D&D 5E DM Quits The Game

[Orlax]

That may be the case; however, contribution is a very broad term. Again, when I am looking at contribution, I want to see how the player involves their character in the storyline. How is that character helping the party out? Every action the character takes impacts the game in some way, and those actions are their contribution. They have to be considered.

I have a couple of players like this in my group as well. But when they finally speak up, they always use their character in a manner that improves upon the narrative of the story, and this is what I award experience for. They can spend huge parts of the session being quiet and introverted, but contribution doesn’t have to mean involvement in the conversation. It should be a determination of how well the character benefits the party.

I would never suggest putting a player or her/his character on the spot. That is a sure fire way to make them uncomfortable and possibly push them to quit. Evaluating their contribution doesn’t have to mean spotlighting them in anyway.

Aren’t those contributions? Shouldn’t they be rewarded for doing that?

It’s not about leveling faster, it’s about encouraging active participation and involvement in making the story a success. My campaigns aren’t about combat. Most of the time, there is a creative non-combat solution to every scenario. If someone in the party figures that out, and takes that path, they get more exp than those that attempted to fight it out instead.

Okay I may have misunderstood. You're less rewarding active and spotlit participation, and more rewarding baseline participation. It wasn't that you had party members that weren't being loud and sociable, you were dealing with players who were actively doing nothing to help the group. I see your predicament. That particular issue didn't even graze my mind because I've literally never seen that happen on a table.. It also seems that your bonus exp isn't breaking too high on the experience scale. What's the most bonus exo you've handed to someone on a session?

 

[ccs]

Nitpick: it's up to the players as their characters...but otherwise, absolutely agree.

You'll have to take that up with them. I've seen them do it in-character RPwise, strictly as players based on stuff that had nothing to do with the game being played, & several other ways. End results always been that they divied up the treasure in some way that pleased them.
The only thing I need from them is who has what. How they determined that (shrugs)?

As a character, quite rightly yes. And if you don't do things then no xp for you.Exce-ept...xp are - or very much should be - a character reward, not a player reward. So if the player's not there but the character's still in the party doing stuff, the character gets xp for it; and in our crew if you aren't there for a game then you're leaving your character to be played by whoever is there and is willing to take it over. The converse is if a player is present but his character does nothing of use then it gets no xp.

In my games nobody runs your character in your absence. So if you're not at the game your characters not doing anything.
The most that'll happen is that I, the DM, will provide minimal narration that removes you from the nights action.
(ex; one player decided to skip last week - his character, already being RPd the week before by the player as miffed at the party, stalked off out of the minotaur cave to "go find lunch" while the others took a short rest {the session opened immediately after the previous ones big fight}. Walking out of a cave under DM control =/= XP.)

 

[the Jester]

One of my players is of the mind that it’s not fair that the player shows up late, because they game less but still get the same amount of treasure and XP as everyone else, since we generally divide it up at the end of the session. I’m not sure it’s worth individually tracking, though.

5e works really well with mixed level parties.

Let me add that, as the DM, it isn't up to you to divide the treasure. That's on the group. And if you just do the math at the end of each encounter and make a sheet with a column for each pc, just jot the numbers down under the appropriate pcs- it's not that much of a pain as long as you have a calculator.

 

[the Jester]

I think that is a case of being confused about what is actually fair. The player that has complaint that a player unable to participate as much (i.e. one that has less opportunity to have fun gaming) is being rewarded as much as they are, and is completely missing that it is actually the complaining player that has the benefit because they get to be there having fun gaming the whole time.

Would you feel differently if the player misses half the session because he's flaky?

Horror stories aside, rewarding pcs only for what they actually participate in doesn't actually hurt much of anything in 5e. You can run a pretty wide level variation as long as you're not constantly throwing only top-challenge encounters at the pcs.

 

[the Jester]

Err...huh? In pre-3e a death-revival cycle didn't affect your level or xp at all other than not getting xp for things that happened while you were dead; but it did cost you a Con point.

Actually, the DMG suggested a possible 2000 xp for the first time a pc was resurrected.

 

[Demonspell]

Okay I may have misunderstood. You're less rewarding active and spotlit participation, and more rewarding baseline participation. It wasn't that you had party members that weren't being loud and sociable, you were dealing with players who were actively doing nothing to help the group. I see your predicament. That particular issue didn't even graze my mind because I've literally never seen that happen on a table.. It also seems that your bonus exp isn't breaking too high on the experience scale. What's the most bonus exo you've handed to someone on a session?

For every encounter I reserve 5-10% of the total experience for roleplaying and contribution. Notice, I say reserve. That means that if it's a CR 5 encounter that will reward 3000 xp, I will withhold 150-300 xp. Combat will reward the party betweem 2850-2600 xp (spread out evenly) and the rest will be distributed based on other factors. Sometimes, I may give more if I really like how things were handled, or if one of the other players comments about how well another player handled things; even then I usually won't give more than 2.5% additional exp per encounter.

 

[Orlax]

For every encounter I reserve 5-10% of the total experience for roleplaying and contribution. Notice, I say reserve. That means that if it's a CR 5 encounter that will reward 3000 xp, I will withhold 150-300 xp. Combat will reward the party betweem 2850-2600 xp (spread out evenly) and the rest will be distributed based on other factors. Sometimes, I may give more if I really like how things were handled, or if one of the other players comments about how well another player handled things; even then I usually won't give more than 2.5% additional exp per encounter.

That 2.5% being per player or in total?

 

[Demonspell]

That 2.5% being per player or in total?

In total per encounter and that is on the high end. How much of that 2.5% the PC gets will vary, but I tend to keep my roleplaying experience low.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Would you feel differently if the player misses half the session because he's flaky?

No, because my concern is not about the flaky player's treatment but how the rest of the group would be negatively affected by the flaky player not only missing half the session but also being less useful during the half of the session they are present.

Horror stories aside, rewarding pcs only for what they actually participate in doesn't actually hurt much of anything in 5e. You can run a pretty wide level variation as long as you're not constantly throwing only top-challenge encounters at the pcs.

While I agree that 5th edition doesn't suffer greatly from level disparity, I still set my tolerance for level disparity at 0 (or effectively 0, considering I want characters leveling up within a session of each other at worst) because if one character doesn't have those few extra hit points and whatever feature is gained then that character is notably less useful to the rest of the party - and in 5th edition certain levels are bigger than others, so something like everyone being 5th level when one character is still 4th level is not insignificant.

 

[Eltab]

I just had this experience:
I picked up a night class, heading towards a part-time job. I totally underestimated how much study would be required, and continued as the group's DM. Two weeks of poor study habits and rushed DM prep convinced me that something was going to have t give. I informed the group that after the following week, _I_ would have to go on hiatus until class was finished. How does everybody want to proceed? Fortunately we got a volunteer to DM in my absence; he is running a diversion plot arc within Rise of Tiamat. I came back this week and let them know my class is done so I can now return. Query: when? When I return (next week or the week after that, depending on when they finish) we get to figure out how to get me back up to speed.

As far as starting time, most of my group drives to game from work / school. We are supposed to play 5-9PM but I often don't start until 15-20 minutes late, to allow for traffic, slow service at fast-food drive-in, &c. If you show up late we'll figure out a way to work you back in, and might even summarize what you missed.