How about bonus XP for art, journals etc?

One of my dungeon masters first gave me the idea. He gave 100 XP for art or journals. We soon built a vast catalogue of stuff for his game.

I likewise grant 100 XP, except now I give 100 for the whole group, so that the shyer players do not feel overshadowed by the more confident. I award equally for best art and well-written journals as for the crudest sketches and briefest of summaries.

I got this comment from someone however. "But any game where people are rewarded on-tab;efor their off table ability I walk away from."

I feel that it is off-table enthusiasm which counts with this system, not on- or off-table ability.

I've granted Inspiration for off-table enthusiasm before. Granting bonus XP could be fine, too - especially in the manner you describe of awarding it to the whole group and awarding it for the honest effort rather than the quality of the end product.

Anything that adds to the fun of the gaming experience can and should be recognized, IMHO. Maybe that's XP, maybe that's Inspiration, maybe that's buying the player a beverage, maybe it's just saying "thanks!"

I reward inspiration points for this kind of stuff. In addition, it's "special" inspiration meaning it doesn't count towards the 1 inspiration point limit.

I used to do XP, but I haven't done XP for a long time.

The only downside is that some people aren't very creative or good writers so I just make sure they know it doesn't have to be particularly polished. I'm rewarding effort and the thought put into it, not the end result.

But we've done all sorts of short stories, backgrounds, journal entries recording adventures. It's been a lot of fun to go back and read through stuff.

My general feeling is that I don't want to ask players to spend any time on the game outside of the session. Exceptions include creating or leveling up characters as needed. I'm not against a DM awarding XP for extra effort outside the game, but I am unlikely to spend my time on that personally. I can see why some folks would be against the XP award, especially if they give their all during the session yet have no availability to do so between sessions. 100 XP also seems somewhat nominal and its value is reduced as the character levels up.

Tallifer said:

One of my dungeon masters first gave me the idea. He gave 100 XP for art or journals. We soon built a vast catalogue of stuff for his game.

I likewise grant 100 XP, except now I give 100 for the whole group, so that the shyer players do not feel overshadowed by the more confident. I award equally for best art and well-written journals as for the crudest sketches and briefest of summaries.

I got this comment from someone however. "But any game where people are rewarded on-table for their off table ability I walk away from."

I feel that it is off-table enthusiasm which counts with this system, not on- or off-table ability.

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Heck yeah I give XP and other rewards for recaps, art, journals, letters, props, myths and stories from the far past, whatever. A song in one case.

You get out of the game what you put into it - multiplied by the whole group. So if you've got enthusiasm and that improved everyone's fun that's a great thing in my book.

Oh, the person who complains about rewards for off-table ability - do they not build and advance their character off table? Don't they expect to reap the benefits of that?

D&D is a group hobby first and foremost. Rewarding things that promote enjoyment is a good thing.

Back in the 80s, Champions introduced a system called bluebooking, a sort of play-by-journalling, that allowed for players to add off-camera depth to their character and fill in what they were doing with their spare time. Ever since, our group has given xp for journals - sometimes they are in-character perspective write-ups of the session's events; others, they are more like bluebooking.

"I got this comment from someone however. "But any game where people are rewarded on-tab;efor their off table ability I walk away from." "

I can understand this.

i have played and ran games where these things happened and were not rewarded. ones where they happened and were not rewarded. etc etc etc.

Amber used to iirc allow flat out Cp bonuses for "keeping campaign log" and other sort of "bookkeeping support" tasks.

here is what i have found:
the folks who want to do this and like to do this stuff in the game they run will do it anyway for the fun of it and it should be recognized and appreciated - but not necessarily rewarded with in-game benefits. if someone wants to make tarot card images of each PC for the others, thats great... maybe you can work them into a plotline or fluff bit but do not turn this into XP or inspiration - especially that goes to the one person.

The reason is, and i have seen it, rewarding the IRL effort with in-game benefits puts a heavy weight on "what is your IRL situation like." The college guy on summer break might have plenty of free time to do some crafty stuff. The empty-nester mom might well be able to combine this with her weekly crafts meeting and double -up. but the dad with a kid or two who gets this game night as his one "dad's night off" a week might not be able to shoe-horn in "extra art project time" etc etc.

With a wide variety of IRl differences between my players and groups over the years - I have come down solidly for quite some time on "play-time" is "play-time" and we are not going to de facto set your character back in game for not being able to commit a bunch of extra time for the game outside that beyond the basic already agreed to.

recognize it, praise it, thank them for it... but no in-game non-fluff bonuses - IMO.

5ekyu said:

With a wide variety of IRl differences between my players and groups over the years - I have come down solidly for quite some time on "play-time" is "play-time" and we are not going to de facto set your character back in game for not being able to commit a bunch of extra time for the game outside that beyond the basic already agreed to.

recognize it, praise it, thank them for it... but no in-game non-fluff bonuses - IMO.

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I'm with you for most of what you say in your post. But I disagree that rewarding one player with Inspiration for their off-table efforts is somehow setting another player's character back in game. The players at our table are happy whenever someone earns inspiration - in-game or out - as it is always used to further the group's in-game goals.

DM Dave1 said:

I'm with you for most of what you say in your post. But I disagree that rewarding one player with Inspiration for their off-table efforts is somehow setting another player's character back in game. The players at our table are happy whenever someone earns inspiration - in-game or out - as it is always used to further the group's in-game goals.

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"how the player chooses to then use" the reward can be used to justify any reward. if you gave out levels but the player getting the free levels always used it to "favor the goals of the group" would that be any different?

Inspiration as defined in 5e is a practical mechanical advantage to have "an extra of" or "one waiting for me when i reveal my next bennie".

if everyone is trying to forward the party goals then that character gets better at doing that - which is the epitome of imbalance - maybe not one your group dislikes.

5ekyu said:

"how the player chooses to then use" the reward can be used to justify any reward. if you gave out levels but the player getting the free levels always used it to "favor the goals of the group" would that be any different?

Inspiration as defined in 5e is a practical mechanical advantage to have "an extra of" or "one waiting for me when i reveal my next bennie".

if everyone is trying to forward the party goals then that character gets better at doing that - which is the epitome of imbalance - maybe not one your group dislikes.

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We give inspiration points for this, and they can be spent on other players. So it's a nice little "thanks for contributing" that doesn't have any big long term consequences and my be used to benefit a different PC.

Even if I did still use XP, I'd use inspiration for that reason.

But the other point is that for our group you don't have to put in a ton of effort. A "letter home" may only take 15 minutes to write but be worth just as much as a short story.

Or what about a different approach. If a person puts in a lot of effort (the short story or detailed journal entry) they get an inspiration point and one or more "bonus" inspirations points that must be given away to someone else's PC?

I understand that for a lot of people time is precious and some people simply aren't creative or comfortable writing stories but I still like rewarding those who put in the extra effort.