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<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3901723" data-attributes="member: 18280">If you are imagining that I am complaining, you have things rather backwards.&nbsp; Pointing out the potential pitfalls of a system is a good way to ensure that they have a chance to be addressed before final copy.As for story XP, I've never seen a system that wasn't full of wibbly-wobbly questy-westy...stuff.&nbsp; The idea is a good one.&nbsp; For my Doctor Who game, for example, you get XP based on how much you participated in a given session.&nbsp; I narrowed the range to 1-5 XP per session, though, to avoid wibbling more than necessary.&nbsp; I considered something like quest cards for my Star Trek d20, and would have used them if I'd ever gotten an interested group of players for the setting.&nbsp; The idea there would have been, specifically, to give players background &quot;extras&quot; for role-playing that didn't (necessarily) disrupt the main storyline.&nbsp; In my homebrewed 3.X, characters choose a &quot;personality&quot;; each personality has a condition that must be met to gain 1 AP that session (a system I would abhor were it the DM, and not the player, who chose the personality!).&nbsp; I've considered a Star Wars game with pregen characters, each of which has a specific agenda, and each of which has specific victory conditions, stuck together in an escape pod (and then an &quot;unknown&quot; world).&nbsp; Each player would get a description of the events that led to being in the escape pod from that character's point of view.These are not ideas that I am adverse to, but they are ideas that I have some experience with the pitfalls of.&nbsp; The pitfalls, as I see them, could be dealt with by instituting the following:(1)&nbsp; Discuss how Quest Cards might lead to railroading, with advice on avoiding the same.&nbsp; Less experienced, and especially new, DMs need some solid guidelines on the pitfalls of railroading.&nbsp; This applies doubly for DMs who cut their teeth on 3.X.(2)&nbsp; Discuss an alternate where the players can devise personal goals, and earn story XP for them.&nbsp; This should include personal goals at odds with DM Quest Cards.(3)&nbsp; Ensure that you have a good, clear description of how to determine XP for Quests.&nbsp; This is by far the hardest of the three (in fact, I have never seen it done well), and must be clear enough that a DM allowing players to determine personal goals can easily decide what XP are appropriate.If the WotC does a good job with (3), I will be impressed, even if they ignore (1) and (2).&nbsp; (This is not a swipe at WotC; it is a statement of fact.&nbsp; I've never seen a good Story Award system, certainly not for a system that rewards multiple factors in addition to story, and I would be mightily impressed by anyone who devised one that met my criteria for clarity!)&nbsp; I would, of course, prefer that they hit all of these marks.RC</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 3901723, member: 18280"] If you are imagining that I am complaining, you have things rather backwards. Pointing out the potential pitfalls of a system is a good way to ensure that they have a chance to be addressed before final copy. As for story XP, I've never seen a system that wasn't full of wibbly-wobbly questy-westy...stuff. The [i]idea[/i] is a good one. For my Doctor Who game, for example, you get XP based on how much you participated in a given session. I narrowed the range to 1-5 XP per session, though, to avoid wibbling more than necessary. I considered something like quest cards for my Star Trek d20, and would have used them if I'd ever gotten an interested group of players for the setting. The idea there would have been, specifically, to give players background "extras" for role-playing that didn't (necessarily) disrupt the main storyline. In my homebrewed 3.X, characters choose a "personality"; each personality has a condition that must be met to gain 1 AP that session (a system I would abhor were it the DM, and not the player, who chose the personality!). I've considered a Star Wars game with pregen characters, each of which has a specific agenda, and each of which has specific victory conditions, stuck together in an escape pod (and then an "unknown" world). Each player would get a description of the events that led to being in the escape pod from that character's point of view. These are not ideas that I am adverse to, but they are ideas that I have some experience with the pitfalls of. The pitfalls, as I see them, could be dealt with by instituting the following: (1) Discuss how Quest Cards might lead to railroading, with advice on avoiding the same. Less experienced, and especially new, DMs need some solid guidelines on the pitfalls of railroading. This applies doubly for DMs who cut their teeth on 3.X. (2) Discuss an alternate where the players can devise personal goals, and earn story XP for them. This should include personal goals at odds with DM Quest Cards. (3) Ensure that you have a good, clear description of how to determine XP for Quests. This is by far the hardest of the three (in fact, I have never seen it done well), and must be clear enough that a DM allowing players to determine personal goals can easily decide what XP are appropriate. If the WotC does a good job with (3), I will be impressed, even if they ignore (1) and (2). (This is not a swipe at WotC; it is a statement of fact. I've never seen a good Story Award system, certainly not for a system that rewards multiple factors in addition to story, and I would be mightily impressed by anyone who devised one that met my criteria for clarity!) I would, of course, prefer that they hit all of these marks. RC [/QUOTE]

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