Have You Ever Given 0 XP, or Taken XP Away?

[Seeker95]

My last game was no-experience at all. The PCs leveled up when my story arc was ready.

But I voted for both of the first two possibilities. I have had sessions in which none was earned by the PCs, and I have had sessions in which the actions of the party were not worth the standard experience. Neither of these were punishments. They were simply assessments of experience reward. No merit, no reward. Little merit, little reward.

 

[edemaitre]

Negative Experience Awards

I've also awarded 0 Experience Points in "Dungeons & Dragons" sessions when certain role-players were inattentive, disruptive, or working against the party (but not for good in-character reasons). In most cases, I expect a group of Player Characters to be able to police itself, with occasional intervention by Non-Player Character authorities--a murder of an innocent man in broad daylight in a busy marketplace shouldn't go unpunished, no matter how powerful a P.C. is, unless of course, the team is in an evil city...

I've deducted XP for particularly bad puns (only small amounts), player/character behavior that threatened the party's survival, and general bad attitudes, although I've also learned that much time and grief can be saved by simply asking bad gamers to leave. Enough good people are out there looking for games that no Game Master should feel obliged to hang onto the bad ones, even if they have out-of-game friendships with them.

Again, social stigma (in and out of character), having more powerful characters come after offenders, and a well-functioning party should be enough to deter chronic bad behavior...

 

[Black Spiral Dancer]

It isn't the DM's job to punish players. If there is a problem with a player, you need to take it up with the player outside the game. Punishing players within the game often results in a DM vs. PC mentality or worse.

And yes, I'm speaking from personal experience.

 

[XO]

The Young & The Restless

We scorn games that are supposed to be 100% in character. Because they are impossible. Nothing is ever 100% in character. How do you pass the popcorn?


Negative XP for punds, bad or otherwise? Really? You'd get kicked out of ALL the groups I ever played with so fast it's not funny... We're here to have fun. If my jokes disturb your theatrical countenance, please feel free to write a play, start a troupe and become the play director, and leave us poor humans to our more humble entertainments.

I dread DMs who dish out negative XP punishment...

I dread DMs who mistake PCs for players and players for PCs...

I gave serious lip to a DM friend who penalized one of his players under the following circumstances: party has finally slain the opposing orcs. One heavily wounded fighter turns one orc corpse to face the ground, stands above it, grabs the collar and lifts, squeezes corpse between his legs and jumps up and down.
DM: "What are you doing?"
Player: "Rider of the Last Ork"
(Raiders of the Lost Ark was then a current release)

We DIED laughing! Why should that get penalized. Of COURSE, the adventurer in the dungeon wouldn't do that. Who cares? No sense in killing the fun.

 

[kaomera]

No sense in killing the fun.

QFT. However, this cuts both ways. If you need to cut it up in the middle of what the DM expects to be a serious situation (which is not exactly what you described, I know; I'm just making a point), it doesn't help that everyone at the table was laughing, and in fact it probably just makes matters worse. IMHO, you have to be willing to be a bit thick-skinned, no matter what side of the issue you're on. I wouldn't really want to dock XP for a player who was constantly making jokes at inappropriate times, but I'd ask them to stop. And if they wanted to keep it up (or worse, go off on me because I'm "killing their fun"), then I'd ask them to leave the game.

 

[Crothian]

We scorn games that are supposed to be 100% in character. Because they are impossible. Nothing is ever 100% in character. How do you pass the popcorn?

They are not impossible. And it is easy to pass popcorn in game and have it happen at the gaming table.

 

[Aeric]

I've had characters get 0 XP because their players were absent, but that's par for the course. These days, everyone decides at the beginning of the campaign what will be done with their character should they miss a session. The options are (a) the character tags along with the group, but does nothing (doesn't participate in combat, is immune to damage, etc.), and gets 1/2 XP; or (b) the character becomes an NPC and gets full XP, but risks the possibility of injury or death.

I've never deducted XP or given negative XP, but I have given bonus XP to players who did great roleplaying or came up with awesome ideas, etc. I suppose technically that could be considered deducting XP for not doing those things.... *shrugs*

 

[ivocaliban]

No, never.

You learn from errors as much if not more, even if you do something bad, it's an experience.

And there are other methods of punishment.

Bye
Thanee

I would agree with this...if I bothered using the XP system in the first place.

 

[Rothe]

Never had a situation that called for it, and doubt I will.

 

[Lanefan]

I think I've given out a few negative ExP maybe 3 times in my DMing career, every time because the character did something so absurdly stupid that it *deserved* to go backwards in experience.

Giving out no ExP at all to anyone for a whole session happens often - pretty much every time they're in town doing treasury and training.

As for individual encounters, if you* don't participate, you* don't get ExP. If you* do take part, you* get ExP. Period.

* - "you" meaning you as character, regardless of whether you as player are present at the session or not...ExP are given for what the character does, not the player.

Lanefan