Sam Seer's Blog

Running my first gold-for-XP game (well,  gold-or - XP  game) has me thinking about incentives. Specifically, what does gold-for-XP incentivize? Acquiring loot Doing jobs for pay Stealing Running a profitable business Avoiding things that don't pay Avoiding things that kill you Is this what I want my game to be about? No. I want my game to be about: Exploring the World ¹  Engaging with the World Following your interests By using XP, how might one incentivize this kind of game? Exploring: Give XP for locations visited and locations fully explored. Engaging: Give XP for completing quests, partnering with factions and NPCs, slaying beasts, developing your skills, doing daring and ambitious things. Following your interests: Give XP for completing personal quests. Do I  want  to  dictate  what my game is about? Of course. I don't want to play a game about running a business or managing a kingdom or waging war between armies. I don't mind if they're an el...

Rather than gold for XP, the Players choose: gold or XP.  That is, hauling the grave goods back to civilization and liquidating them is not enough to earn XP. You must then spend the funds. The only stipulation is that the way you spend the money cannot benefit you materially in anyway. You can't buy land, build a fort, or fund a powerful mercenary faction. You can do that, you just don't earn XP for it-- you earn those things. To squander the wealth and earn XP, you might: Carouse about town Give to a religious or educational institution Donate to museum Distribute it amongst the poor Bury the goods with a dead Player Character (Why is there so much loot in the earth? XP) Anything. You just can't benefit materially. The point is the Players must decide between advancing their Character (HP, stats, etc.) or advancing their assets (gear, reputation, relationships). Heroes of Might & Magic 3