I would agree with this, but the game never had this problem in play testing. As a game master centered game, there is a limit to amount of gaminess that a good game master will allow. And if you have a bad game master, then I cannot see what good any rule will do.Avoraciopoctules wrote:The problem with rewarding people long-term for rolling well is that you encourage them to roll for every minor thing possible. If jumping is a skill, you are mechanically incentivized to play like this is is Elder Scrolls and hold down the jump button with a rock, then go to sleep till next morning.dkfather wrote:
You actually get XP for more than this. Doing well on a Skill attempt is one of four ways to gain XP. Progressing a mission by combat or trickery, defeating a designated key adversary (a "boss") and falling below 0 on Health, Conscious, or Morale are also ways of gaining experience. The idea of experience in the game is based on the life points, a concept that can be traced to middle ages Germany to describe victories and losses on the path to experience.Avoraciopoctules wrote:A less sleepy look, and this system looks seriously terrible. You get XP for rolling well, can spend 10 XP to level up, and levels range from 1 to 200.
I now kind of regret buying book 1 of this game when I could have spent that money on a loaf of bread instead.
Let's say you crit and gain 1 XP when you roll 2 6s on 2d6. That means 1/36 times, you gain an experience points. If you just keep doing the same 1-round thing over and over again, you gain a level in 360 rounds.
It's the Elf Farming D&D problem, but writ much larger.
Take for example making an attack. 1/36th of the time you make a role high enough to gain experience. From the play test notes the average combat lasted 42 rounds, so you probably will get an experience point if you attack every round. But then you need to immediately run and get into another combat and continue the process. The game lacks a system of re-spawning mobs so there is not endless targets to kills.
If you want to spend the day cutting lumber you roll once for success. That is 36 days for an experience point, nearly a year's work to advance a level. Not much joy there.
Very few non-combat skills allow quick turn around skill use. In fact, downtime use of skills can only amount to five or six rolls a month - more than a year for skill point increases. The fastest way to gain experience in fact is to have varied adventures where you flex your skills in creative ways to gain final objectives.
So here you have to ask yourself - if a bad player and a bad game master get together and agree to bend the rules to allow endless skill checks for the smallest things, how can the rules be written to save this? Play testing never revealed how to make a system idiot proof, only how to give good players a useful set of rules that they could modify and tweak to meet their own campaign uses.
