Most roleplaying games include some kind of advancement system to
encourage players to join game sessions and improve their characters.
It’s been an essential element of roleplaying games since their
beginnings, this ability to continue playing to gain more experience
and build a more powerful character over time. Yet the particular
mechanics of how in-game action translates to character experience
influences the tone of the game. Players naturally want to improve
their heroes; characters’ in-game actions tend to focus on those
that best reward them in the context of the specific game scenario.
Games that reward experience for slain monsters and looted treasure
have a different tone than those giving points for solving problems,
gaming in-character, managing encounters, and achieving goals.
While investigating the relationship between advancement mechanics
and tone I looked at several core games I’ve enjoyed:
Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons, Basic/Expert D&D, West End Games’
first edition
Star Wars Roleplaying Game, and
Hero Kids
(a more recent addition to my gaming repertoire). Each has its own
play style. One might characterize the first two as hack-and-slash,
dungeon-crawling games of a style now celebrated (and improved upon)
by the Old School Renaissance movement (OSR). As a more cinematic
game,
D6 Star Wars focuses on overcoming obstacles through
plotted scenes that escalate in a more literary sense toward an
adventure climax, all relying on story elements from the popular
setting. A game primarily for young children new to roleplaying
gamers,
Hero Kids emphasizes combat, problem-solving, and
character interaction, yet has no built-in experience or advancement
system for characters; so why can’t my six year-old get enough of
it? The manner in which each of these games approaches the
experience-advancement equation can heavily influence play style and
the game’s tone.
In the
AD&D Players Handbook (1978) Gary Gygax
establishes the motivation behind “zero-to-hero,” hack-and-slash
style play:
“Each player character
begins the campaign at 1st level with no experience points
accumulated. Thereafter, as he or she completes adventures and
returns to an established base of operations, the Dungeon Master will
award experience points to the character for treasure gained and
opponents captured or slain and for solving or overcoming problems
through professional means” (p. 106).
Although he offers that caveat about overcoming challenges, the
rest of the five paragraphs in the
Players Handbook
“Experience” section justify rewards based on monsters
killed/subdued and treasure taken. Here Gygax provides an entire
paragraph of defense of “gaining experience points through the
acquisition of gold pieces and by slaying monsters,” saying some
might consider it “non-representative of how an actual character
would become more able in his or her class.” His argument relies on
the presence of fantasy elements in a game: “This is a game,
however, a fantasy game, and suspension of disbelief is required.”
He helps cement two key elements of experience in class-and-level
roleplaying games: killing monsters and taking their stuff gains
reward; overcoming obstacles, challenging character development, and
exploring story elements seems secondary. (I’m not looking to the
Dungeon Masters Guide here because the
Players Handbook
speaks to players in its effort to motivate them and their characters
to action in the game; the
DMG offers gamemaster’s guidance
in handing out rewards and is thus not immediately apparent to
players from a motivation standpoint.)
Tom
Moldvay’s version of
Basic
D&D (1981) reiterates the emphasis on killing monsters
and collecting gold to gain experience. “Experience points...are
given for non-magical treasure and for defeating monsters” (p.
B22). Here’s the reinforcement of the 1 gold piece equals 1
experience point principle, along with experience points “for
monsters killed or overcome by magic, fighting, or wits.”
Adjustments to experience points rewards come primarily from facing
particularly tough monsters and bonuses based on prime requisite
ability scores. Emphasis remains primarily on combat: “The DM may
also award extra XP to characters who deserve them (fighting a
dangerous monster alone, or saving the party with a great idea).”
The text emphasizes rewarding active characters and providing
negative reinforcement to “do-nothing” characters, assuming the
in-game combat and story challenges aren’t enough to motivate some
players.
The player section of West End’s
Star Wars Roleplaying Game
(1987) spends a quarter of a page explaining the experience system –
“skill points” used to increase skill die codes – toward the
end of 10 pages focusing on introducing players to basic roleplaying
game concepts and the functional game mechanics before leading them
through a solitaire tutorial scenario to demonstrate those
principles. “The better you did in the adventure, the more skill
points you receive. You get them for doing great deeds, for
outwitting your opponents, and for playing your role well. You can
spend skill points to increase your skill codes” (p. 15). Designed
by Greg Costikyan, the
Star Wars Roleplaying Game is a
skill-based roleplaying game that eschews classes and levels for more
story-driven characters relying on attributes and associated skills.
It’s more story-oriented in the sense that character, setting, and
story arcs matter more than killing things, taking their stuff, and
leveling up. Rather than gaining new bonuses when a character levels
up, players use points to increase their heroes’ skills, sometimes
in line with their stereotyped character “template” concept and
sometimes according to how they think their heroes might develop as
story characters. These guidelines don’t mention anything about
killing monsters and taking their treasure, but emphasize character
and story elements. Although the licensed material emphasizes
conflict – the franchise is
Star Wars –
that’s only one aspect in the game setting.
Justin Halliday’s Hero Kids lacks any semblance of an
experience mechanic. It mentions nothing about character advancement
or experience points beyond a simple suggestion that heroes get
occasional rewards in the form of gold, potions, equipment, or
magical items. That isn’t to say other gamers (myself included)
haven’t devised their own means of awarding experience bonuses; but
the game itself leaves them out, and even my own ideas about such a
system amount to little more than providing minor bonuses to
character abilities...certainly not the regular positive
reinforcement needed to spur players to constant adventuring action.
Granted, this is a game for kids, perfect for those interested in
exploring roleplaying games at a far less intense level than most
traditional games...so
Hero Kids has a certain appeal on its
own without built-in incentives to motivate repeat play. My six
year-old enjoyed his first session so much he begged me to run more;
the novelty still hasn’t worn off after several scenarios. He’s
never been exposed to traditional roleplaying games where experience
and character advancement are integral part of the extended play
paradigm. Although most adventures have combat scenes, the game also
encourages creative problem solving and interaction with other
players and the gamemaster characters/monsters in the scenarios. Even
the section on encounters fails to indicate that monsters even carry
treasure heroes can loot. All this contributes to a game focused on
exploration and problem solving (of both the game world and the game
itself) without the positive feedback loop of combat, treasure, and
experience.
By focusing on rewards for slaying monsters and taking their
treasure, both the seminal
D&D sources encourage players
to adopt a hack-and-slash approach to adventures, which can lead to
entire games that favor heavily combat-oriented action over the
inclusion and development of satisfying story elements (in the
literary sense). Of course not all hack-and-slash games eschew strong
story elements, but the built-in experience system emphasizes
rewarding characters for killing monster and taking their treasure,
even if keen gamemasters also hand out experience points for
fulfilling character goals and achieving setting objectives. Not
every
Star Wars Roleplaying Game campaign revels in themes and
elements from that setting without indulging in some indiscriminate
carnage (I’ve played in some and heard plenty of stories about
others).
Hero Kids is carefully crafted to encourage a balance
of combat, problem solving, and character interaction, but that
doesn’t prevent individual games from veering toward either the
hack-and-slash or storytelling path. Individual player expectations
and overall chemistry within a group – guided by the gamemaster –
ultimately determine the tone of any roleplaying game, but the core
concepts and mechanics can heavily influence that tone. Some gamers
love hack-and-slash, all the time or occasionally; others prefer some
story elements with their class-and-level games. Is one style better
than the other? Only if it provides an entertaining experience that
fulfills player expectations.
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