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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7620287" data-attributes="member: 29398">Sources or not, though, [MENTION=6786839]Riley37[/MENTION] does - somewhat obliquely - raise an interesting point: reward mechanisms in RPGs have changed over the years, and it'd be interesting to know if there's ever been any competent research done on how playstyles adapt and morph as a result of these changes both within successive editions of a game and across the hobby as a whole.An easy example of what I'm talking about: early-days D&amp;D was very risky for the PCs and gave x.p. for treasure recovered.&nbsp; This put a strong focus on looting every shred of valuable material from the dungeon (&quot;Greyhawking&quot; was, I think, the term for this), and so the foundational goals of play were to a) survive and b) get rich.Then x.p.-for-g.p. went away with 2e, leaving combat as the main (and sometimes only!) source of x.p.&nbsp; The game was still risky for the PCs' though, and so the goals shifted to being a) survive and b) kill everything you can.Over the editions since, the risk-to-PCs factor has slowly but steadily diminished, and thus so has the difficulty in achieving the 'survival' goal.&nbsp; So now there's only one goal left: if it moves, kill it.A pushback aginst this trend has seen the development of non-x.p.-based levelling and-or 'milestone' levelling, core in numerous systems and now an option in 5e D&amp;D.&nbsp; For many reasons I'm not at all a fan of this and will never ever use it in any game I run, but I can appreciate it as at least an attempt to solve a legitimate problem.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7620287, member: 29398"] Sources or not, though, [MENTION=6786839]Riley37[/MENTION] does - somewhat obliquely - raise an interesting point: reward mechanisms in RPGs have changed over the years, and it'd be interesting to know if there's ever been any competent research done on how playstyles adapt and morph as a result of these changes both within successive editions of a game and across the hobby as a whole. An easy example of what I'm talking about: early-days D&D was very risky for the PCs and gave x.p. for treasure recovered. This put a strong focus on looting every shred of valuable material from the dungeon ("Greyhawking" was, I think, the term for this), and so the foundational goals of play were to a) survive and b) get rich. Then x.p.-for-g.p. went away with 2e, leaving combat as the main (and sometimes only!) source of x.p. The game was still risky for the PCs' though, and so the goals shifted to being a) survive and b) kill everything you can. Over the editions since, the risk-to-PCs factor has slowly but steadily diminished, and thus so has the difficulty in achieving the 'survival' goal. So now there's only one goal left: if it moves, kill it. A pushback aginst this trend has seen the development of non-x.p.-based levelling and-or 'milestone' levelling, core in numerous systems and now an option in 5e D&D. For many reasons I'm not at all a fan of this and will never ever use it in any game I run, but I can appreciate it as at least an attempt to solve a legitimate problem. [/QUOTE]

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