About religion system, piety and RP rewards

[Dawn]

Here is a poll to get the common idea.

You all have three votes.

Vote between 1 and 2. Then between 3, 4 and 5. And lastly between 6 and 7.

[Mike]

Reasoning.

1) I like the concept of the new system. Doing our own thing is better than Pang lore. It has all these corny concepts, names and themes, in my opinion. People might enjoy Winchester as a deity, or Order of Imperial as the name of an organization, but I would guess that is more due to good memories of playing these concepts with other people than their own merits.

2) I like piety being both RP reward as well as achievable through other means. Basic piety should be equal for all. Temporary piety should be based on achievements, RP- or combat based. Such as casting a rite on an object and holding it for X amount of time. Will bump the piety of the caster or guild for X amount of time, until the object becomes uncontrolled again and anyone can try to get its piety.

3) I like the idea of RP rewards as a whole (and not just for priests) Perhaps the control point system described above could be used by guilds to grant other buffs than piety. Crit modifier for barbarians, damage reduction for warriors, spellcasting timers for casters etc. Not sure about RP. Perhaps making great contributions on the level of a priest could give temporary advantages to serve the person's role.

In the greater perspective, I think RP rewards for guilds are a good idea. That should involve visual stuff - dye tubs, guards in faction colors, decorations and such.

[Cyrus Tegyr]

Well I went with both 4 and 7, I disagree with RP being rewarded as a whole, I realize this is an RP but rewarding RP bring into play a double standard.

Let's pick an easy example: Sir Bob has RP'd well enough to earn himself "an Exemplary Shinging Breastplate of Resilience and Glamor" how does he justify in character where he got this item, surely he can't just say I've always had it as it was passed down to me from Fred my father.

I know with this specific poll we aren't talking item rewards and specifically only religion characters thus piety, but it is the same in my view, if you can not reasonably/believably justify how you achieved something in character, how can rewarding "good RP" on an RP only shard?

In my opinion the reward for RP should be the enjoyment you get out of it, I know people are going to say, "well this doesn't work for improving the RP atmosphere." but I'll tell ya, neither will rewarding "good RP".

[Ivan]

It depends how you decided reward for the RP, I dont think trophies or w/e are the correct way. I'd rather target the reason why we are playing the game for as one. Entertainment, reward the good RP:ers with events and let them create events and etc. with help of GM's more leniently if they are known for good RP behaviour.

Thats imo the more correct way to reward for good RP behaviour, along with perhaps chances of creating their own little piece of history into the pangaea itself. As an example including side characters from their stories or w/e into the actual lore etc.

[Cyrus Tegyr]

It depends how you decided reward for the RP, I dont think trophies or w/e are the correct way. I'd rather target the reason why we are playing the game for as one. Entertainment, reward the good RP:ers with events and let them create events and etc. with help of GM's more leniently if they are known for good RP behaviour.

Thats imo the more correct way to reward for good RP behaviour, along with perhaps chances of creating their own little piece of history into the pangaea itself. As an example including side characters from their stories or w/e into the actual lore etc.

I agree with this actually, in game buffs and items is a horrible way if we are to have enforced RP, otherwise we are making a farce of the enforced RP rule.

In the end this Ivan's idea will actually add to the shard in the long run instead of just a short term bonus that can not be explained well in game.

[Dawn]

Cyrus, although this is not the place to argue over this, I just want to point out you're perhaps looking at this reward thing from the wrong point of view.

Sir Bob has RP'd well enough to earn himself "an Exemplary Shinging Breastplate of Resilience and Glamor" how does he justify in character where he got this item, surely he can't just say I've always had it as it was passed down to me from Fred my father.

I agree a player should not receive an item he cannot explain. Then again, for me RPing "well enough" includes the reasoning for the item. If there's no reason, then he has not RPed well enough. :)

For example, Bob makes a story and continuously role-plays for a long time how his family suffered a great wronging in the Great War of Daemons years and years ago. In the fight not only did his father lose his live, but their family heirloom, the magnificent breastplate crafted by none else than the Troll King Trololol, considered not only as the greatest troll, but as the greatest blacksmith of all time, was stolen from his father's corpse and ever since then vanished from the face of the earth. Now Bob seeks it out. He travels the world, speaks to both people and daemons alike desperately looking for any clues and hints.

This is somewhat close to what Ivan suggested with the exception that instead of bugging GM for a quest, the player does his own thing hoping the GMs will jump in on their own. The player creates the background story and the lore, which neither require GM intervention and he goes on and on with it until it becomes reality. I guess the biggest problem here is that people tend to have the bad habit of "I want it all, I want it now" and if the GM doesn't notice his very first lines of RP, he gives up.

Alternatively this could be combined with the idea of "RP points". A player gains RP points through regular RPing, participating in events, writing stories etc. which he can use to shop for different things. Only that instead of the player instantly getting what he wants, the RP points unlock a quest-like event that will reward him with what he wants... that is, should he be successful, which by all means would not always be the case (the greater the reward, the harder the quest and bigger the chance of it failing - as well as bigger the penalty?).

[Iktomi]

Cyrus, although this is not the place to argue over this, I just want to point out you're perhaps looking at this reward thing from the wrong point of view.

Sir Bob has RP'd well enough to earn himself "an Exemplary Shinging Breastplate of Resilience and Glamor" how does he justify in character where he got this item, surely he can't just say I've always had it as it was passed down to me from Fred my father.

I agree a player should not receive an item he cannot explain. Then again, for me RPing "well enough" includes the reasoning for the item. If there's no reason, then he has not RPed well enough.

A good example is Mike's(?) Tekstone alchemist/experimenter story-line.

[Quintoz]

I agree with what Mike said and voted the same.

@Cyrus, Imo what I would like to see is if the staff feels like this guy has earned some sort of physical reward, they set up a personal quest for him in which he will find the item. Nothing major just helps explain where he found it etc.

[Glarundis]

Cyrus, although this is not the place to argue over this, I just want to point out you're perhaps looking at this reward thing from the wrong point of view.

Sir Bob has RP'd well enough to earn himself "an Exemplary Shinging Breastplate of Resilience and Glamor" how does he justify in character where he got this item, surely he can't just say I've always had it as it was passed down to me from Fred my father.

I agree a player should not receive an item he cannot explain. Then again, for me RPing "well enough" includes the reasoning for the item. If there's no reason, then he has not RPed well enough.

A good example is Mike's(?) Tekstone alchemist/experimenter story-line.

i thought the story was pretty interesting..

anyways, dawn, i'm getting your point and i think it can work if that situation you're talking about happens every once in a while only. what if ppl suddenly start to "create" their items in an rp story first so that they can later obtain them?

"hmmm i really want this and that item..let me make up a story where its development would end up with me getting that item" hehe

[Mike]

What's been discussed in terms of a "player event" is probably how the reward system should work if we're talking about a medium/long term RP reward. To borrow a concept from the NWN server I play on, someone who's been seen to RP well for a long time usually* gets an epic event. That involves a personalized event that usually takes into accout the character's background story or personal goals, and gains the character a personalized item and a bump in the maximum level cap. In Pang terms this can be understood as being somewhere around heighten/legendary depending on what the player picks on that extra level in terms of efficiency, and having a cool gadget.

If this was done on the new and impoved Pang, perhaps 3-5 characters a month could be eligeble depending on GM avalibility. The RP reward would have to be streamlined not to be overpowered (compared to other RP-rewarded characters) while still offering a sense of uniqueness. This gets rid of the "something out of nothing" concern.

The short term generic buffs should be left to a pvp type system. Claiming victory points as I outlined.

*unless drama kicks in