How do you deal with Roleplaying XP?

Cloudgatherer · Jan 21, 2002

Typically, I do not award individual bonuses for roleplaying. The characters in my game all have their own personalities, and they portray them well. I sometimes tack on an "RP award" if I feel the party did better at RP, or if the night was all dialogue with one fight.

However, Friday night a player had his character remain behind due to RP reasons. The party was proceeding on their quest at the behest of a church high cleric. The character in question, the party wizard, had been feeling guilty for several days for fireballing some controlled watchmen of the city. The wizard had been browsing the library, looking for advice on atonement/repentance.

So the party proceeded without him and fought the only encounter I had planned for the evening. (If the wizard had been at the encounter, he would have died). Being a wizard, he had just learned teleport and caught up with the party.

In the end, I gave the entire party a RP award for the night. By the rules, the wizard does not get XP for the single encounter, so instead I gave him half of what he would have gotten for good roleplaying, in addition to my general party RP award.

How do you handle RP situations like this? Do you think I'm being a "nice DM" by giving him as much as he's getting or a "bad DM" by not giving him as much XP as he would have gotten if here were at the battle?

Thanks!

Gargoyle · Jan 21, 2002

I think the players have the responsibility to entertain the DM and the other players, especially if they want a RP bonus.

This sometimes means that if your character is a very quiet, dull person, you don't get the RP bonus often. But a good player can still make such a character entertaining (not necessarily in a comedic way) by playing the straight man to the hilt and saying the occassional really cool one-liner.

So at the end of each session I have the players vote anonymously for who was the most entertaining. I break any ties. The winner gets 50XP x their current level. The bonus is small because I don't want anyone to become significantly higher level, and I don't want to put too much importance on it.

I'd prefer to reward teamwork over roleplaying, btw, as you did. Players that put roleplaying over teamwork tend to stir up problems. That wizard could have roleplayed his guilt by whining about it to the party cleric instead of hiding in a library. D&D is an adventure game. I say reward adventurous PCs.

frankthedm · Jan 21, 2002

Sticky situation you got there, i will have to think about this one.

In my game this would not be as big a problem since I let my players have character trees [differn't characters they can choose between adventures] so if one couldent be there for a role playing reson the player could still take part in the game.

Though the main reson i use Character trees is that my monsters get brutal in fights.

el-remmen · Jan 21, 2002

Well, I favor role-playing heavily.

In fact, I only give half of what a monster is worth based on its CR and the party's level - I then add a "story completion" award (a set number I determine when I create an adventure - which I modify based on how well the adventure was completed) - I then use this as a base I modify based on RP.

I rate each player from 1 to 10 and I transpose that number into a percentage. Thus 1 = 10% and 10 =100% and this is a bonus number XP added to the base determined.

Story Completion is typically 10% of the average amount of XP needed for the next level.

I know this doesn't help your situation - but I would grant a base number for his XP - maybe 50 or 100 times his current level and leave it at that.

Quickbeam · Jan 21, 2002

I have two completely separate responses to the situation you described:

1) I can't fairly assess whether you were being too lenient since I'm not aware of how much XP was awarded. I certainly don't think you were being to harsh regardless of how much XP was doled out to the other players. IMC, the players frequently break the golden rule DO NOT SPLIT UP THE PARTY because it's what their characters would reasonably do given the circumstances. The rogue may wander into an unexplored room by himself; the paladin may stay behind briefly to help someone in need; the wizard may spend a few extra rounds poring over old tomes the party discovers hidden in a secret room. The point is, their characters are making a conscious decision to leave the group -- and opportunities for XP may be missed (or gained) as a result of this choice. Granting a roleplaying award to these characters seems perfectly justifiable, and IMHO it's exactly what you should do to reward the player's effort. At some point, the decision to separate from the party will present these characters with encounters, for which they will solely reap the benefits and pay the consequences...that's part of what makes D&D so fantastic!!

2) King_Stannis posted a thread several months ago about a system he designed to reward strong roleplaying. When I was still known as Quickbeam, I posted a modified version of this system that our group adopted. Essentially, the DM awards players with tokens (K-S used Silver Poker Chips, and I used "Elf Stones" which were blue glass marbles) for superb roleplaying and acts of great ingenuity. The value of each chip/stone can be determined by your group, and these tokens can be saved for use at a later date. IMC, the Elf Stones could be exchanged for one of four different uses:

** One stone = 25xp times the character’s current level.
** Two stones can be redeemed for a +2 modifier on skill checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. Stones must be used before rolling, and may ultimately prove to have been unnecessary.
** Five stones = one extra die of damage added to successful melee, ranged, spell, or other magical attacks. Again, stones must be redeemed before initial damage is calculated.
** Ten stones may be used on a “get out of jail free” re-roll for any one game item or event.

This may help you in the future with respect to rewarding good roleplaying -- just make sure that your tokens aren't given away too easily

.

Cloudgatherer · Jan 21, 2002

I'll give a quick breakdown of what I did. The party is mostly 9th level, and has (at full strength) 8 people in it (7 players, one cohort).

I awarded the entire party a 300 XP bonus for RP (which is factored into the below numbers.
I gave all 9th level characters (except the wizard) a total of 2460 XP.
I gave the party's only 8th level character 3180 XP (using the guidelines from FRCS, lower level characters get slightly more).
I gave the wizard 1380 XP. I gave him "half" experience for the missed encounter, and added on the 300 XP RP bonus.

The ironic thing is, the wizard would have died in the encounter. He could have been set back much worse, even if he had gone along.

Thanks for the feedback. Any additional comments appreciated!

the Jester · Jan 21, 2002

I cut combat xp in half but give out rp xp in four categories each session: race, class, alignment and personal. Each category gains a pc 25 xp per character level, so a full award would be 100 xp times level. Characters end up with a slightly slower advancement scheme than standard, which I like, and obvious rewards for roleplaying, which I also like.

ciaran00 · Dec 1, 2003

I'm going to steal your RP XP point values, Jester. Just so you know

ciaran

the Jester · Dec 1, 2003

ciaran00 said:
I'm going to steal your RP XP point values, Jester. Just so you know

ciaran

Feel free! You won't be the first- Rob uses my system as well. It seems to work pretty well as I intended- it both encourages roleplaying and slows advancement a little (but not too much).

I also give bonus xp for props or for 'lubricating' the game- which generally applies to those kind players who help with my notetaking (especially during combat) and such.