The other approach I've considered in lue of grinding is enforcing a better notion of party composition (Does this battle scenario warrant a fighter/White Mage/Archer, etc. or a Thief/Black Mage/Necromancer, etc. )  In conjunction with leveraging the terrain the battle takes place in.

Effectively a tactics clone that throws stats like HP/Vitality out the window, and goes with the idea that a sword swipe across the mid-drift is indeed a killing blow without some immediate medical intervention on the field, and the idea of sheltering members of the party behind obstacles to completely negate projectiles, and flanking to overcome defense and agility modifiers. Most RPGs have this, but the stakes could always be higher, e.g. an arrow to the thigh/chest without armour despite your level should hit a major artery, and cause your movement to be impeded, and start a clock of you bleeding out (bloodied as it were) until a white-mage can heal you.  Of course, making something like this work without being overly punishing on the player would entail its own complications, but I do believe it can work. 

Leveling up/Grinding is a staple of both Western, and Japanese RPGs, but it's not a requirement imho, just look at FF VIII. It discouraged pure grinding as enemies leveled up beside you making it a break-even award. Instead you were incentivized to use the junction system instead and to keep the party's average level low.  

Really, when it comes down to it. A lot of RPGs feel a bit artificial to me when leveraging vanilla leveling systems with incremental increases with stats. I guess it's the idea of going from a level x nobody to a level xxx demi-god within the duration of the game that irks me a bit.

I like the idea that despite your speed/defense, armor, magic, intelligence, at the end of the day, an arrow to the knee IS, IN FACT, an arrow to the knee.

There is a common mechanic where less and less experience is granted once a player outlevels the content in a certain area (diminishing returns). If you want to push the player on you could potentially implement diminishing returns on drops too if a player hangs out in a certain area to long. Xp and drops being motivating factors this might work but it must also be clear to the player what is happening. Perhaps the information could be shown on the mini-map, usually top-right corner of the screen. For example the name of the level and the effective xp/drop % the player is currently receiving. 

On 7/29/2018 at 2:26 PM, suliman said:

Hi

Im doing a fantasy turn-based tactical rpg/management game where you control a group of heroes (up to 6) that travels, explores dungeons, gather resources and visits towns.

You set out on the journey and choose your next step (can be a dungeon or a general location such as forest or highland). Each step brings you closer to your final goal = the "last dungeon". Clearing this dungeon will "win the campaign".

Similar games such as darkest dungeon and in a sense also battle brothers (fights and management part) has a "limitless grinding" to it. You simply can repeat easy missions infinitly to level up and find more equipment. I'd like to avoid this.

There is two "world states" in the game: time and distance. Each day has 3 phases and then you rest (and heal). Depending on your route you travel different distances each phase (in leagues) or stay on the same location (to hunt or mine for example). Once you reach the end (x leagues away from the start) the final dungeon is reached and you must face it.

My idea is to have the world become harder each day, so a player can not linger and just amass xp and loot. So you have an incentive to travel on. Is this good? What other design could I make? It also makes sense that the world gets harder when you get closer to the end.

Another idea is to have towns show up only each x leagues, and you need towns to resupply. That would force the players party forward.

I want the player to be able to make a choice: do I stay in this location and explore (for loot and other resources) or travel on. How to achieve this?

In a game like diablo you never make any choice. If you progress to quickly you will just slow down your journey until your level reaches what is suitable for that area. Not so fun.

You could go the Chrono Trigger method. People didn't grind, because they never needed too. Everything was perfectly givent to them and if you fought a monster and lost; it was always an obvious strategy. You will have to do a lot of playtesting, but what game doesn't? Chrono Trigger didn't nesscarilly force players not to grind either; however, areas with monsters would notabel only have a couple monsters; any grinding would seem not only unneeded but a chore to even accomplice, so it would never really pop-up in player's minds.

This methods works quite well in my opinion and I think you can go with it. rarely people will think of that