Experience Rewards in RPG's (part 5)

Solar Echoes still has a very large combat component and players are likely to find themselves exchanging attacks with enemies in various combat situations. However, players are in the role of Union Guard agents—a special forces team that tries to uphold the law. There are negative effects in the game for players who earn the reputation of being overly brutal and bloodthirsty, as the Union Guard doesn't condone senseless murder. There are even several combat options in the game for players who want to subdue, not destroy, their enemies. For instance, a number of weapons in Solar Echoes are non-lethal. The net gun or bola entangles enemies and prevents them from fleeing or advancing. Stun rounds can be used with firearms and will daze an opponent long enough to capture him. Some martial arts talents enable the user to place a foe in a hold or lock, and a few cyberweapons are non-damaging, such as the scurrying trip-bot that likes to get underfoot or the magnetic disarming orb. Even the bio-status track (our way of measuring wounds and “hit points” in the game) has an unconscious/dying condition as the final sustainable point of damage. Enemies might be unconscious and injured to the point where they could slip away to death if left untreated, but the focus is on them being incapacitated for capture if reduced to the unconscious/dying condition. In the end, XP in Solar Echoes is rewarded for overcoming challenges in whatever way players can devise, instead of rewarding a hack and slash mentality.