Kuld said:
If you don't mind me asking, how do you determine XP for RPing and Story advancement? I have a few power gamers who'd rather hack and slash their way through an adventure, often complaining that some sessions have too much role-playing. Again, some of my players love to RP, so I tend to ignore them munchkins to a certain degree. However, if I could adequately reward the greedy little buggers for RPing, most of the complaints will disappear. As of right now, I usually reward a few hundred XP for good RPing, but I’m thinking it’s not enough…
I modify the GURPS system thusly:
For good roleplaying in the character's concept as previously stated by the player: 25 to 75 x character level
For excellent roleplaying that may have had the potential to interfere with overall goals (like winning against the bad guys without dying): 100-125 x character level
For poor roleplaying, acting out of character, wrecking suspension of disbelief, gross metagaming, etc.: -25 to -125 x character level (cannot reduce RP XP below 0)
For successful completion of a character goal that doesn't have to do with combat and which comprises the major story event for the session (eg. returning the stolen mcguffin to its rightful owner, defusing tensions at the diplomatic conference, winning the final round of the chess tournament against the villain while the rest of the party unravels his fiendish plans, etc.): 50 to 100 x character level
For failure or partial failure of above: -25 to -50 x character level (cannot reduce RP XP below 0)
For disastrous failure of above: -75 to -125 x character level (cannot reduce RP XP below 0)
For clever action or solution to specific problem, so long as the clever solution is in character (a clever solution for a dumb character is probably going to involve breaking something or being "the distraction"): 25 x character level per occasion
Sometimes these rewards come for use of skills rather than role-playing, but the theme here is assigning concrete value to ephemeral goals and objectives as well as in-character decision making. Values are based on the free-form XP awards rule. Where it says stuff like 25-50 x character level, that really means 1 or 2 x 25 x character level, so that awards are given in 25 x character level increments. It makes adjudicating easier to keep XP awards in discrete quanta. It also means that if a character roleplays reasonably well during a session, they're likely to end up with one balanced encounter's worth of XP.
I take away points for bad roleplaying, and also for just royally screwing up non-combat encounters. Of course, you could role-play well and screw up, in which case you'll probably get some award, or you could succeed by playing out of character, in which case some reward is also forthcoming. I put the emphasis on good roleplaying over success. I never take away XP the players have already earned (i.e. no negative RP awards), but I do wield the stick and the carrot with equal ferocity. "Disastrous failure" above indicates to me that the player in question was either not even trying, or was actively working to undermine his own character goals just to be disruptive. It's essentially a warning that such behaviour isn't looked upon with indifference. It's a sort of yellow card, indicating a red one might be forthcoming.
