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Message: <blockquote data-quote="swrushing" data-source="post: 1334458" data-attributes="member: 14140">In my experience this is simply untrue.In play the biggest reward for intelligent play and the biggest penalties for stupid play are the RESULTS of those actions. Intelligent play results in less loss or expense and more successful results IN PLAY. Thst, in and of itself, has proven to be sufficient reason for players to strive for that level of play in every game i have ever ran or played in. I have never seen a player express an interest in or act in play stupidly just because he wont get XP for playing smartly. have you really seen this occur? Have you truely seen players deliberately choose to play stupid because they wont get extra Xp for playing smartly?I doubt it, but maybe so.of course, there is one other aspect to this whole smart or stupid issue... that is the character. I have on occasions played character who were not as bright or savvy as i am or who have differenyt motivations. Playing the character might well mean playing less tactically astute than i would normally choose. i would really hate for a Gm of mine to put me in the situation where playing my character the way his nature would lead me to play him costs me XPs because it did not measure up to his standard of smart play.To me, the ideal game wont let XP be dependent on character actions at all. As soon as you start saying "this type of choice is worth less Xp than that type of choice" you are getting in the way of running the character. You are trying to make the Xp system encourage certain styles of play, certain choices, and unless you have a very narrow set of "allowed PC character types" its likely someone at some point will be put in the "play character my way, not your way, or lose XP." An "out of game" consideration, how much XP, interferes with "in game" decisions and choices.Thats why i just level everyone up after so many sessions (three months real time) and thus the "encouragement" and "rewards" and results for choices remain all in game. Success reaps its own reward IN GAME. failure sees is its own deterrent IN GAME.If you want to encourage your players to roleplay their characters, design scenarios where those character traits are relevent and make a difference IN GAME. Don't try and bribe/extort them with outside of the game sticks and carrots.If you want your players to play smartly and not always rely on brute force, provide them with challenges where those types of things produce real in game rewards and losses. Don't try and bribe/extort them with outside of the game sticks and carrots.</blockquote>

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