Great to see everybody stepping up to talk about it.
It's funny to me that half the people want a "simple system" and half seem to want a really complex one involving ratios.
I think stonegod has a good point about rp.... one that I can't think of a good way of addressing.
My critique of the DM credits system is basically this:
Lets say there are two DMs; they're simplified examples and slightly extreme (but not, unfortunately that extreme)
DM A runs three games at once, posts once or twice a week, disappears for a week every month or so without warning. Their games aren't dead, but they don't go quickly.
DM B runs one game at a time; posts daily, pushes people to post, and finishes his short games quickly. He averages about 1 game every two months.
After six months DM A has received 3x6=18 credits.
After six months DM B has received 2x1+2x1+2x1=6 credits.
Personally, I'd like to see them rewarded more equally.
But I think it's not really true to say that the current system "rewards roleplaying" and the new system won't. The current system rewards running as many games as possible for as long as possible.
It doesn't reward roleplaying because that would involve people judging other people, which is not, looking at the thread comments so far tremendously popular.
An incremental improvement in a system is, to my mind, still an improvement.
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[URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=74526" said:
nerdytenor[/url]]Furthermore, point rewards seem like the kind of thing that mostly a powergamer would really want, and from the games I've browsed, PbP doesn't seem to attract that type of player much anyway. Just my take - I suppose another poll could be run ("Would adding reward points change your PbP habits?")
I struggle mightly to respond to this comment.
I can only point out WE'RE PLAYING DnD! I loves me some roleplay but DnD is basically a powergamers game.
If you're "not a powergamer" you play games like call of cthulhu, over the edge, everway, nobilis, prime time adventures or spirit of the century. You -can- do other things while playing DnD (rp while killing orcs) but it's a game about killing orcs as efficiently as possible to become more powerful.
I think the problem should be approached as "
given that we're all power gamers how do we encourage the little power gamer in all of us to behave in a constructive fashion".
If some bright bulb wants to "game the system" by running games or by painstakenly checking character sheets to ensure that they're error free?
Fantastic.
He can write a book called "How to game the EnWorld system: How I tricked Graf" and I will happy write an intro to the book that says "I wuz triked, these strategies really work."