Alternative Levelling

[Lystianna]

Kill/quest grinding is all well and good. But some of us are just here for the RP... am I wrong? Why not add an incentive to roleplay by implementing a system that rewards players for their roleplay beyond account perks.
What I speak of is a new command: rpflag
This toggles a flag on the character signifying that they are roleplaying for experience, as well as character development and just plain fun.
While this flag is on, players gain experience in small, steady doses based on the frequency and length of their poses. Now... how do you prevent someone from simply turning the flag on and levelling up without even touching their keyboard?
Their exp gained through roleplay is based on the frequency and length of their poses. And another PC has to be in the room for them to gain experience through this method. Further, stiff, stiff penalties for abusing this system.

[Jharthyne]

I believe that good roleplay is being rewarded through the kismet system (a player can reward another player for good roleplay by the 'reward' command). During immortal-runned RP events, immortals can give out rewards to players who roleplay well too. Given that this is a roleplay MUD, I don't think we need to specifically have a rpflag to say someone is roleplaying... the assumption should be that everyone is always roleplaying!

[Pakur]

The potential for abuse is tremendous. And also gaining physical strength and constitution for standing around chatting in the square wouldn't be very
realistic imho.

[Harroghty]

I believe that adventurers should adventure. If you do not wish to adventure then what do really need experience for?

[Keltorn]

(a player can reward another player for good roleplay by the 'reward' command)

Yep.

The potential for abuse is tremendous. And also gaining physical strength and constitution for standing around chatting in the square wouldn't be very
realistic imho.

Absolutely.

I believe that adventurers should adventure. If you do not wish to adventure then what do really need experience for?

Agreed.

Seriously, you guys totally read my mind. In that order, too.

First point, good roleplay is already rewarded, both by PCs and Immortals. The system isn't perfect, but making it run off the honor system as suggested leads to...
Second point, extremely abuseable. If my character likes pie and he thinks about pie while chopping up orcs, should he be getting RP experience? Also, it would be extremely easy to leave that flag on by accident, especially for those people that walk one room away from Waterdeep's market and quit immediately. It could always automatically turn off once you've moved a single room, but that would restrict official roleplay to sitting in a single room, and some of my better RPs were done while travelling (though they're a pain to log). Speaking of sitting in that square...
Third point, you don't become an epic hero by sipping tea and talking about who's sleeping with who. The best you could hope to achieve in such a life is to hit level 4 as a commoner. Maybe expert. Like Harroghty said, you shouldn't even need experience points if you don't plan on becoming an adventurer.

Encouraging roleplay is always a good thing, but there's already a decent system in place. I say "decent" because rewarding good roleplay is never a perfect system, as anyone who's played D&D with a RP-rewarding DM knows. If you ever find yourself in that situation, you'd better make sure you're the favorite, or you'll be levels behind whoever he likes most!

Suggestions on how to better handle rewarding good RP are always nice to have, so I'm glad the poster spoke up.

[Nysan]

If your intention with a character is socializing, rather than dragon wacking, than lvl 50 is not actually necessary. You mostly only need to reach a level that allows the stamina to move to desired locations and the strength (or horse) needed to carry your possessions.

Once upon a time, I had a bard and I had little desire to kill with him. He preformed at events and gatherings, wrote books, sang songs, ect. He never pasted lvl 30 and lived a happy and full-filled life, needless to say this was before many of the quality-of-life changes that have happened in recent years. Even some of my current characters, many years old, have not hit max level. Their current level sustains their habits and I am not in a hurry to max them out.

Don't get level blind. There is so much you can do between 10 and 49. Max level doesn't change much for social butterflies.

[Tavik]

I think it is fair to point out that RPing is not just sitting around talking even though that is what it seems to get equated to sso often. People do still RP other things that would ICly equate to gaining xp (Think rangers tracking orcs or a thief casing a shop).

All that said, the definition of "good RP" is EXTREMELY subjective. I don't think anyone cam deny that the range of RP preferences of the players of this game is broad to say the least and that preferences do clash. In order to provide a reward for something (ie. Xp) the rewardee needs to meet the expectations required for that reward. Setting what those expectations should be in regards to rewardable RP in an automated system is going to be impossible to accomplish in a way that is fair to everyone.

While I would like to see a way to gain xp other than grinding (and we do have at least one way) we do have to keep in mind that the game is meant, in large part, to imitate table top DnD and killing things and completing quests (usually involving killing things) are nearly the sole means of gaining xp.

[Selveem]

I feel there's no need for a separate command just to say you're roleplaying because you should always be roleplaying when your character is engaging in an action.

[Selveem]

And then Tavik steals my thunder while I'm typing.

[Raona]

Lystiana, I sympathize with your motivation, but the replies above reflect why something like this hasn't come to fruition, despite consideration thereof and dabbling into ways to do it. That said, the game has been repeatedly re-engineered with roleplay in mind, and compared to when I started playing, someone who is very RP focused now stands a fighting chance of keeping up with the grinders, with the caveat that you do have to get out and adventure in order to enhance your scoresheet.