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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 233489" data-attributes="member: 413">How do you turn power-gamers into roleplayers?  Errmmm....you don't.  Power-gamers (and I'm one) have no desire to change.  Why should they?  They're happy leveling up their characters, gathering minor artifacts and kicking butt.  However, most power-gamers are not happy without a challenge, at least not me.  If I don't find myself upon the precipice of death every few sessions, I fail to see the point...However, there is some hope.  I got this idea off this board (I think from Arcady).  In order to reign power-gamers in and encourage the creation of interesting characters with some reasonable background do the following:Tell them that characters are to be created using a 28 (or whatever) point buy method.   Also ask them for a one page (about 500 words) background and/or personality profile of the character...they'll moan and groan about it, of course.  So give 'em what power-gamers crave most as an incentive: Power.  Give them extra points for their background.  I give a max of 6 extra points based on the following criteria:- 1 point (max 2) for each usable NPC described in the background.  These can be mentors, enemies, familly members, allies, associates, cohorts, etc.- 1 point (max 2) for each usable organization, nation, tribe, clan, guild, order, religion, god, etc. described in the background.- 1 point (max 2) for each PC that the background ties the described PC to in a meaningful way.  This helps answer the questions like: Why are these people traveling together?  How do they know each other? Do they like each other or are they rivals? etc.- Up to 4 points based on the quality of the background.  Is it interesting?  Unique?  Well thought out?  Well written?The last time I did this, I only used the first three sets of points(with a max of 4 points).  I added the last because one of the background I got was so astoundly good that I had to make it worth 4 points without even considering the other points.  In the future I will usually give no more than 4, but for especially well written ones, I'll give 5 or 6 points.From my players, I got a plethora of neat ideas and information.  The write-ups varied from:-No write-up.  This is a completely voluntary thing.  They've had about 6 weeks to write one page.  This guy is the most "munchy" player in the group, yet hasn't produced a background.  The game is tomorrow.  If he's happy with 28 points, that suits me fine-A whimsical description of a (Monte Cook) Ranger being orphaned by a giant raid(so she hates giants), making a living hunting dragons(so she is good at fighting dragons) and even taking on demons...-A long history or the human Southern Nations and their various wars.-A description of an ancient elven artifact that contains the spirit of a great Demon hunting Sorcerer/Fighter.  The wearer of the armor becomes possessed by this spirit and hunts demons until he dies...the Armor then disappears until another suitable elf finds it (or is found by it, more likely).-A discription of a cold hearted wizard who only cared for the aqcuisition of knowledge and power until a life altering event  turned him into a champion of mercy and compassion.  He sacrificed his most prescious spell book to save a child.In short, I got some good stuff out of people who aren't particularly good or interested in role-playing.  It was voluntary so no one was forced to do it.  And the reward was reasonably small so it shouldn't affect game balance too much.It seems to me you made two big mistakes:  - 50+ pts!!!  What were you thinking man?!?!  25-28 points is usually best.  32-36 is good for power-gaming.  40+, you're asking for trouble.- Allowing all the splatbook rules without justification and control.  I don't disallow splatbook stuff, but it's gotta be justified by the character concept.  Even then, it can't over shadow core-rules characters too much.</blockquote>

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