activities unique to your game

[BSF]

Whenever I play, or GM, I encourage the players to have a "fashion show" at the beginning of a campaign. After we've created our characters, we go around the table and everyone describes, in detail, what their character looks like, what mannerisms about them we might have noticed, or what they're doing, what they're carrying, etc.

I do this with my group. I even cover it again at various stages in the campaign just to keep descriptions accurate. It's neat to watch players adjust description, mannerisms and quirks as events occur.

Rock - Arm - Stick
This is an outgrowth of Rock - Paper - Scissors. At one point in a game I had an NPC that would attack either of two PCs. There was no reason for a preferrence between the two and I was too lazy to reach for a die. Borrowing the combat mechanic from Stuperheroes, I had the two players play Rock - Paper - Scissors to see which PC would be attacked. It became a standard resolution when I had NPCs that wouldn't have a preference between equally appealing targets. I have had one player intentionally throw the game to save a PC from taking potentially lethal damage. Anyway, in the current campaign, the PCs have been fighting a bunch of gnolls that are trying to create an empire. The gnolls get kind of nasty and when they destroy a town, they capture a few of the residents, torture them and chop off their right arm. The PCs started trying to protect these refugees. Oddly enough, some of the gnolls had small stones that had some significance. The PCs/Players didn't figure it out until they killed a gnoll shaman and got a magic stick as one of the items. It took a couple of sessions before one of the players was screwing around and said he hit the stones with the stick. Everyone thought this was stupid-funny. They were a bit horrified when the stones turned back into severed arms.

Anyway, after that it moved from being Rock - Paper - Scissors to Rock - Stick - Arm. (Rock breaks Stick, Arm grabs Rock, Stick turns Arm into rock) It is silly, but kind of funny to watch.

 

[Jdvn1]

I usually do an after-action report on any session. Makes me a better DM and the players better players.

I'm definitily going to try the "vote for best roleplayer" bit. How much extry XP do you grant? I'm thinking of going variable with this: if the player is just a few xp short of levelling, then "ding" otherwise maybe 10% of what is needed to gain the next level. I'd like to encourage a lot more roleplaying...

I'm not consistent about how much XP I like to give. Sometimes I give 100xp/level or I treat is as an encounter... if there's a tie, I don't split it because penalizing a tie seems silly. Especially for something that's designed to be a cool bonus. If there's a second person with a lot of votes (in larger groups), I may give him slightly less... say 250xp to the best roleplayer and 150xp to the second best.

What I did last time was to give each person 50xp/level/vote or something.

Play with it and see what you like and what fits your group.

 

[NewLifeForm]

Cut to Commerical

In many of my games, when a player wants to get up and get a drink or go to the bathroom, we pause for a commerical. One or more players tell/act out a parody commerical usually involving the campaign to some degree.

Examples have included a video game using the campaign characters (SEGA!), the Federation Express Card (don't leave the Alpha Quandrant without it) and Omni-O's! Breakfast Cereal of Champions (actually Mutants & Masterminds - Not Champions ).

Also...

Humming the original series fight scene music from Star Trek gives the PCs a bonus to hit in my Trek campaigns.

The more bizare the action, as long as it makes sense within the genre and campaign, the more likely it is too work. Go ahead and slingshot around the sun, use your heat vision to alter something's molecular structure or charge the dragon to save your "True Love". You might not survive, but you'll have a better chance then if you don't.



NewLifeForm