feedback wanted on GP system and character creation
Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 8:12 pm
i'm seeking feedback on the central mechanic for my pmd forum rp, namely GP and how this impacts progression and character creation. if you want to leave feedback on this, you can reply here directly or send it to me privately by contacting me; alternatively, i probably gave you another way to leave it when i shared it with you.
GP
Guild Points (GP) are earned by roleplaying. whenever you complete a roleplay, submit a solo post, participate in an event (i will cover events in a separate topic), etc., you can submit an in-character report to earn GP; the branchmaster then approves it, and you earn an amount of GP.
from most to least "profitable": events, job requests, casual rps, solo posts, posting rp-related art
GP is earned per character and members are expected to track it in character records (staff may also edit it in for you if they so choose, they will inform you if so). GP is not tradable or transferable, even between your own characters.
you can then spend GP on different things. right now, i plan on making these things purchasable, in no particular order:
Character creation
character creation is mostly the same as it was in PMD: ToC. however, you probably noticed that a couple of the GP purchases above was the ability to create another character.
starting out, you can only create one standard character, not including branchmasters (who cannot earn or use GP and have separate character restrictions). from there, as you roleplay, you can spend your earned GP on the ability to create additional characters. this cost scales with your character roster.
slightly outside of the GP topic, i'm also doing something else: there will not be levels or EXP. characters can learn moves that would normally be learned by their species up to level 50 at the start, as well as one non-level up move; anything past that will require spending GP.
Justification and reasoning
comprehensive justification and reasoning for everything i talked about:
GP
Guild Points (GP) are earned by roleplaying. whenever you complete a roleplay, submit a solo post, participate in an event (i will cover events in a separate topic), etc., you can submit an in-character report to earn GP; the branchmaster then approves it, and you earn an amount of GP.
from most to least "profitable": events, job requests, casual rps, solo posts, posting rp-related art
GP is earned per character and members are expected to track it in character records (staff may also edit it in for you if they so choose, they will inform you if so). GP is not tradable or transferable, even between your own characters.
you can then spend GP on different things. right now, i plan on making these things purchasable, in no particular order:
- a Rank Up, for the character purchasing it
- the ability to create another character*
- the ability to create another character of a Restricted Species* (noticeably more expensive than regular characters)
- a random unlearned move, for the character purchasing it. can include TM/TR, Egg, and Tutor moves, but not event moves.
- Ability Capsules, to let the character purchasing it change their Ability. consumed immedately
Character creation
character creation is mostly the same as it was in PMD: ToC. however, you probably noticed that a couple of the GP purchases above was the ability to create another character.
starting out, you can only create one standard character, not including branchmasters (who cannot earn or use GP and have separate character restrictions). from there, as you roleplay, you can spend your earned GP on the ability to create additional characters. this cost scales with your character roster.
slightly outside of the GP topic, i'm also doing something else: there will not be levels or EXP. characters can learn moves that would normally be learned by their species up to level 50 at the start, as well as one non-level up move; anything past that will require spending GP.
Justification and reasoning
comprehensive justification and reasoning for everything i talked about:
- i've wanted to make some sort of GP system ever since IOTL but i've always fumbled it. forcing it into IOTL when nobody realistically wanted it was bad, and i wasn't able to have it in PMD: ToC. this is my chance to actually design an RP around a system like this.
- i want to incentivize people to use their entire roster, and to have a full roster of characters they will for sure enjoy. i'm hoping to please both those who want a small, curated roster; and a large roster filled with many kinds of characters. this system is my way of doing that:
- only allowing one character at the start heavily incentivizes creating an enjoyable first character, as you'll have to use this character alone for a little bit to earn GP and the ability to make more.
- since there isn't a hard cap to character slots, people who want to submit and use many characters can still do so, without it ever feeling instantly overwhelming or "bloated".
- a per-character simultaneous roleplay cap will be in place, likely two or three + one event per character. this is why the cost scales with roster size, as you can do more simultaneous rps the more characters you have, and i want it to be about the same amount of effort each time to unlock additional character slots, to a point.
- GP is not tradable or transferable because i want you to rp with your whole roster. if you don't like a character enough to use it and would rather earn GP with other characters and move it to the rest of the roster, you should probably archive it.
- admittedly the current move tutor system sucks. it's basically a "gacha" for the move you want to learn (and moves work like PLA/SV where you decide what moves you're using at the start of a particular rp). however, i don't want it to be as easy as "spend a little bit of GP for this specific move" and i also don't want to assign price categories to all over 900 moves (and more as new games release). i don't have any better ideas and i'd love to brainstorm new ones with everyone.
- removing levels and EXP was done to streamline progression and balance CRP. the EXP system in PMD: ToC felt very clunky to track, and i struggle to think of a way to implement one without making it needlessly complex. i also really didn't enjoy the amount of powerscale that IOTL had, especially from the perspective of a new rper who basically wouldn't ever stand a chance in CRP due to the level disparity between newcomers and long-time rpers. this change makes CRP fair, especially in the context of CRP-focused events like tournaments.
I hope this project can succeed, and it's a little sad ToC shut down but at least you learned from it.
