Skill points as a reward...

[NiTessine]

I occasionally give them conditional bonuses as rewards. Say, they clean out the giant rats from the innkeeper's basement, and get on the bartender's good side, and thenceforth will have, say, a +2 circumstance bonus to Gather Information checks in that city.

Never freebie skill points, though.

 

[Odysseus]

I've given out skill ranks as a reward. I normally limit it, by deciding what skill they get or by not letting them increase skills they already have. And there been no problem with this. I'm not sure a large amount wouldn't unbalence some classes soemwhat though

 

[Kaledor]

I've given out skill ranks as a reward. I normally limit it, by deciding what skill they get or by not letting them increase skills they already have.

I was thinking of something similar.
I would definitely want to be in charge of where those skill points (or bonuses) go -- perhaps giving them a choice of two or so. I've got a few min-maxer's in the group (not that there's anything wrong with that) and I wouldn't want them to have access to just freebie points...

 

[Evilhalfling]

I had a abandoned magical academy and the sprirt of the place was still trying to teach -
you could gain a +1 to a Kn skill for visiting and studying an hour at each of five buildings.
(of course waves of undead would attack any students) Eventually PCs stopped in the undead, and unknowingly stoped the teaching as well - the campaign ended before they realized this consequence.

The Academy was seen as a rite of passage (for heroes) by the nearest town.

 

[Quickleaf]

I was leveling a group of 1st level character super slow (roughly 8 sessions/level), so I started giving out free feats every other session based upon how the character was played. For example, a character who was very courageous got the Fearless feat, while another who selflessly helped a merchant got the Connected feat. It worked very nicely.

 

[sniffles]

I've been in a couple of campaigns in which the GMs occasionally award skill points as RP bonuses. Typically my GMs award these bonus points for special events that have occurred. Often the GM will preassign what skill(s) the points can be applied toward. For example, after spending a lot of time with fey, the PCs in one group were given one rank in Knowledge (Fey). Or if we've been aboard a ship for months we might get one rank in Profession (sailor), or Survival with the caveat that it only applies to survival at sea.

This acknowledges what the PCs have done without forcing them to spend their often precious regular skill points on a skill that is outside their character theme, or that doesn't meet whatever prereqs they're trying to fulfill.

 

[Thanatos]

I like this idea alot...I've never actually done that or played in a game where skill points were given out as anything, even for long winter downtimes.

Consider it snitched.

The idea regarding feats is good as well...though I think it would likely have to be used very carefully or everyone gets something to keep all things equal, otherwise, even with skills, it intrudes on character class concepts (like feats for fighters and skill points for rogues)

Consider it snitched too though.

 

[Wik]

I kind of did this once... for each natural critical failure or success the character got in a skill roll, that skill got a tick. Once they got so many ticks, they got a permanent +2 circumstance bonus to that skill.

The number of ticks I dictated depended on how often the skills were used in the game (something I measured from a previous couple of campaigns). To me, this is like the character learning from his biggest mistakes and his greatest triumphs and adapting that knowledge to using that skill in the future.

I like the downtime suggestions also.

That is an awesome idea... makes me sort of think of some of those MMORPGs out there - Everquest, maybe?

I'm curious about the "tick" system... I'd sort of like to hear about the number of ticks needed to advance various skills.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Ditto. Downtime in my campaign comes at regular intervals (I hope the players don't notice, I set up my campaign in 5 acts of 4 levels each) and during the downtime they are literally traveling to a whole other planet, so they have quite a bit of time to do nothing but learn and whatnot. Everybody tells me what they plan to do for the month (or months) of travel time, and I give them +4 skill points, spread around whatever they hope to accomplish.

It's a good dragonstar campaign. The players are military dogs, but they just got put on a special assignment by Admiral Bargle (Yes, THAT Bargle) because of their exceptional valor during the first act.

 

[Sejs]

I do give skill points as a reward. Largely in the case of flavor-type skills. Knowledge (Local) and/or being able to speak a particular language if you're in a given area for an extended period of time. Ranks in a particular Profession, Craft, or Performance if it's appropriate.


A little while back in my current game the PCs were swept up into the living memories of the ghost of a mad archmage who blamed himself for the destruction of his people. Inside the dreamworld they were automatically sorted into the roles of people they vaguely resembled in form and function from the ghost's rememberance of his city. The druid was a groundskeeper at the Imperial Conservatory, the spirit shaman was a (fake) fortune teller, the spellthief was an illicit 'apothecary' with underworld connections and so forth. There's a period of confusion as their mind wrestles to absorb two conflicting lifetimes' worth of memories. After the adventure was resolved and the ghost laid to rest, the characters, back in the real world still have wafts of their other life resting quiescent in the back of their minds.

Functionally, they all could speak an archaic form of a particular regional language, and gained 5 ranks in an appropriate 'support-type' skill. The druid got ranks in Profession (Gardener) - which also in turn is enough to grant a +2 synergy bonus to other skill checks relating to the identification or cultivation of plants. The ranger got 5 ranks in Knowledge (Geography) because they'd stepped into the life of someone who ran a caravan company. The cloistered cleric picked up 5 ranks in Profession (Scribe). Things like that. Went over quite well, and added more depth to the characters than finding another +1 resistance item would have.