Shattered Kingdoms

Good or bad idea:

Alter two levels to be dependent on enlightenments. Level 45 and 49. These levels are significant, as they are the points at which characters become Champions and Grand Masters.

Upon reaching levels 45 and 49, the only method by which you can gain exp is through enlightenments. Upon reaching 46, you can return to earning exp by the normal methods. Enlightenments gained prior to these levels are retroactive, and contribute towards reaching the next level. That is, if you gained 5 notches of exp through enlightenments before reaching 45, you will be half-way there upon hitting 45. Any enlights gained going from 46-49 (or overflow left from 1-45) will contribute to reaching 50, and so on. The way to bypass this limit would be by hitting your character's first age tick.

ICly, the reasoning would be that you need divine favor to be considered a Champion or Grand Master of your trade. Alternatively, these levels could be viewed as a time of rest and study. This system could, in the future, be adapted/expanded to enable IMMs to send mortals on unique quests (non-scripted) to achieve these levels.

OOCly, the reasoning is that there should be more of a connection between RP and leveling than just the current enlight system. As is, RP is just an enemy to leveling. At most, this would require approximately 16 medium enlights, a goal which is very reasonable for any GM character.

Thats a decent idea but there are so many variables that decide who and who does not get enlights that it wouldn't be fair to everyone who plays the game.

Actually, 16 medium enlights is absolutely horrendous. Not everybody gets to play with PAR players often, or belongs to an organization that benefits from a lot of immortal attention.

I've gotten rewarded for some pretty modest roleplay, just because I was in the right place at the right time. Likewise, I've done some stuff I thought was darned good - but either whoever was watching disagreed, or no one was watching.

I also do NOT understand the reasoning of making it even harder to attain Champion, let alone GM. Like it or not, it's a significant PK advantage. If PK is going to drive so much of the game's roleplay, high levels need to be accessible.

SK is advertised as "RP required, RP rewarded", and many of the people here profess that RP is essential to getting the most out of the game. But look at the game design, just the design without the community surrounding it, and it is not even a factor in the most efficient way to reach level 50. A hardcore pleveler can easily go all the way up to GM without engaging in what is (supposedly) one of the integral aspects of the game. In fact, stopping to RP hampers progress towards level 50, which if you stop to think about it is quite odd for a game where people place so much stock in RP.

If you can think of a way to measure RP that is better than counting rewards, then let's hear it. And if you can think of a way to reward RPers with a significant mechanical advantage, one that cannot be obtained through any amount of grinding and ganking, then let's hear it too. But I believe the root of many frustrations regarding SK lately is the fact that the design of this game and the community behind it are in conflict over what is important to play. This difference needs to be addressed, and the game needs to make up its mind what kind of game it should be. If the community is right, then tweak the game design to make RP integral to leveling. If the game design is right, then remove RP as a requirement for playing.

The attempts to make the grind unfun so that people will start RPing are trying to address the wrong problem in the wrong place. As long as twinks and plevelers have an RP-less path to reach GM, other people will feel pressured to try doing the same so they don't fall behind in the leveling race. You cannot expect people to stop and RP - no matter how mind-numbing you make the alternative - when it hampers their ability to compete. Eventually, under these conditions, the drive to make leveling less fun will is going to exceed most people's threshold of frustration, and they will leave.

(EDIT: This is addressed to Forsooth, not to the OP.)

I think this would put the paragons in a difficult position and I doubt all would use their abilities fairly.

Bad idea. That would put PARs in a very hard place, knowing that they actually are implored to hand out more rewards than those that are indeed deserved, since they would know that people's leveling would vastly depend on them.

Here is the problem. It would mean PARs would have to look at 2 things. People who RP well, and people who are at those levels and need enlights and RP perhaps less than others.

Modification to the idea. To become Champion, you must have had X number of enlights in your life, not just at that level. Same for GM.

We have it; it's SK's system of raising the dead. You're going to lose a lot of very expensive levels if you can't be bothered to RP.

I note that player/immortal judgement is the only scheme possible for rewarding RP. More rewards are fine, but I'm not interested in creating a bottleneck as suggested. The game is not made better by slowing down grinders, especially when it slows everyone else down too. If the problem is that RP-adventuring doesn't pay well, the solution is to make its mechanics pay.

I believe the point of contention is that the game is supposed to be centered about RP. Right now it is centered on 'I win SK!'

I know people who plevel purely because they cannot get people to RP with them. That to me is sad. Go create your own RP. Don't make a stereotype character and don't make something so outlandish you can't level.

Anyone can RP if they put their mind to it. The worst you do is think of a different character to mimic each time you make a new character. Those who do not take the time to RP should try to make the time. My character did not GM until after almost two RL years but I can promise she's made more of an impact than any seventeen of Peso's that have been around during that time.

Perhaps we need a new prestiege level? Create a level called Legend and only those who obtain a high level of enlights, have high level of hours, and have contributed to the game in a constructive way can obtain that status. Thus RP, long lasting characters, and status will play a role. It also means not everyone can be a Legend but you can be one in your own mind!

On the subject of PAR, I think we should go back to the one PAR per class, and not the 12-16 PARs for "best RP" since we've all pretty much decided that PAR is based on how long you can keep a char, rather than actual ARPEE.