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Lore Skill

Started by ReaperX Jul 8, 2004 at 11:15 PM 5 replies 1.4k views

Original Post

Jul 8, 2004 at 11:15 PM

In my rpg the players can acquire Lore skills( ex. MonsterLore, WeaponLore, CityLore). As the player plays throught the game he gets journal entries based on what he encounters. The Lore Skill rating determines what kind of journal entries he gets and how many. The journal entries simply contain setting info. Now the obvious thing is that players might just play through, get the info and post it for the other players. Assuming this should I make the Lore skills inexpensive so that its easier just to get them rather than look up the info or simply ingnore it and price the skill on other factors. Should I add in some minor game effects of high lore, like modified NPC reactions ("Oh look its ROBOMNKY3024 the famous expert on monsters! Lets be nice to him.")?

Coz

Jul 9, 2004 at 12:15 AM

It's nice to have details like those. But don't over do it, or write silly stuff in them...

serratemplar

Jul 9, 2004 at 12:21 AM

Game walkthru's are *so* common place online that you may as well depend on people posting that kind of thing online. Some people who want to thoroughly enjoy the game won't ever look for them (Genma Onimusha was SO fun without a walkthru, but nearly impossible to find *everything*).

If you really want to inhibit advancement thru the game, there are lots of ways of doing that that I'm sure you know of.

Good luck.

OmniBrain

Jul 9, 2004 at 3:30 AM

The problem only occurs if cities, monsters, items are the same to all players. If you have them vary (only some) this will make online information invalid, so the lore skill will not be useless.

Many MMORPGs have monster groups, who like you dependent on how you treated the group before (say you killed some orks and suddenly the goblins dislike you too).
With monsterlore you could not only get the information who is allied with whom (you could find such information online), but also how your acutal stance is, how those mosnters like/dislike you.
As this is individual information, the skill would be usefull again.

Jannes

Jul 9, 2004 at 7:44 AM

You could give other benefits for those skills too. For example: Monster/Weapon Lore increases Damage or Hit Chance in Combat. Additionaly Weapon Lore could help identify magical items or reduce break chance (or increase repair). City Lore gives more information on automap (if u use this). Shopnames or famous sights are added to the map (perhaps even if the player hasnt travelled to the place)

Pxtl

Jul 9, 2004 at 8:01 AM

I think the best way would be to vary things wildly and use the "Lore" skills for things the player can't know. Like exactly, to the health point, what the health of his enemy is, or whether it is an exception to feature X of its species. Alternately, you could have things that are just unkowable in other ways, like invisible traps that you can only see with Trap Lore. The "journal" could be a side benefit of the Lore skills.

drowner

Jul 9, 2004 at 3:59 PM

To extend other people's post a little bit. I'd suggest having things in game which are indistinguishable. Perhaps different clans/factions of the same race... some friendly, some not.. graphically the same but only someone with the proper lore/journal entries is given the clue to which is which.

For cities and regions, perhaps have 'hidden' places, shops, hang-outs, whatever, but only allow access if the 'character' knows about it, not whether the player does..

I guess what it boils down to is, make more elements which require the character to know about it, not just the player.

EDIT: typo

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