So most RPGs you level up through grinding. Kill this slime 100 times. Kill this hydra 14 times. Etc. But what if instead of the normal grinding, you leveled up through events. For instance, if you're in a cave and solve a puzzle, you gain Intelligence points. You move rocks around, enter Tournaments, and wrestle bears, you gain Strength points. You catch fish with your hands, you get agility. So on and so forth.

Would this be too tedious? Or an excellent opportunity for more [optional] quests?

I'm not sure I understand the distinction. What's the difference between 'Quest: kill 10 Slimes' versus 'Quest: move 10 rocks', or 'Quest: wrestle 10 bears'?

Kill 10 slimes in a normal RPG would add EXP points and going to the next level will up all your stats. Move 10 rocks will increase your strength only. Kill 10 bears will increase only your strength and your stamina.

So to try to put it another way, the events (as I call them) only increase a particular stat (or two depending on the quest).

How do you feel this is overly different than the 'skill usage' based grinding in things like The Elder Scrolls? Use a specific function/ability till it gets enough 'experience' to tick over to the next level kind of thing.

How do you feel this is overly different than the 'skill usage' based grinding in things like The Elder Scrolls? Use a specific function/ability till it gets enough 'experience' to tick over to the next level kind of thing.

Because you're building your stats because on the quests you do. Rather than the number of enemies you've killed or number of times you've used a weapon, skill, or magic.

If you want to be a warrior, you'll do quests that will strengthen strength, attack, physical defense. If you want to be a thief, you'll do quests that will strengthen intelligence, agility, stealth.

Ok, I see. To my mind that actually *reduces* the quest variety.

Instead of being able to take any quest that interests me, I'm going to need to reject all quests that don't contribute to a stat that further complements my chosen build.

Ultima Online (like 20 years ago now) had like 30 different skill ratings (0.0-100.0 ratings points in 1/10th increments) which you got upped when you did various activities (and even if someone else did them near you ... a 'learning' mechanism). For some like 'sword fighting' you had to face a 100 level sword skill monster to get to 100.0 skill and at that high (top end) a level you had to do it alot of repeating just to get the + 0.1 (decreasing returns was part of the system). Actions affected one or more relevant skills.

You also had a overall cap total where when reaching it, a random other skills rating would have to go down when the new one went up (which led to a funny things where people could (and did) build campfires (camping skill) next to people at the bank and within the randomness that (desired) 100.0 sword skill they had slaved to get to 100.0 would tick down as their camping skill ticked up (easy as they had minimized THAT skill in upping skills they wanted (like weapon related ones) and below 20 it ticked upo very fast.

Only several years into the game did they allow players to set a mode on each of those ~30 skill for it only to decrease or be locked or set be for advancement (they also eventually raised the total cap above 700)

Thus players had to balance within their cap to specialize in skills (like magery versus weapon fighting), and kept longtime players from simply maxing out everything.

The game had no basic experience points and you got 'better' by doing all the game activities/actions'

grinding ? yes you would grind alot still .

there also werent what we have as quests (until much later in the games history)

Ok, I see. To my mind that actually *reduces* the quest variety. Instead of being able to take any quest that interests me, I'm going to need to reject all quests that don't contribute to a stat that further complements my chosen build.

I would agree with this.

Would this be too tedious? Or an excellent opportunity for more [optional] quests?

its a possible additional gameplay activity available to the player (the term "quest" is SO over-used! it can mean anything from slay a dragon to take out the trash).

some folks might find activities that increase stats to be dull. weightlifting in real life is not terribly thrilling, but it does boost your strength.

other folks might be perfectly content grinding on pushing rocks around to increase their strength stat.

but remember that not all stats are variable. for example: knowledge (what you know / have experienced) increases, intelligence (how fast you learn) typically does not - at least in the real world. so i could see puzzle solving as increasing knowledge of puzzle solving techniques (puzzle skills), but not your overall rate of learning things in general (intelligence).

You are trying to come up with an alternate for fighitng and killing based ex grinding. By making certain quest improve certain stats you aim to mix up the options for how the player goes about improving themselves. This could work but if it serves the same purpose as XP grinding then those quests better be pretty damn good. If all the different kinds of stat points can be obtained from the normal gameplay which I assume is fighting monster than these quests are sure to work. Imagine going into a new area where strength is required because the monster are magic resistance, If I could only focus on strength so I could keep moving I would instead of gaining a little of everything from a few 100 fights. You might be trying to break up tedious gameplay and I believe this is a way to go so the player can build up what they want quickly.