The primary motivator thing there may be valid, but the fact that this is a problem with almost all RPG's doesn't mean that it necessarily has to be.
Hârnmaster doesn't have this problem. The characters start out rather competent in comparison to RQ, but character advancement is realistically and pleasingly slow. A critical success in a skill (when used in a challenging enough enviroment) get's a RQ style advancement check on the d100. If you make your check, the skill goes up by 1%.
That's it. Additionally the skills have an absolute cap dependant on the statistics, that is around 110% - 120% (theoretical maximum). The chanse for advancement goes down as the skill goes up, with the last bit having a chanse of 1% per improvement roll.
We've never had any problems with runaway skill growth. The characters do learn, but there is none of the feel that when play starts the character learns more in the next half dozen playsessions than he/she has learned in all of his/her previous life.
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In the gamesystem I usually use, I have slowed skill growth to about 1/10 from the original suggestions. Rolling ++++ on the fudge dice (about 1% chanse) get's one a small skill increase. The same skill increase that one gets from a week of study.
Again, no problem with runaway skill growth of any kind, but people do keep learning through experience.
It's the tradition of D&D that creates the problems.
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Uh, sorry for the rulesy stuff. We now return to our regular Glorantha programming.
-Adept : who doesn't see the attraction of the XP-hunt
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