Gaining skills through quests

[DarkChronos]

So i had an idea for a system where you do a quest for someone and they give you a spell or skill that you can put on any of your characters. I wanted to know if anyone would enjoy this kind of system and if anyone has any tips to expand on it.

 

[Kes]

There is both a positive and a negative point which springs to mind.
This allows for extreme customization if all the skills are acquired that way. (You don't specify if that is the case). This could be fun for some players, but could quickly produce either useless or over-powered actors if the player doesn't pay attention. I'm wondering how you would do character stats, balancing and so on.

Or do you mean just some skills? I've played one or two games which allow you to allocate a small number of skills to anyone you choose, and in fact have used this mechanic myself. A couple of things to bear in mind:
Give the player clear info about what this skill does before they have to allocate it.
Also make clear what the type of skill cost is. There's no point allocating a skill costing MP to a purely physical tank. Or a high MP cost skill to someone who only has a small pool - unless the player wants to do that for some particular reason,. If they do, it will be as a result of informed choice, not by accident.
Try and have a solid reason why this specific NPC is giving you this particular skill. It's nice when there is some sort of tie-in between the NPC's occupation, or position, or personality and the skill.

 

[DarkChronos]

@Kes
All skills seems like it would be fun. Being able to change skills around would be ideal but i'm unsure if players should have free reign over skills at all times. Maybe an NPC who lets you allocate skills instead of it being anywhere is one idea. Stats wouldn't be too hard to manage. Maybe put some stat boosting items in there too so they can specialize characters further. The NPC tie ins are a great idea. It's would be really cool for the player if a great swordsman challenged them to an extremely difficult duel and defeating him gives you his signature attack.

 

[GoodSelf]

Sounds great, just as @Kes said balancing would be an issue. Other than that though, I like when this system compliments the world it's in. Are you playing as cyborgs who can upload different skills? Or maybe a mage whose powers come from mysterious rings, and you can only use so much. Best of luck with your idea!

 

[Rhaeami]

I'm planning a similar system for a future project of mine. The primary concern I'd bring to mind is that this heavily incentivizes the player to go around doing everything, which is very fun for completionists but not so fun for everyone else, who may begin to see all those quests as "obligations" to power up your character. If a player's done, say, half of the available quests, they're most definitely going to expect to be able to put up a fight throughout the story, so be sure to balance everything with that in mind.

My personal approach is to treat new skills as side-grades, gimmicks, and means for versatility, rather than direct upgrades. If you have to do a side quest to get a "big damage" skill to replace your "small damage" skill, then I say that really should be a part of the main story path.

 

[Dr. Delibird]

I like the idea of having some skills learnable through specific quests for certain characters. However if your characters don't have specific pre-defined classes this can be problomatic.

 

[Wavelength]

I think the idea of gaining skills through quests is cool, especially if gaining lots of skills throughout the game is mainly useful for increasing the variety of strategies you can use rather than the overall power of your characters. The original Guild Wars does a superb job of this.

However, keep in mind that if you let any of your characters equip any skill you earn (and most or all of the skills in the game are obtained this way), you are mostly turning your characters' battle styles into blank slates. That is not a bad thing per se, but it limits your ability (as the designer) to give each character their own "battle personality" or style. Games like FF7 did this, proving that it can still be a great experience - however, having distinct playstyles on each character can not only create a richer strategic experience (with the styles essentially acting as the pieces to a puzzle) but it can also develop a character's personality and backstory without a single line of narrative or dialogue. Making your characters blank slates in combat will generally negate your ability to do this.

Consider the benefits and drawbacks carefully before you go the "blank slate" route for combat.

 

[Piyan Glupak]

I have been thinking about 'open access' skill learning (to do with the project after the one I am working on) including gaining skills through, for example, spell scrolls or training at a magic guild. One issue is to avoid having several classes of magic user ending up with identical skills. On the other hand, there are some spells that could or should be available to more than one class

Two methods to control spell acquisition occur to me. One is to have (for example) 5 types of magic as separate skill types, one for each class. It could be possible for some classes to be able to learn skills from another type, although not all types. Mages could have the ability to learn Wizard spells, if they can find them, but Necromancers can't do Priest spells and vice versa. The main danger of using that method of control is that, in this example, lucky Wizards and Mages would become very similar. However, it might be possible to limit certain skills to the guild, who would be happy to train one specific class for a specific spell, but not others. It might also make the battle menu more complex and counter-intuitive.

There is also the facility to seal specific skills for a class. This could be used, for example, to stop Mages learning top-level wizard spells, but could get cumbersome if you wanted, for example, to stop Priests learning any Necromancy.

Perhaps a hybrid system tailored to the individual project might be the best solution? More thinking to do, I think.

Edit: More random thoughts...

If you had a consumable item to teach skills/spells, then you might have an issue if it gets consumed if you tried to use it on someone who couldn't learn that spell. It might be better if everyone in the party had a chance to learn it. Come to think, I don't know many documents that auto-destruct as soon as they are read. This suggests either that the event called by the item should try to teach the whole party (succeeding with those eligible to learn the spell), or that the item should not be consumable.

A guild or mysterious old man or woman who lives in a lonely cottage might easily have a preference for one magic using class over another. "I will teach this spell to a decent Druid for 200 copper pieces. I don't really like Mages or Wizards, but if you give me 600 then I would be prepared to do so. Don't ask me to teach it to one of those stuck-up Priests, let alone one of those nasty Necromancers." You would probably want a separate guild or learned teacher for each magic using class.

Maybe spell scrolls found in treasure chests and on skeletons could be used for teaching lower-level spells that aren't particularly distinctive or important. For decent stuff you would have to have the party visit the specialists.

On a different tangent, perhaps a few skills could be learned by leveling, even if most have to be found or bought.