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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 7414837" data-attributes="member: 1465">I wouldn't call it 'favoritism' but on the other hand I certainly would not give any reward.In the very first few sessions I ever DMed a game (almost 20 years ago) I did that, I gave out bonus XP for good roleplay. It just didn't feel right to me. First of all, it's too subjective (just to give you an idea... I am not in your game so I don't really know how it plays out, but the way you described your friend doing 'parkour' moves gave me such an image of dorkiness that I would be tempted to actually grant him a penalty just for fun). Second, it creates false expectations that you will reward the same again, and so it may actually encourage repetitiveness. Third, it will indirectly punish players who are less interested in roleplay or narrative flourishes.The latter point is the most important, because unless the whole group shares the same individual playing style and skills (in which case you may end up with everyone earning about the same amount of RP bonus XP, making the bonuses themselves almost pointless), you will be rewarding only one aspect of playing the game well. But then what if another player is not interested in that and instead more focused on tactical play? What if another player is mostly focused on solving the plot and uncovering the mysteries? For fairness, you should be rewarding those as well, because they are too ways to "play well".YMMV, but personally I just keep it simple and always give the same XP to every PC, and that's because I treat XP as a reward to the characters, not to the players! The players are rewarded by having fun playing the game, and a player who roleplays well is self-rewarded.</blockquote>

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