Spinning My Cycles

Procrastination is the death of long-term projects, but it's not just a lack of effort that is slowing me down. For a while now I've had some solid mechanics of a game - something playable and enjoyable at least in the short term. But there's a looming towering wall in front of me: the reward cycle.

Each time I look at this impending tower of work, I know that I need to scale it. It is an absolute must for this RPG to have both short term and long term reward cycles that keep the players looking for the next action sequence. But also, each time I look, I see that I don't quite have the tools for the job. In other words - my mechanics don't obviously allow for any sort of clear progression or rewards.

In the very short term, I have a Luck mechanic that rewards players for taking risks, and eases the pain of failing a roll. Players can then spend Luck they've gained from lost rolls to help ensure future ones succeed. However, this mechanic is less of an engine and more of a wheel bearing - there to keep the game running smoothly, but not actually drive things forward.

To reward players for overcoming their short-term obstacles, I'm leaning towards the Shadowrun style of Karma: points that can be spent to increase skills and learn new abilities. In this case, it's hard to determine the appropriate "level of difficulty" for characters, so it's much more important to focus on lateral advancement than vertical. This fits in well with the idea of Hostargo as a chaotic world; the players simply acquire more and more tools that can help them quell that chaos.

For longer term rewards, I want the players to feel their impact on the game world. They should gain power through their interactions with the setting. Gaining new NPC connections, capturing new civil and military technologies, and learning deeper and more powerful magic will hopefully give players a reason to stick in the world of Hostargo: just to see what they can play with next!

Great ideas only get me so far though. Actually hammering these details out and giving life to these blueprinted cycles has me back questioning my climbing gear. It's a hell of a tower... but I have to go up eventually.