Alternate ways to gain EXP

[ChupathingyX]

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion gave you EXP for almost everything, even if you were just running and jumping, you can agility EXP

The problem is that led to one of the worst levelling systems in a game I've ver seen.

It pretty much destroyed a lot of the role-playing aspects by making it possible to grind everything and become a jack-of-all-trades.

You could just stand in front of a locked chest and continually keep casting a "Open Very Easy lock" spell and your alteration would rise quickly.

 

[sbb]

Planescape:Torment is the king of this. You get experience most often just from making certain dialogue choices. Huge amounts of it, too.

 

[docSpitfire]

Among all the other things mentioned. The Knights of the Old Republic games rewarded exp for every successful skill check...

An example in a Table Top game that I found that would actually work in a computer game (as opposed to the "good role playing") was for 3.5e fans, The second printed campaign for Eberron had a section where you had to locate an individual and I got Exp for succeeding without having to resort to violence.

 

[Cheesus333]

Experience is a great way to incentivise exploration but personally, if the player feels no desire to explore other than to gain experience, something has gone wrong somewhere. When you build an entire world and fill it with little hidden niches and points of interest, you don't want people going straight from one to the next just for a couple of millimetres further up the XP bar.

But yeah, I do like it when games reward me for things other than the cold-blooded execution of every living thing I meet. It opens up different ways to play the game, so you don't feel like you're being actively encouraged towards genocide even if you want to take a different approach.

 

[C95J]

Or an adventure based RPG where exp was gained not just from fighting, but exploring the surroundings, you could just rush through to do your objective, but if you spend time and look through the dungeon, you find way more things.

Play some decent RPG's? Like New Vegas / Fallout 3, they reward exploration very nicely.

Yeah, I love the way New Vegas gives me EXP for discovering new locations, it actually makes me want to go out and find new stuff more. The game also gives you EXP not only for killing things, but completing missions, and little challenges such as lockpicking and hacking challenges, as well as dialogue challenges.

 

[Electric Yemeth]

I like how everyone is saying : Hurr durr, Fallout 3 / New Vegas does it good.
No guys, it doesn't. You get far too few Exp to make it worthwile, it is an added bonus, but you won't get a satisfactory amount of it. It , of course, is good that they give you exp at all, but it is way too small to matter (matter later on).

Onward to the actual question and more of the arguments:
Oblivion... now that was interesting (same goes for Morrowind). It's reasonable enough, but there has to be certain endlevel, because otherwise (as someone stated) you will be a master in everything.
Planescape Torment: Well duh, the game was more like a book so it was reasonable. Also it was heavily story-centered and wanted the player to be confronted with real issues and award long discussions. I.E. the brothel, which was a wonderful way to get more experience, as player and as nameless one.
Deus Ex / VtM:B : Now those were really good, especially VtM. You got your experience NEVER from killing anything, but rather by completing objectives and sideobjectives. Minor spoiler : you could either kill someone, take the key and get into a certain room (giving you 1 EXP [different system, raising a skill costs 3-20 exp] or you could persuade him (giving you 2 for persuading and 1 for getting into the room).


Now obviously i tend towards the last system, which gives a smooth talker as much, sometimes even more freedom than the brute that's out for blood. So yeah, that would be awesome, in most RPGs however the game is balanced around killing, so you would have to take a completely different design from the very beginning. VtM:B had (off the top of my head) about 30-60 enemies to kill, if you were bloodthirsty (and didn't kill inncoent people). A regular RPG gives you that many to kill to reach lvl 2 or 3.

Also your example for granting EXP depending on the length of the session: That's the job of the DM in a pen&paper rpg, they also give you exp for doing something funny, helping your mates, playing your character. etc. That would be the best way of giving exp, having someone evaluate your playstyle etc.. But we have to stay within the possibilities of the game, so yeah. long rant over :<

 

[Ando85]

Sakura Wars So Long My Love had an interesting way to gain EXP. Not really EXP per say but stat increases on your party members. This was done via making good dialogue choices. It was kind of satisfying and a unique way to do so. You had to consider what kind of personality the person you are talking with had and try to predict how they will react to what kind of dialogue choice. You would either get a positive sound effect or negative.

 

[olicon]

Howzebout Mabinogi? (Korean MMO OMG!)
Yeah..you could pretty much spend hundreds of hours online being a farmer and playing lute. Since you can spend in-game money to learn skills in the school, you might as well make money (you have to at the beginning anyway) doing odd jobs, then learn skills that way.