Proposal for Xp awards for Bios, please give your thoughts

[oldgrayrogue]

Detailed Bios promote story based RP. If we want to encourage story based RP what is wrong with awarding XP for a well written bio? Or for a well written library post? I really don't get all the "sky is falling" responses to the OP.

The fact is we award totally riskless XP every single day in ALFA -- it is called the RPXP script. You get XP for doing absolutely nothing but walking around or talking to another PC. You even get it if your toon talks to herself! As to the OP proposal, it is not that different from other forms of RP XP awarded by DMs. As a DM I awarded XP for "play by post" RP when my players could not get in game with me for various reasons. I once received like 150 xp from a DM as a player for ICly refusing to go on a quest offered by the DM that was morally repugnant to my PC. Your bio creates the backstory for you as a player to RP your character. So, if I talk about that backstory with other players I should get RPXP and possibly DM RPXP but writing it in a bio makes it ineligible and level 1 destroying? Again, I don't get it.

In ALFA we spend a lot of time and effort creating rules that prevent abuses and punish people for breaking rules. It is long past time that ALFA begins rewarding players for behavior that is actually conducive to story based RP. Rewarding story based RP, such as bios, library stories, etc., incentivizes story based play as opposed to the play styles we all obsess over coding out of existence.

[Castano]

Well said OGR. The comments in opposition make no sense to me unless we get rid of RPXP.

[Mikayla]

Can we make this retroactive at say, 1 XP for every 10 (or even 100) words posted in the library?

[Adanu]

I say yes for this.

Why? Because we want good RP, and a well written Bio allows DMs to incorporate personal stories into their campaigns.

[oldgrayrogue]

I would add that there are likely quite a few players in ALFA who have earned bucketloads of FREE RPXP from the script simply because they have many hours available to remain logged in game that others do not have. This adds to level disparity in my view. If we don't want to award XP for bios and the like then shut the RPXP spigot off at level 5.

Do I hear a loud cheer from those doomsayers saying bio XP destroys ALFA or boos and hisses?

[Castano]

oh I would love to curb rpxp, I put forth a few proposals, such as linking it to where you are RPing. A nice safe tavern would mean less XP than RPing whilst on an adventure in the cloakwood.

[FoamBats4All]

Please don't. It'll take me another week of RP XP just to hit level 2, and it's pretty much the only reliable way to earn XP in ALFA.

[maxcell]

*makes a puzzled face* Why would you want to do this? I vote no, as if that made any difference.

Could care less about the op, but Teric you are correct, the current admin decide what they are going to do, but like to make a show about seeking community input before going ahead and doing what they want anyhow, so no yours nor mine makes any difference.

[Zelknolf]

I would add that there are likely quite a few players in ALFA who have earned bucketloads of FREE RPXP from the script simply because they have many hours available to remain logged in game that others do not have.

I find it interesting that you call something free in the same sentence that you list the cost of the thing.

I might also notice that there are quite a few people in the world who have FREE FANCY CARS, just because they have more disposable income to spend on things like frivolous means of transportation.

[Mikayla]

Please do not remove or curb RP XP. Here is why.

There are only four ways to play in ALFA:

1) DM'd play
2) Doing static quests
3) Killing automatically spawned creatures
4) RPing

#1 is the best, but since my return to ALFA, I average less than one DM'd session a week despite the fact that I log in to play almost every single day.

#2 will get you in trouble if you do too many too quickly. To keep out of trouble, we try not to do more than 2-4 statics in any given 24 hour period, and try not to do statics at all back to back (like we'll take an entire day off from doing statics).

#3 will get you in trouble if you farm too many spawns. So, we will go out, once every couple of days, or even once a week, and clear a board or two, but then thats it, because we're afraid of getting called farmers.

So, we get (1) very little DM time; (2) self-limits on statics to avoid being accused of abuse; (3) self-limits on killing spawns to avoid being accused of farming - what does that leave? RP. So we do that. In fact, we spend MOST of our time sitting around in taverns (Blade & Stars), inns (the Golden Oak) or bath-houses RPing with each other. Right now, there is at least a trickle of XP for the RP - turn that spigot off and the already painfully slow leveling progress of our PCs will grind to a f*cking halt. Its bad enough that by the time your are 5th level you have basically outgrown the majority of static quests, leaving you only three ways to play. But shut down XP gains for RP?

ALFA is difficult enough to play in right now. People are quick to point the "farming" finger or the "Chaining statics" finger, and now you want to force people out of the taverns and inns (where they are actually RPing, the supposed purpose of ALFA) and out to do .. what? If we hit the spawns more, we're farmers. If we hit the statics more, we're abusing the statics. The only option open is DM'd sessions, and we LOVE them, we drop everything for them (I've dropped cyb0ring to go get into a DM'd session for god's sake) but those DM'd sessions are very, very rare in comparison to the time we play.

What does that leave? We should not log in? We should go play Skyrim? If we can't hit spawns, can't hit statics and you don't want us RPing in the inns and taverns and there aren't enough DMs to run sessions, that doesn't leave us anything. Except to leave.

