Awarding XP for non-game actions

[fusangite]

Teflon Billy had a good system -- I think it was either 100 or 300 xp for bringing beer or quality snack food. Everyone in the game benefited.

Thanks for reminding me. I am going to introduce this system for my own campaign immediately.

 

[belegost]

I've given bonus experience point to the players that help out new players between sessions or do some of my leg work for me. A few of them enjoy the added responsibility and it gives me more time to work on the adventures/story line. A little XP is just a small gesture of appreciation justified by their improvement of the game.

 

[Zappo]

Occasionally, the following exchange takes place:

"DM, I've made a half dozen photocopies of the character sheet"

"Good! Well done!"

"Do I get extra XP?"

"Yep! You get 1 XP!"

 

[belegost]

Occasionally, the following exchange takes place:

"DM, I've made a half dozen photocopies of the character sheet"

"Good! Well done!"

"Do I get extra XP?"

"Yep! You get 1 XP!"

LOL. 1 XP sounds about right.

We have another tradition... if you ask for bonus XP you aren't going to get any (for a while).

 

[Hygric]

I have been known to say "whoever makes me a cup of coffee gets 50xp!" from time to time. It has the desired effect.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

In our game, the DM manages everything through his web site.

At our last session, the DM made some comment that because one player had updated her character online, she would get 500 x.p.

I had just updated mine before the previous session, earned a new level, and updated it again that very day, so I mentioned it(well, shouted it rather loudly, really) to the DM, and I got an extra 500 x.p., too.

That's the only "out of game" x.p. anyone's ever earned in that game, which is going on 17 months now. Even with 12th level characters, I thought that 500 x.p. was quite generous. I'm so happy I may just burn the 500 x.p. making items for other characters.

 

[nopantsyet]

I'm with Crothian on this. I give out Hero Points instead. Interestingly, my players like that better. Having the chance to reroll a die is very valuable. Especially since in my game the PCs are near death on a regular basis. My players will lie, cheat, and steal for a single Hero Point. Likewise, they tend to regard advancement as one of the sacred cows that grazes in the sanctum sanctorum, and prefer that it be earned in-game. I am of like mind.

 

[Azure Trance]

Hm ... where can I find out more about Hero Points? How many do characters usually have?

 

[shadowlight]

So how about this:

I'm wanting to flesh out a campaign world so I was thinking about awarding extra XP for players to bring maps, short stories, writeups of countries, etc.

Has anyone tried this? Any suggestions of amounts of XP or things to be wary of?

 

[DM with a vengence]

Well, I'm giving out 100 xp per page of character background. Unfortunately, no one out of around 12 people have taken me up on it, but that's just my players.

Actually, one guy typed up the entire Ranger class description, I think I gave him 25 xp for just typing.