With regards to the discussion on rewarding cool actions at the top of this page, what I do as a DM is simply not penalise people for adding in more cool.
What I mean is, if the player wants to charge the unsuspecting orc and push him into the fire with a kick to the butt, I let him use his normal to-hit and will make sure the fire does enough damage to be comperable to his normal sword strike. Otherwise, why would he do it? If the theif wants to backflip off over the balcony, that is the same DC as just jumping over it. The PC is gaining no mechanical advantage.
So in the example at the top of the page, if a PC wants to jump backwards stab a harpy in mid-air and land on the other side. They are just making a normal athletics role to jump the required squares as part of a charge. If they say they want it to be a double back flip, that is fine, the dice roll indicates how impressive it looked.
I sometimes award action points for making scenes really interesting, since I don't award XP that is the easiest tangible award to give. I also allow APs to be spent to allow what is technically more than one action in game terms, but looks like one action in description/effect. For example, leap out, grab the harpy and use acrobatics to fling yourself off it again up to the ledge.
With regards to rewarding creative players more than non-creative ones, I say that is no problem in and of itself. Some people are better at some games than others, that should not be an impediment to fun. We should inspire less creative players to think outside the box, more shy players to express themselves and foster an environment that encourages that, rather than dropping interactions to the lowest common demoninator.
What I mean is, if the player wants to charge the unsuspecting orc and push him into the fire with a kick to the butt, I let him use his normal to-hit and will make sure the fire does enough damage to be comperable to his normal sword strike. Otherwise, why would he do it? If the theif wants to backflip off over the balcony, that is the same DC as just jumping over it. The PC is gaining no mechanical advantage.
So in the example at the top of the page, if a PC wants to jump backwards stab a harpy in mid-air and land on the other side. They are just making a normal athletics role to jump the required squares as part of a charge. If they say they want it to be a double back flip, that is fine, the dice roll indicates how impressive it looked.
I sometimes award action points for making scenes really interesting, since I don't award XP that is the easiest tangible award to give. I also allow APs to be spent to allow what is technically more than one action in game terms, but looks like one action in description/effect. For example, leap out, grab the harpy and use acrobatics to fling yourself off it again up to the ledge.
With regards to rewarding creative players more than non-creative ones, I say that is no problem in and of itself. Some people are better at some games than others, that should not be an impediment to fun. We should inspire less creative players to think outside the box, more shy players to express themselves and foster an environment that encourages that, rather than dropping interactions to the lowest common demoninator.
