Bonus XP for writing up a story hour?

Anyone ever consider offering up some kind of bonus to a player who writes the sessions up as a log or story hour?

If so, what kind of bonus and how much is fair? Did the idea work out?

We get XP bonuses for writing journals. In one game we got an extra 50 for every joirnal in the game we play now the we get to add an extra 50 for every level so at seventh you get 350. As a person who wrotes a journal every week I like it. Some of the other players don't like to write so they usual don't. I asked if it was a problem and the answer seemed to be no we enjoy reading the journals.

The extra XP is nice for spell casters who want to use xp to create items and things.

50/level is enough?

Someone who writes them just to write them will do it for nothing. Someone who doesn't like writing won't do it no matter what. Swaying the people in the middle is where it counts.

In the campaign I'm in I got bonus xp for writing up the in depth in-character campaign introductions for the nonregular out of town players when we had our "yearly guys gaming weekend" where we came together from across the country. I was 12th level at the time and I think I got 2,000 xp or so. It was a lot of writing and helped them jump into the middle of a complex banewarrens campaign. It was great in character too for my viking loremaster to tell the tales. I even picked up perform storytelling at my next level to reflect it.

We've also gotten xp on the fly for good roleplay in e-mail sessions, and even for little things like figuring out the connections between a current noble house and a past evil country/organization based on a tiny heraldry clue.

I have found that either people will write or they won't. If you try and encourage by giving a big XP award the people who really hate to write or are to busy may well begin to get angry over the entire issue.

Other than XP I am not sure what rewards you can give to encourage or reward writing. I thought giving hero points to people who write may work and when the others see the things you can do with them it might encourage them to write.

I will reward players for anything that they do outside the regular game session that substantively adds to the game. This includes painting miniatures, collecting pertinant setting information, creating a spreadsheet showing the various Jump check results and for writing character journals.

Toward the end of my last campaign, I had the idea of letting the players write up "After Action Reports". Basically one or more of the players jotted down notes of what happened during the combats that took place in the game. After the session, they gave me the notes and I used them to write up the Story Hour posts. Since I was often writing the Story Hour weeks after the session took place, these reports were a huge help in me remembering what exactly took place during the combat.

I will definately be keeping that idea when we pick that campaign up next month.

The XP I reward for these things is part of the alternate system that we use to reward combat, goal achievement, social interaction, skill use, etc. It just represents one other category that we call "creation" (i.e. creating something substantive to contribute). As such, I'd say that characters who do it get anywhere between 75-150 XP each session for it.

I have a standing policy of 50xp per level. I've got one person in the group who regularly writes up the sessions as journal entries for her character. I've not posted them as a story hour though I have thought about it. There isn't anything wrong with her writing. In fact, I think it's great but some of my flaws and inconsistencies as a DM come out in them (through no fault of her own -- she is just reporting what happened.). So far, I've got journal entries covering about 50 game sessions of my pseudo-Roman campaign.

I've had one other player do a couple of "letters home", but he's not done anything lately.

I'm not sure if the bonus is too little or what.

50xp/level per journal entry is about right. It gives takes a lot of bite out of frequent magic item creation too.

I also hand out bonus xp for:
Keeping track of party funds (25xp times level granted every session).
Painting minis for other players (100 times level granted per mini.)
Other bits of artwork or prop-crafting will get this too.

I award xp for this in play by post, but to the whole group. The more of them that take the time to write one up, that is of suitable quality, the more pleased I am.

In face to face gaming, I don't award things like this because, I, as a player, would do this with or without feeling like I should be rewarded. I'd do it because I love the game, and feel that I should log it as such.

I disagree that it's inappropriate for f2f gaming if you have the right group. If the DM encourages, people will contribute. I've given out XP for years for a background story. (Typically 500 XP.) I had 100% compliance with all 7 players in my last game. Now, it is better to have reward systems so that everyone will qualify because it is true that some players don't want to write constantly. Alternate rewards are good. One player created a game website. That's a good one to recognize.