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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1285273" data-attributes="member: 1210">One of the things I was trying to convey is that the system I use is designed purposely so that the pc makes the call as to what they did for rp xp, and I just approve it (or not).  Very rarely do I deny a pc the rp xp he or she is trying to get- usually if a player didn't earn the race xp (for example) for a session, when I'm getting everyone's rp awards written at the end of the session the player will say to me, "Well, I didn't really have anything for race today..."Sure, there are always in-game rewards as well.  The whole point of awarding rp xp is- well, it breaks down into two main lines of thinking, for me.  1. I want the players to roleplay.  I don't care if they play a character that I like, or if they play their elf with my vision of elves; but I want a vision of the character in the player's head.  That's what I'm rewarding.  Different bards have called a very wide range of behaviors for bard xp- from singing in character to mocking other bards to trying to bluster their way through guards without a fight.  Which one is "right?"  Who cares??  The players are roleplaying in all cases.  Now, for a case in which I would not give rp xp: at the end of the session, the single-classed wizard, for class, says, "I fought a lot with a sword!"  This is an example of a time in which I'd scratch my head and ask how that was wizardly.  Prolly in the end suggest that the player call it for personal concerns instead.  Short of things like that, it's really easy to get all four categories of rp awards, every session; my system's designed that way intentionally.  2. The second point to awarding xp for roleplaying has to do with pacing advancement.  I run sessions periodically with no combat, sometimes several sessions in a row; and in standard 3e you gain 0 xp for those.  I don't like that; I prefer a 'smoother' rate of advancement, especially given things like social challenges (which I firmly believe can be worth xp).  My assumption is that the pcs will have not quite as many combat encounters as standard, with a slight weighting towards tougher encounters.  Xp for these are cut in half, as I mentioned above.  Combine this with rp awards- I assume each pc will get four awards per session (though some average more, with props and helping 'lube' the game, and some occasionally average less for a few sessions at a time)- and I assume a slightly slower rate of advancement for the pcs in my game.  All things being equal, instead of 13 1/2 encounters advancing the party a level at a rate of 4 encounters per session, it should take (on average) about an extra session or two to level.  In practice, this ends up being more or less true depending on factors like the party's level distribution, but 3e advancement is far too quick for my tastes. Sure, an infiltrator could call it as personal xp, perhaps alignment xp, maybe class xp (rogue or bard in disguise, f'rinstance), etc.  And the in-game rewards are there too; but combat encounters have in-game rewards like treasure and magic items, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get xp for 'em.  To be specific:A dwarf who buys only weapons made by non-dwarves- well, I probably wouldn't give him race xp for that; but if he had a personal or alignment-based reason, or even some sort of class-based reason... well, that's a different category, but there you go.  If he refuses to buy weapons made by dwarves of a rival clan or something I could easily see race xp, though.An elf who treats other races as equals, despite elven longevity: sounds elven to me.  Sure, I'll give you race xp for it- as long as you can point to a specific example of it each game.An orc who tries to preserve the beautiful- sounds like personal or alignment (or maybe class, for a bard or similar type) xp to me.  Not much orcish about preserving pretty things- unless it was an orcish work of art or something like that, I suppose.Gnomes who like kobolds?  Well, again, at a glance it doesn't sound too gnomish, but I can easily envision arguments that would persuade me without too much trouble.  Again, I'd tend to think this would be 'personal' rather than 'race' xp, but I'm flexible.That's another thing: my system is designed to allow maximum flexibility without pigeonholing pcs into the roles they don't want to play.  It helps the player flesh out the character- it gives them a sort of set of guidelines to build from, without laying down hard and fast rules.  There's no list of 'dwarf xp is any of these ten things' or anything like that; it's very freeform.In fact, if I'm Chaotic in alignment, I'm calling this system for alignment xp... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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