Some more initial thoughts about organizations, subject to change.

Gaining and Losing Rank
Any organization should have definite aims and goals, and the most obvious way for a PC to gain rank with respect to that organization is to further its plans.

An organization may offer the PC missions and quests. If a PC completes them successfully, he may gain rank with the organization in addition to whatever other physical rewards (gold and magic items) it offers.

Even if the PC does not work directly for the organization, his accomplishments may help or hinder it, resulting in a corresponding increase or decrease in rank.

Both of the approaches above require some preparation from the DM - either to devise tasks which the organization wants accomplished, or to determine the organization's reaction to the PC's deeds (assuming it comes to know of them).

Alternatively, and perhaps ideally, the PC may take the initiative and come up with his own plans to increase his standing with the organization. The DM could run this as an impromptu complexity 1 (4 successes before 3 failures) skill challenge of a level equal to his current rank +6. The details of the skill challenge will depend on the organization and how the PC chooses to advance himself. If the PC succeeds on the skill challenge, he earns XP for the skill challenge, a one-point increase in rank, and the organization may reward him further, at the DM's discretion.

FireLance

I've always thought that another good way to give a character more depth is for him to develop meaningful relationships with NPCs and organizations in the game world. However, in order to encourage the players to invest time and effort to do so, the relationship has to be an asset, not a liability.

I've decided to start with organizations first as they are more amorphous and easily fudged. Since organizations are made up of a variety of people, it seems more plausible that they are able to provide various benefits and services.

The following are very initial thoughts on organizations, and are subject to change.

Level
Like almost anything else in 4e, organizations have a level which abstractly measures their power. A village might be no more than 4 or 5. A kingdom would be in the upper teens, possibly even a 20. The worshippers and servitors of a god (not just a specific temple, but every worshipper and servitor, including angels and exarchs, in all the worlds and planes) would probably top the scale at 30.

Rank
Rank is a measure of the character's standing with (or within the organization, if he is a member) and abstractly determines how much of the organization's resources he can tap upon. A character's rank in an organization can be no higher than the organization's level. A character whose rank in an organization equals its level effectively leads the organization and can command all of its resources.

Benefits
Some of the potential benefits that a character can gain from association with an organization are as follows. Generally, a character should not be able to call on assistance from an organization too often - perhaps about once per month. A character's ability to call on assistance from the organization should also be renewed whenever his rank with the organization increases (even if the organization has helped him within the last month), or whenever he performs a service for the organization. An organization may also offer unlimited assistance if the character is acting on its behalf.

1. Skill checks - if the organization is plausibly able to help, it may allow the character to make one skill check as if he was trained in it, and provide an additional +1 bonus to the check. This bonus increases to +2 if the character's rank is 11 or higher, and +3 if his rank is 21 or higher. If the skill is a specialized skill for the organization (e.g. Religion for a church), the character may make the check as if he was trained in the skill and had the Skill Focus feat for the skill, and the bonus is doubled (i.e. +4 if his rank is 11 or higher).

2. Rituals - the organization arranges for the casting of a ritual of half your rank or lower. You still have to pay for the component cost. If the DM thinks it appropriate, the organization may be able to provide access to select higher-level rituals.

3. Trade - the organization procures a magic item of half your rank or lower. If the DM thinks it appropriate, the organization may be able to obtain certain higher-level magic items. You may buy the item or exchange another magic item of the same or higher value for it.

4. Mundane Services - the organization may provide whatever mundane services the DM thinks is appropriate. For example, a village might offer the character a safe place to rest, a merchant house may be able to arrange transportation for the character, or a church may be able to translate a document from Supernal to Common.

FireLance

The gaining of experience points and the resulting increase in levels is the usual way to track a character's learning and growth. However, this is generally non-specific learning - the character's new abilities and higher bonuses are the net result of everything that he has gone through, and are not directly attributable to any incident in particular.

However, I believe that being able to tie a bonus to a specific incident in the character's past helps the players to recall key events that happened to character and makes his learning and growth seem more real and tangible.

Hence, I'm thinking of introducing a learning bonus. After any significant event that occurs to the character, the player can describe a lesson that the character has learned, and the DM can award a bonus depending on how significant he feels the lesson to be, and the circumstances under which the bonus can be used. Any time that the circumstances arise, the player can ask the DM after he has made a d20 roll whether his learning bonus will make any difference to the outcome. If the DM says that it will, he may decide to use his learning bonus (this expends the bonus). A character may only have one learning bonus at a time, but he may replace his previous bonus with a new one any time he gains one.

The simplest, most straightforward trigger for a learning bonus would be critical hits in combat. If the PC scores a critical hit in a fight, he may choose to gain a +1 learning bonus with the power he scored the critical hit with. If a critical hit is scored against the PC in a fight, he may choose to gain a +1 learning bonus to the defence targeted by the critical hit. If the DM feels that an incident is significant, but the player does not propose a learning bonus tied to the event, the DM may prompt the player to do so.

As a further house rule, a character could have a maximum number of learning bonuses equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum one).

FireLance

Giving a character a personal goal is one way to make him seem as if he is more than just a game piece or a collection of statistics and powers.

So, to give the players an incentive to set personal goals for their characters, a character who is actively working towards a personal goal gets a +1 bonus on death saves since it strengthens his will to live.

A character's personal goal should be something quite different from the party's overall campaign goal (if there is one). A character is considered to be actively working towards his goal if he has done (or at least attempted) something that would help him achieve his goal (directly or indirectly) since he gained his previous level. A 1st-level character only needs to declare a goal (what he has previously done to achieve his goal can be made part of his backstory), but a 2nd-level character must have made some attempt to work towards his goal since he was a 1st-level character.

Depending on the needs of his campaign, a DM can take advantage of a character's personal goal to hook him into an adventure (i.e. going on a specific adventure counts as actively working towards his goal), use in-game events that help the character achieve his goal as another type of reward, or require the player to think of ways to achieve his character's goal as an additional challenge.

FireLance

This is an ongoing attempt to provide my answer to the question, "What is role-playing and how can you get more of it in your game?" The way I typically handle complicated issues is to break them up into manageable chunks which I can then deal with one at a time.

One thing which I feel adds to the role-playing atmosphere at the table is good description on the part of the players.

So, to encourage the players to describe what their characters are doing (instead of simply announcing their characters' actions in game terms), I'm thinking of giving the players a +1 bonus which they can add to any d20 roll they make in a round that they do so.

So, a player who says, "My paladin attacks the wight with holy strike." makes a normal attack roll. A player who also says something along the lines of, "Darion calls on Bahamut's holy power, and his longsword flares with radiant energy as he swings it at the wight." gets a +1 bonus.

FireLance