DM Looking for advice on Story-Award XP

[kengar]

So I'm trying to fire up a new 3e campaign with my group. Recent adventures they've played have gotten kind of boring to run because the powergamers in the group are pushing for more combat whenever possible. I'm not slamming PG-rs, it's a legit play-style. Basically they want their characters to go up and level, get powerful, etc. The classic way to do that in 3e is to find a monster (preferably with loot) to kill.

I know I'm not going to convince these players that roleplaying, etc. is "more fun" than powergaming; one man's beef jerky is another man's poison, and all that. Rather, I thought I'd try something a little different; using the variant "Story Award" idea.

What I hope to accomplish is to get the powergamers to try something other than just seeking combats for the XP. This would also -theoretically- shift the focus of the session a bit more towards RP for those players who like more of that. I don't want to eliminate combats, just make the party think about whether there's a good reason to get into the fight.

Here's how I was thinking of running things:

Sources of XP in play:

Overcoming challenges while working towards a goal.
Examples:
- "Relevant" combat
- Gathering Information/Clues
- Forming Strategies/Tactics
- Solving Puzzles/Mysteries

XP earned for overcoming these challenges will depend on two main criteria;
1) How difficult the challenge was, and
2) How much overcoming the challenge mattered to achieving a goal.

Combat challenges wouldn't necessarily be worth 0xp just because they were "random," but the points given out wouldn't reflect the awards in the CR charts if the combat served no purpose beyond "We kill it!" or self-defense. The monster that attacks you on the road while you trying to accomplish a goal would be a "relevant" challenge, wheras the party tramping off into the woods just to find some orcs to kill is not.

Achieving Goals.
Examples:
- Story/Campaign goals set by DM. i.e. Finishing a quest, etc.
- Party goals. i.e. Triumphing over a rival group of adventurers.
- Personal goals. i.e. Defeating archfoe, attaining noble rank, etc.

Goals are defined in part by the DM when he makes the adventures and
setting. Some goals are defined by the party as they play (i.e. 'Get items
the wizard needs to set up his lab so he can make magic items for the
group.'). Others are defined by the players when they design their characters
(Avenge their father's death, become a knight, marry their childhood
sweetheart, etc.). PC-design goals are usually longer-term goals. "Get a
big-a** sword!" isn't really a goal. "Retrieve the ancestral blade of my
clan (after killing the thief messily)!" is a goal.

Roleplaying
Examples:
- Actions and decisions consistent with character and goals.
- Keeping player and character knowledge distinct.
- "Flavor" injections into game (Speaking in character, etc.).

XP earned for RP is not as much as for challenges and goals, but actions
wildly inconsistent with a character's personality, etc. will lessen the
value of any stated goals. Also, the campaign will be taking stated PC goals
into account, so playing a character consistently will give them more
goal-related adventures and thus more opportunities for XP awards. The
criteria for determining awards for RP will be based primarily upon how
consistently a character is played "to concept" and making an effort at
"fitting" the character into the campaign world.


What I don't want to do is make XP harder to come by. What I want is make the reward system encourage different behaviour and in-game actions. My hope is that the powergamers can still work towards getting powerful but not just by hacking whatever moves or looking for the next random "crawl."

So what is my question?

Have any of you other DMs out there tried anything like this? If so, how did it work? Any advice or constructive criticism on my ideas?

 

[megamania]

I belong to about three groups. One group is ONLY about hack n' slash. It was painful watching the DM try to have them "earn" their feats with training. Another group gives XP through character development. He has us paint minitures of our characters, give backgrounds ...that kind of thing for extra XP. The other group (thankfully) has the same incentives as group two BUT also then trys to incorporate the background into the ongoing story to create roleplaying. These events generally are non-combative in nature and push the role-playing aspect.

 

[Morpheus]

I use a system very similar to this. I identify the goals that I want the PCs to pursue/accomplish and then I assign an XP value to each goal. The best advice that I have seen as to doing this is in the Spycraft Espionage Handbook. Take a look at it and maybe you will find some things that will help.

 

[kengar]

I belong to about three groups. One group is ONLY about hack n' slash. It was painful watching the DM try to have them "earn" their feats with training. Another group gives XP through character development. He has us paint minitures of our characters, give backgrounds ...that kind of thing for extra XP. The other group (thankfully) has the same incentives as group two BUT also then trys to incorporate the background into the ongoing story to create roleplaying. These events generally are non-combative in nature and push the role-playing aspect.

Any opinions on how well the methods in group two and/or three work?

 

[Kyramus]

I have been running my games with the following assumption.

Combat XP
Roleplay XP bonus (100 per instance)
Mission XP (party avg level in CR, this assumes that they actually finish the mission start to finish.)

The mission xp has minor and major mission xp. minor xp is 1/2 party level in CR. Major xp is party level +2 in CR.

It seems to work. I also assign Plot threads Plot XP. If A Plot requires the death of a npc, and the characters made it happen, then they get the xp. If the plot requires the pcs to save someone AND bring him back to civilization, and the pcs saved him but didn't bring him to a city, then they get half the bonus xp.

just my stuff.