Long-term, though, the benefits are significant. Power creep was a serious problem in the last system and its even been evident in this one. By having a form of currency that is handed out in a very regulated manner we can keep a much closer eye on how characters are developing, statistically, in relation to the rest of the RPG.

Relative Returns
Things like strength and speed and intelligence are all judged on a relative scale. If everyone in the world had the same IQ, no one would be "smarter" than anyone else. Someone is only "strong" because there are people who are "weak." That idea is something that I've always been interested in incorporating, but have never really pushed because it's either very math intensive (which generally makes for much slower updates) or its very code intensive.

The idea is that people still earn CA per-post, but at varying rates depending on where they fall in the hierarchy of power. Here's how it would play out with some mostly-random numbers. Lets say you have a bunch of active players who's CA max at 5,000 and min at 500. The average of those is 2750. So anyone with around the average CA (let's say we give a 250 margin, so anywhere from 3,000-2500) earns the base amount of XP when they post -- so if they post an RP worth 10 XP, they get 10 XP. Someone with a CA towards the bottom (same 250 margin, so 500~750) would receive a significant multiplier to their XP -- so if they posted an RP worth 10 XP, they'd receive something like 25. And, finally, someone at the top would basically be penalized, receiving, say, 25% of their XP -- so they'd post for 10 and receive 2.5 or something.

The pros and cons of this system should be pretty obvious. It promotes overall game health by attempting to keep things as "fair" or "even" as possible, but it definitely penalizes those who are simply more active. The other side of that is that people who are just starting or just getting back into their character, hopefully, feel more rewarded (which they should, because they are) and that, in turn, would hopefully make them feel more interested in developing and continuing their character.

---

So there's some food for thought. Just some ideas to get things rolling and maybe spur some discussion.