So, please, don't penalize us for doing what ALFA is supposedly all about - Role Playing. The institution of the RP XP script was a brilliant move to PROMOTE RP over farming or statics abuse. Please leave it alone.

M.

[gonz.0]

Please do not remove or curb RP XP. Here is why.

There are only four ways to play in ALFA:

1) DM'd play
2) Doing static quests
3) Killing automatically spawned creatures
4) RPing

#1 is the best, but since my return to ALFA, I average less than one DM'd session a week despite the fact that I log in to play almost every single day.

#2 will get you in trouble if you do too many too quickly. To keep out of trouble, we try not to do more than 2-4 statics in any given 24 hour period, and try not to do statics at all back to back (like we'll take an entire day off from doing statics).

#3 will get you in trouble if you farm too many spawns. So, we will go out, once every couple of days, or even once a week, and clear a board or two, but then thats it, because we're afraid of getting called farmers.

So, we get (1) very little DM time; (2) self-limits on statics to avoid being accused of abuse; (3) self-limits on killing spawns to avoid being accused of farming - what does that leave? RP. So we do that. In fact, we spend MOST of our time sitting around in taverns (Blade & Stars), inns (the Golden Oak) or bath-houses RPing with each other. Right now, there is at least a trickle of XP for the RP - turn that spigot off and the already painfully slow leveling progress of our PCs will grind to a f*cking halt. Its bad enough that by the time your are 5th level you have basically outgrown the majority of static quests, leaving you only three ways to play. But shut down XP gains for RP?

ALFA is difficult enough to play in right now. People are quick to point the "farming" finger or the "Chaining statics" finger, and now you want to force people out of the taverns and inns (where they are actually RPing, the supposed purpose of ALFA) and out to do .. what? If we hit the spawns more, we're farmers. If we hit the statics more, we're abusing the statics. The only option open is DM'd sessions, and we LOVE them, we drop everything for them (I've dropped cyb0ring to go get into a DM'd session for god's sake) but those DM'd sessions are very, very rare in comparison to the time we play.

What does that leave? We should not log in? We should go play Skyrim? If we can't hit spawns, can't hit statics and you don't want us RPing in the inns and taverns and there aren't enough DMs to run sessions, that doesn't leave us anything. Except to leave.

So, please, don't penalize us for doing what ALFA is supposedly all about - Role Playing. The institution of the RP XP script was a brilliant move to PROMOTE RP over farming or statics abuse. Please leave it alone.

M.

Well damn. I think I said the same things, though not as well or at the same time. Agreed, 100%
+1

[FoamBats4All]

Yup. Mikayla hit it on the head.

[Khazar Stoneblood]

...got smacked dead by a spirit in the middle of the city.

If you got killed by some sort of ghost in the middle of Silverymoon, that sounds like some thing or some one might've screwed up. Might be grounds for a tech rez. I would inquire with a DM.

No, it was designed that way. It was a quest to help a writer at the theater who was troubled and couldn't find his muse. For some reason I didnt' expect the trouble to be a spirit. I don't think it would be a hard fight for a combat based PC... but mine simply wasn't.

With that, the gnome Chomsky who I had spent a lot of time developing in my head went poof. It probably is fine for existing ALFA players. But it's very tough for new arrivals.

You played a gnome PC named Chomsky, and you expect us to have mercy on you? Though I do recall a PC named after a car model, which is likely worse. Kidding aside, yeah ALFA is very nasty for newbies. Its not so much the sheer difficulty as it is the complexity and unfamiliarity combined with perma-death, as you say.

Your best bet is always to join up with an existing group of players.

What's wrong with Chomsky? He was a talented linguist studying at the Lady's School with an interest in history and politics. Seems perfect to me.

And hey, that's no worse then the PC in ALFA-1 who played on the Pirate Isles server who's last name was Roberts. I later learned OOC his long term goal was to get the Dread Pirate prestige class. I'm not sure his first name was Wesley (I want to say it was Zach). But it SHOULD have been Wesley. And of course I've seen NPC's on Moonshaes named Bobo Fraggins and Scotty Pippin. I'm NOT ashamed.

[dergon darkhelm]

The original reason for RPXP was *not* to be a gift for roleplay.

It was to get people to LOG IN!


The mere act of being logged in helps the community. Without the RPXP script you very quickly get to the mentality of "Well... there's no one in game. What's the point? Guess I'll play minecraft instead" rather than the much more desirable "Well..... No one is in game now, but I suppose I log in and hang around for a while and eventually maybe others will notice me in game and soon there will be enough to go out adventuring!"

[Castano]

The original reason for RPXP was *not* to be a gift for roleplay.

It was to get people to LOG IN!


The mere act of being logged in helps the community. Without the RPXP script you very quickly get to the mentality of "Well... there's no one in game. What's the poiny? Guess I'll play minecraft instead" rather than the much more desirable "Well..... No one is in game now, but I suppose I log in and hang around for a while and eventually maybe others will notice me in game and sooe there will be enough to go out adventuring!"

I agree, but no one goes adventuring, they hang in the tavern chatting. Personally makes me want to slit my wrists. But each to their own I suppose.