A lot of games grant the accumulation of XP to level up or buy abilities.

This has a tendency to create grinding or "waiting" for a special ability at a certain level.

But few people START with the character that they envisioned and simply add more tidbits from there or GROW the character from humble roots.

So, I had an idea of creating a game with a system that was ACCOMPLISHMENT- or QUEST-dependent rather than level or XP based. Also, a character's chance of success should be affected based on how much it contributes to the story rather than whether their character is powergamed or not.

Here's the idea:

The GM creates scenarios with over-arcing conflicts and minor conflicts. Players have the task of overcoming the conflicts in various ways. Success is based on how much the character's actions:

A) Make sense/are feasible
B) Are inventive/creative/cooperative with the other players
C) Conducive/work well with the overall story/add fun to the game/create stories at the table worth retelling later

The GM rates each character's actions on a scale of 0 to 2 on each letter based on how well they suit all these goals (for an accumulative of 0-6 scale). 0 or 1 means that the actions are stupid/senseless, hurt the party, and upset the other players/GM rather than entertain them. 2-3 mean that the actions are pretty standard. 4-5 means that the actions are particularly helpful and entertaining. 6 means that the actions are fantastic and will be cheered about for years to come.

The player's dice roll is dependent upon this rating. They getting better chances of success based on this.

For a d20 game, say an average of 3 means you roll 1d20 normally. 2 means you roll 2d20 and take the worst and 1 means you roll 3d20 and take the worst and 0 means you roll 4d20 and take the worst. 4 = 2d20 (best), 5 = 3d20 (best), 6 = 4d20 (best).

Damage/healing rolls would just be divided. 3= normal damage, 2 = 1/2, 1 = 1/3, 0 = 1/4, 4 = x1.5, 5 = x2, 6= x2.5

In addition, XP rewards can be allocated based on how "heroic" the character's actions are. If they murder a random peasant in the street, that's probably rated a 0. If they jump in the way of a bullet to protect their friend, probably heroic. If they do the same thing for a random nobody, probably slightly less sensible but still heroic.
0 = Lose (standard reward) * 2
1 = Lose (standard reward)
2 = No XP
3 = Standard reward
4 = Standard reward * 2
5 = Standard reward * 3
6 = Standard reward * 4

Note that actions which are "expected" (cleric heals fighter) are not particularly helpful or conducive, they are just standard and so should be rated accordingly.

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This is just sort of a jotted down idea. I haven't set anything in stone yet. I'm looking to brainstorm and expand more on this idea and even hear what you have to say about applying this to other game systems that currently don't have anything like this built into them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:55, Fri 02 May 2014.