Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
RPG elements
Many games allow players to build up and customize the attributes of their ava-
tars or of a party of characters. Often the mechanics involved are referred to as RPG
elements of the game. In this economy, skills and other attributes of player charac-
ters are important resources that affect their ability to perform particular tasks. The
most important structure of the RPG economy is a positive feedback loop: Player
characters must perform tasks successfully to increase their abilities, which in turn
increases their chance to perform more tasks successfully.
In classic role-playing games, experience points and character levels act as separate
resources that structure the economy. Figure 6.40 shows how these mechanics might
be modeled for a typical fantasy role-playing game. In this case, the player can perform
three different actions: combat, magic, and stealth. Successfully executing these
actions will produce experience points. When a player has collected 10 experience
points, he can level up. The experience points are converted into a higher charac-
ter level and two upgrades that he can use to increase his abilities. (In some games,
experience points are not consumed, but trigger upgrades at stated thresholds. You
can do this with a source that produces upgrades and an activator to fire it.) To spice
up things a little, this diagram also contains a construction that occasionally increases
the difficulty of the tasks. Using color-coding, the difficulty of each different task pro-
gresses differently. Normally a dungeon master (in the case of a tabletop role-playing
game) or the game system would make sure players are presented with suitable tasks.
FIGURe 6.40
rPG economy with
experience points
and levels
 
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