EXP for MVP

[Tomovasky]

Jester how much do you give?

 

[Jdvn1]

I also let players vote on a best roleplayer. After a session, we discuss how the game went, what I did well as a GM, what I did poorly as a GM, what players did well, and what players did poorly. Then, the players vote for the best roleplayer, usually based on their favorite scene/one-liner/action of the session.

The players like it, and if there's a tie between two players, I give both the prize. Generally 50-100xp*level, but tailor it for your own games.

 

[frankthedm]

If you are an hour late I want more then a measley 100xp. I think if a DM told me that it would mean he expects to be late. And that's not a good thing.

The sessions typicly start around 2PM going to 10PM or later. With many going past midnight and 3AM being a remote possibilty. Most of us wake up at noon on saturdays and the whole group is big on video games. A few hours are not big.

Now for a 6PM to 10PM session half the group has to schedual around work, an hour is worth a lot more than a 100xp.

 

[Crothian]

The sessions typicly start around 2PM going to 10PM or later. With many going past midnight and 3AM being a remote possibilty. Most of us wake up at noon on saturdays and the whole group is big on video games. A few hours are not big.

So, no one minds that they showed up on time and they sit around waiting and waiting for a few hours? You have some very understanding and patient friends.

 

[frankthedm]

So, no one minds that they showed up on time and they sit around waiting and waiting for a few hours? You have some very understanding and patient friends.

patient? They chill playing fighting games or magic. Also 1d3-1 people don't show up on a given week often due to family concerns they find about that Saturday morning or cause they got really drunk the night before. I get flak for being late, they get flak for not even showing up, our host gets flak for not being willing to throw us out when his brain stops working [gets bad headaches from barometric pressure].

 

[Agent Oracle]

The game system "Godlike" actually has something for this: though godlike is a point-buy game.

At the start of play, you get one point for being there. Then, at the end of the session, the DM awards another point to everyone who contributed, stayed in character, and contributed to the game's good time. Finally, each player chooses a player that they think should recieve the bonus exp. in the event of a tie, the bonus exp is simply not rewarded. And the Gm is not supposed to allow anyone to attempt to sway the vote to gain that extra point.

Don't make the MVP award sizeable enough to ever seperate the party. no more than 10 exp per average party level seems about right.

 

[the Jester]

Jester how much do you give?

Short answer: 25 xp x level, but "level" isn't always your level.

OK, this is how I give xp.

First of all, overcoming challenges generally gets 2/3 of the standard amount.

Then, at the end of each session, each player takes a few minutes to tell me how they roleplayed their race, class, alignment, and personal concerns. I am pretty flexible with these, and it is rare that a player will not get all their categories filled. Sometimes- especially in sessions with no combat- you might be able to get double xp for roleplaying in a given area (for instance, double race or double alignment).

In addition to the basic four, I give xp for bringing props (such as miniatures, food if your character provides it to the group, etc) and for "lubricating the game", which means helping things run smoothly- most commonly, it's note taking.

Finally, at the end of every session we do the vote thing (for MVP and best roleplayer). Each of those earns another "check".

So let's say that you're playing a CG human sorcerer, and you get all your rp stuff, plus you have a mini and you get lube xp for taking notes. You also get both best rp and mvp this time around. You therefore have 7 chunks of rp xp coming to you.

Each chunk of roleplaying xp is worth 25 xp x the party's level. If your game is like mine, the party is almost never exclusively the same level. In that case, I choose whose level provides the multiplier based on, basically, the advancement rate I want for the party. The entire party uses the same multiplier, btw.

So, for example, let's say that the party consists of:
Two 8th-level pcs
Four 7th-level pcs
Two 6th-level pcs
One 5th-level pc

I might set the multiplier at anywhere from 5-8. Now, usually in a case like this I'll usually use a higher multiplier in order to help the lower-level pcs catch up with the rest, but the amount of combat in the session usually factors into it, and if I'm looking to slow advancement, I'll use a lower multiplier.

It's all a bit arcane, really, but it's a system that works for me.

So, the short answer to your question is, roughly 25 xp/level.

 

[Tomovasky]

Hey jester thank you for the help, you have given me much to think about. By the way did what did you think of the ideas I posted?

 

[MonkeyDragon]

At the end of the session, the players vote for the best player of the session. It can be for the best bit of roleplaying, the saver of the day in combat, the person who made us laugh the most, anything, really. The winner gets a gold poker chip which can be turned in for 100xp, OR to turn one d20 or d100 roll into an auto success.

 

[Cor Azer]

I use to go the way of the players voting after game... and well your right at first only 2 pepole would win, but after a month of this my games got funer and funer becuase all the players tried harder.

Yet after reading 118 of knights of the diner table GameMaster's workshop "working out the kinks part two" I got the idea to using th "king of the moment" to deside MVP, For you who do not read knights here's the idea. I hand out a Chess pice, well the king when a player dose something that is creative or just lucky they get to be king for the moment. Now how I see it is I can award or the players can award the title of king. But eather by the end of game who has had the king the most or the person with it last will get a "MVP bounes".... of I not shure what yet.

That's an interesting idea. I think it would work better for a casual/swashbuckling/high cinematic type game than an indepth intrigue dealings one myself. Particularly since I imagine its based more on the immediate reaction of the rest of the group rather than hard-and-fast rules (because really, it's a subjective thing and you can't have objective rules for subjective things very easily), I figure it would shift around a lot on bad puns and the like a lot more often than it would with subtle interactions whose significance aren't noted until well after the fact.

Personally though, I don't really like the idea of awarding bonus experience for the MVP of the session. If your goal is to encourage players to participate more, then just give everyone who participated well (go subjectivity!) bonus experience, and soon the non-participaters will pick up on they're falling behind. Of course, in that situation I'm more likely to talk to the non-participating players to get them to pipe up rather than reward what the game already encourages. If you goal isn't such encouragement... well, then I wonder what it is?