Game Grinding.. Grinding your character down..

 "You know how in RPGs, you have to grind and grind interminably to get stronger? It’s repetitive and mind-numbing. That’s what everyday life became, except way more difficult. I don’t know how we got through those weeks. Take-out food and ice cream helped. The thing JRPGs have mistaken is that sometimes, grinding doesn’t make you stronger. Sometimes, the daily battles wear down on a person until they’re barely getting by. More combat doesn’t increase attributes. It makes them more fragile, chipping away at their already weary core." - Peter Tieryas

Got me thinking, Levelling up your character often gives you only bonuses, but what if they come at a price?

in DungeonWorld, I have a Traits and flaws system, Its often abused, but in a fun way, a little taste of Gonzo style play. Enough that I adjusted the rules for GMS and players to decide what level of silliness they want by allowing a +/- Title/Hero Points.

Title/Rank Points are awarded every 5 levels as a player achieves a new Rank in their career path, and players can use them to buy specialist skills, traits and abilities, but as an added choice, players can 'buy' better traits if they also buy smaller flaws to round out their characters.

Traits and Flaws come in a variety of smaller (1 cost/gain) such as a dislike of a given food, or creature, a slight twitch when around certain animals, as examples, up to the extremely advantageous or debilitating (5 cost gain) issues such as a affinity to god magic, or a lethal disease.

They also come in two varieties, Roleplay and Statistical. Players taking a roleplay Trait can choose to take a roleplay or statistical flaw, but taking a statistical trait requires a balance of more than half of the flaws taken must also be statistical, meaning at least for a lvl 1 & 2 trait must be a statistical flaw.

Over time, players may have advanced several smaller traits, affinities to small creatures, magical alignments, roleplay buffs when conversing with races, but to really advance your character you must take flaws to gain those bigger stat buffs. forcing the player to chip away of their weary core, to create stronger armour to protect it.

Just todays thoughts..