How much bonus XP for player logs?

[Cadfan]

To Menexenus-

The other side of that point is that if the player's don't find it rewarding enough to do it without you paying them EXP for it, why are you trying to make them do it?

"Here, do this thing you find unpleasant, or you'll fall behind the rest of the party in experience. I think you should find it fun, so you'll do it whether you find it fun or not."

I give out no exp for that sort of thing. However, I do use anything the players do in terms of roleplaying as a guide for the direction of the campaign. Your character is more likely to encounter things he/she finds interesting if I know what those things are.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I am with Menexenus, even with XP rewards there are players that do not write a journal. The XP are a reward to the players not the PCs.

If the journal is written in character then it may also deserve a small amount of XP for roleplaying. (Even if the journal is a bunch of self glorifying lies... Not useful, but it explains a lot about the character. )

The Auld Grump

 

[Flyspeck23]

None. It's not like I, as the GM, earn any XP for writing the adventures...

The gratitude of the other players not writing logs is it's own reward. No need for XP.

 

[Chimera]

Since I run the game and am the guy writing the story hour, I simply settle for marvelling at the magnitude of my awesomeness, both as writer and DM. In a wonderfully humble and self-effacing way, of course.

Me too. A lot of the time I'd just be happy if they'd bother to read the bloody thing before the session, especially when I'm using the Story Hour as an important tool.

Heck, at the end of the session before last, I told them flat out that I would post some additional information in the story hour that we didn't cover in-session. Then when I posted it and sent out the e-mail, I reminded them of it.

Then I get to the session and found that NO ONE has read it! Not only that, but one player had the balls to say "I figured if it was important, we'd cover it in-session". Then that same player proceeded to attempt to get the party to act on assumptions that he was making without any basis in what had actually happened.

Not again. This time I'm telling them straight out that I have zero sympathy for people who act on false assumptions because they didn't pay attention or read the Story Hour for reminders of what had happened so far.

 

[babomb]

None.

They tend to be their own reward (backed with occasional praise and, most importantly, seeing them turn out to be useful in future sessions, which I have yet to see not happen with them).

Quoted for truth. The kind of player who wants to write a character journal would probably be more satisfied with some kind of bonus in the game rather than XP. However, if I felt inclined to give a mechanical award, I would give an action point.

Me too. A lot of the time I'd just be happy if they'd bother to read the bloody thing before the session, especially when I'm using the Story Hour as an important tool.
...
Then I get to the session and found that NO ONE has read it! Not only that, but one player had the balls to say "I figured if it was important, we'd cover it in-session".
...
Not again. This time I'm telling them straight out that I have zero sympathy for people who act on false assumptions because they didn't pay attention or read the Story Hour for reminders of what had happened so far.

This sounds like an issue of different play styles to me. Some players just want to show up to the game every week, not read over or work on things in (the rest of) their spare time. Similarly, some football fans play fantasy football, read the sports pages, listen to sports talk radio; some just go the game. Not paying attention during the game is one thing, but I don't think you should penalize them for not reading the Story Hour. Offer a (preferably in-game) bonus for reading it perhaps, but not a penalty.

 

[Dog Moon]

I was thinking of using something like Swashbuckling Cards and putting them into two different categories: misc and story cards. Misc is basically anything NOT story. Story would be something like someone falling in love, an assassination, hero turns evil, stuff like that. Since our sessions are long, I can see giving one Story card away per session for whoever decides to do a log.

It sounds like good reasoning [at least to me ]: they're keeping track of the story, so I should give them additional help to modify the story.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I am with Menexenus, even with XP rewards there are players that do not write a journal. The XP are a reward to the players not the PCs.

Huh, that's interesting. I have yet to meet a player that does journal! Take notes ... yes ... but journal? Nope. I personally do have a storyhour, but it isn't based on my gaming experience. It is a literal story that I am telling like an old bard in a tavern, really.

I don't alot XP for anything extra-game like this, and I'd personally be rather irritated if a game that I was in did allow XP for it. When I DM, I expect my players to either remember things on their own or jot it down. If they forget and didn't write it down ... well, in RL people don't have the best of memories so in RP your character shouldn't as well. If a player/group forgets something they really should've remembered and didn't think about writing it down ... that means part of the story is going back and putting the pieces back together in game.

[Aside: that is one of the major advantages that gaming in a PbP has. No need to journal, its all right there!]

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I write in character adventure logs for virtually all of my characters. I do it for fun. The GMs over the years have asked to look at them, because I have kept better notes than they have, and when they get used that way, I've gotten XP.

As a GM, I cut the XP awards for encounters in half from normal, and make up for the rest with ad hoc roleplaying awards. This kind of things gets 25-50 per level per session. I award bonus XP for players taking less optimal character choices in combat when that is what the characters would do (I also award for doing very tactical things if that is what the character would do but "I'm a fighter" is not enough of a justification - a paladine of Athena the Goddess of Tacitcs would be). I award bonus XP on the spot after an really great in character "talking" scene. To me that stuff is as important to character development as overcoming challenges and killing monsters. Somebody sits like a lump, never says a word in character, and just approaches the tactical/games aspects of the game falls behind rather quickly. Obviously I feel that Journals are worth XP.

Of course that is personal approach and taste for the game, and my group likes it. Others might not.

 

[Nifft]

I give "fate points" -- like action points, but a bit better -- for each log entry. Players like having fate points, because one FP can prevent one PC death. Players like having more than one, because you can use them for cool things, and the virtuous cycle emerges: doing something cool -> writing about doing something cool -> getting a bonus when doing something cool.

My theory is: if you care about your PC and get involved in the world more, the world makes allowances for your PC.

-- N

 

[WayneLigon]

I don't give XP for such things normally; I like the idea, but it's too much like favoritism to me. I think someone who's motivated enough to do it in the first place doesn't really need the extra reward. Now, if it's a journal their character keeps as well, then they get the benifit of reduced DC's on skill checks related to past events and some other more subtle benefits along the way since they also run the risk of the journal being stolen and used against them.