Boons, flaws and traits.

[Silverwave]

Huum, as I remember, White Wolf (World of Darkness) had a really nice Flaw/Merit system. Maybe you'll want to check that out to inspire you. That said, as other have said, it's very important you keep in mind that players will want to take the less penalty for the best bonus. So, you'll want to design flaw that "hurt" any character regardless of role/stats/class/race/powers and/or that add flavor to the character.

Something like having a character get vulnerability to one element (of his choice). You could have this flaw having multiple levels (or being able to take the flaw multiple times) to make the vulnerability 5/10/15 (though, you should make the flaws like tier feats, heroic, paragon and epic). And it's something the DM can control. Want to put the flaw into play? Bring in time to time some fire dealing monsters to challenge the vulnerable 5 (fire) character.

The way they are designed in WoD is that the flaw awards xp when it comes into play. It's not going to work in D&D since you want all players to have the same lvl.

The system mentionned before which grant situational bonus/malus looks very interesting to me and it's pretty straight forward. It didn't even needs a complex system. Here's my idea how it could play :

Make the character pick up say 1-3 flaws (it's really up to the DM and players, style of play, etc). Players totally make them from scratch, though, the DM should want to adjudicate. For example one would want his character to be afraid of arachnid. Once per encounter, when facing his phobia, he could take a -5 to his attacks and defenses until the end of his next turn and be awarded an AP (or even only a milestone if you think an action point is too much). The action point gained could be available right now, though I think awarding it at the end of the encounter makes more sense (the character had to fight through his fear/other flaw and he won, giving him some self confidence). This way, the DM isn't the only one who controls the flaw, but also the player (DM have to choose where and when the player meets arachnid monsters, but the player control when or even IF, for that matter, he would want the phobia to kick in. The benefit isn't too great for everyone want to take flaws, but the malus isn't too big for anyone afraid to take one. You could even impose your players to pick 1 for their character since if they don't like it, they have the choice not to ever take the malus.

It could also work really well inside a skill challenge for mental or social flaws. Let's say the group barbarian wanted his player having difficulties speaking the basic language (his tribe had it own dialect). When engaging in a social skill challenge, he could "activate" the flaw to get -5 to the next two skill checks (why 2 ? It emulate more the "until end of next turn") and gain an AP (or milestone) at the end of the encounter. This would obviously works better with Stalker0 Obsidian Skill Challenge system.

 

[Alex319]

I agree with most of the other posters here that the most effective way to have a flaw system is to only give out the "compensating reward" for the flaw when the flaw comes into play. Otherwise, as previously mentioned, the incentive will be for people to choose flaws that won't come up in a game, and all you've done is (1) turned it into a guessing game where players are trying to guess which flaws they can safely take and (2) added another way for players to twink their characters.

The only issue I can see though is that in some cases it might lead to the opposite behavior from what was intended. In the phobia example, if you give a "hero point", or AP, or whatever after each encounter with the character's phobia, then players might start seeking out creatures of that type to get hero points in order to save them for an upcoming battle.

Of course this problem is a lot easier to avoid, as you as the DM have control over when players get hero points.

 

[Silverwave]

Hum, you're right. Munchkin players would want to pick up something that they will encounter most of the time. In the other way, the DM should always approve or deny one's choice. DM have to keep in mind : flavor. If someone in the group take something like : combat addicted in intent to have a free action point each combat encounter, DM should disallow this. I would only accept it if it's intended to be a flaw in skill challenge (social) encounters. The character behavior always leans toward violence and this shows when trying to negotiate.

This system would be under the DM's hands (well, and players too) in the way that it's not supposed to be a powermunger way to reach higher levels of munchkinism but really to give flavor to characters. If one's flaw choice really smells like getting the most from the least, just don't accept it. It have to be linked to some kind of player's background (even if it's just limited to those flaws) to give this character some way to challenge himself and give more depht to the game.

Don't forget that the -5 attacks and defense for 2 rounds is owtch !
Muchking will see 2 rounds of malus for only 1 extra action on a next encounter. He won't bear with it. Other "normal" players will see a way to gain an extra action where it really matters while taking a penalty on this not-that-hard-and-meaningfull encounter. Just be warned that some players have a way to take this malus to a lesser penalty. Example, a cleric could take the penalty and use his standard action to cast bless and on his next round casting cure serious wound. Make sure to throw some attacks on the cleric to compensate. In a RP sense, thow flaws shows when "active". For example, if he got arachnophobia, if he "activate" it, the arachnid will sense or see (if it is intelligent enough) that the character is scared and will probably take the advantage. Then again, it's only for combat encounter. The flaws will extend to skill challenge too.

Here's an idea for rewarding RP over crunch.
If the penalty if taken to get the less malus possible (on an encounter that's easy or that is mostly already won, etc), give the player an action point.
If the flaw is activated in a way to give flavor without considering the "math" effects, reward the player with a "superior" action point he could use for free next encounter (it won't count as if he as used an action point, thus, he will be able to use 2 action points in the same encounter, only 1 per round though).

 

[Alex319]

Hum, you're right. Munchkin players would want to pick up something that they will encounter most of the time. In the other way, the DM should always approve or deny one's choice. DM have to keep in mind : flavor. If someone in the group take something like : combat addicted in intent to have a free action point each combat encounter, DM should disallow this. I would only accept it if it's intended to be a flaw in skill challenge (social) encounters. The character behavior always leans toward violence and this shows when trying to negotiate.

Well, being "combat addicted" wouldn't even be a flaw in combat encounters, where that's what they're supposed to be doing, so it wouldn't generate an AP there. It would only be a "flaw" in situations where resorting to violence is an inferior option.

 

[Silverwave]

Well, being "combat addicted" wouldn't even be a flaw in combat encounters, where that's what they're supposed to be doing, so it wouldn't generate an AP there. It would only be a "flaw" in situations where resorting to violence is an inferior option.

Isn't it what I just said?

 

[Garthanos]

Isn't it what I just said?

What seems like a perfectly reasonable flaw may end up an uninteresting no show... So why not just follow the .. you only get points for it when the issue comes up method? If you are allergic to bat guano and never run into bat guano who cares... when you have a sneezing fit in the middle of a cave battle or break out in hives because of a delayed reaction to the stuff right before meeting the princess then the GM decides and you get action points for it.
It even works if some people want a really large number of "hang ups"
and some want none or only want a few issue... you can be really tolerant of their designs. Weird limits might end up the source of some great humor if you are in to it.. or be ignored because it doesn't fit the tone the gm is working towards (though you might want to discuss it if the player is wanting some outlandish limits that don't jive with).

 

[NMcCoy]

In my game I've been using karma points (silver tokens) in addition to action points (gold tokens). Karma points specifically have no inherent use, but they have in the past been used to:
-Reroll natural 1s (the karma point has been spontaneously refunded when the reroll was a natural 20)
-Petition for DM lenience (letting the player keep and assign attack rolls to targets in an area power when they rolled without choosing a target - normally I'd require a reroll)
-Turn a "Erh, well... no, I don't think so..." into a "Hey, why not?"
(though I'm beginning to suspect I should embrace the improv spirit and do this all the time)

Karma points have been awarded for:
-Taking multiple crits in one encounter
-Failing six saving throws in a row against the same effect
-Describing a crit against a minion in a particularly awesome way
-Awesome moments of roleplaying