Research: rewarding idealism

[Wordman]

I'm playing with notions of reward incentives for following specific philosophies, without really caring about what the philosophies are. I'm researching systems that already do this, and could use some recommendations. Specifically, I'm looking for games that:

1) allow (or even force) a player to choose a philosophy for there character to follow.
2) reward the character and player for following that philosophy
3) have no particular desire to push one philosophy over another.

Part of Unknown Armies does this, for example, with the way it handles Godwalkers.

Artesia does this a bit more blatantly, with its explicit xp awards for behavior when following its paths.

Any others?

[JoyWriter]

I suppose you can do something like this with Keys in Shadow of yesterday. Vulpinoid's games currently under development like "rajah spiny rat" do it too.

I think white wolf's Promethean does that too up to a point, and I can't remember whether their old Mage did it. I really wish Planescape had done it.

There's also Burning Wheel's belief system.

[Callan S.]

Who decides whether the PC has followed the philosophy? Player or GM?

Philosophy is very reactive to interpretation - if the GM decides, he may be rewarding/will only reward a philosophy the character just doesn't have (not even to begin with).

[contracycle]

Meant to reply to this earlier.  Fates Worse Than Death has a section on personal beliefs which PC's must take, and rewards XP for following these philosophies.  They are also quite insightfully done (as is the whole setting, a very interesting post-cyberpunk game that deserves more attention IMO).  It also gives XP awards for "making the world a better place", and penalties for making it a worse one.

These are individually outweighed by rewards for completing adventure goals, but together they can comprise a sizable chunk of the final XP award.

[Simon_Pettersson]

Nobilis. Vampire.

[Vulpinoid]

I'm glad Joywriter brought up some of the ideas I'm currently working on.

And, I'm glad a couple of other people have brought up games in the thread that go some of the way...but which can easily fall far short (depending on the group playing the game).

A lot of the concepts I've been playing with lately have revolved around the vampire morality system (more specifically, the morality system used by the Sabbat in the old world of darkness, with specific paths indicating specific ways to transcend one's current state)...or the twist on Natures and Demeanors as found in Mage: the Ascension (where each has a positive aspect that give ideas where a personality archetype might excel, and a negative aspect indicating where the personality archetype will often struggle).

My current games are working with the notion that everyone is defined by paths that they follow. A player can choose to have a very one dimensional character who follows only a single path, or they can become as diverse as they want by following multiple paths. Such paths include everything from occupations, religions, personality types, subcultures, racial types, supernatural powers, virtues, vices, etc. If it's not a flat number and it helps you twist the narrative to your advantage, it fits into one of these paths.

On the down side, every path has a disadvantage associated with it. If your a cop, you might get a bonus to investigation skills and you might have a decent familiarity with firearms...but on the down side, you'll be expected to behave in a certain manner at all times, and quite often you'll be assigned to tasks by your superiors whether you want to or not.

Every time you accept the flaw of your path, you're mastery in the path increases and you get advantages.

From the Quincunx text...

V


 
 

[Vulpinoid]

I've noted that my last post might not look like it addresses the issues of character philosophy/outlook at all, but I'm just trying to indicate that I've included morality and philosophy at a holistic level...everything links together. 

I've also made a deliberate attempt not to claim one philosophy or belief is "right", by ensuring every path has equally impactful flaws that relate to the beliefs inherent in the path, and equally beneficial bonuses that also reflect the values sought by the path followers.

I should also note that I've written the system in such a way that players can mix and match their own philosophies and belief systems to come up with unique outlooks for their characters.

If you want to have a look at what I've been working on...(see Rajah Spiny Rat or Quincunx).

Feel free to discuss, use the concepts involved or offer critique...

V

[dmkdesigns]

I'm playing with notions of reward incentives for following specific philosophies, without really caring about what the philosophies are. I'm researching systems that already do this, and could use some recommendations. Specifically, I'm looking for games that:

1) allow (or even force) a player to choose a philosophy for there character to follow.
2) reward the character and player for following that philosophy
3) have no particular desire to push one philosophy over another.

Part of Unknown Armies does this, for example, with the way it handles Godwalkers.

Artesia does this a bit more blatantly, with its explicit xp awards for behavior when following its paths.

Any others?

Would this include the old alignments from D&D/AD&D games as well? Natures/Demeanors from White Wolf possibly.