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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4846872" data-attributes="member: 80487">There's a difference between players setting their own goals (whether with treasure or with something else as an &quot;XP token&quot;) and the DM determining for them what &quot;the story&quot; is.If players don't get to choose the source of &quot;story awards&quot;, then we're back to where we were with treasure: Attainments of role-playing goals are not necessarily rewarded with XP.In my experience, people who want to engage in intrigues, romances, etc., do so regardless of whether it helps gain levels -- which are pretty irrelevant to such pursuits anyway. (&quot;Now I'm the equal of five normal men at killing goblins! That's going to help me become the kingdom's top fashion designer!&quot;)People who are not interested in such pursuits tend not to have their fun improved by the coercion of holding XP hostage. A game of competing for the most over-the-top thespian performance tends to rub very much the wrong way folks who came expecting to play D&amp;D, not American Idol.A common goal (such as glorious treasure, whether plunder or bounty) enables characters to team up even if they share no other objectives. It can also establish a theme for the campaign -- which in old D&amp;D was &quot;sword and sorcery&quot;. In that context, braving perils and exploring is simply what adventurers do; it's not the utility of the Emerald Eye of Enire that chiefly matters, any more than that of the peak of Mount Everest, the headwaters of the Nile, or the ruins of Troy.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 4846872, member: 80487"] There's a difference between players setting their own goals (whether with treasure or with something else as an "XP token") and the DM determining for them what "the story" is. If players don't get to choose the source of "story awards", then we're back to where we were with treasure: Attainments of role-playing goals are not necessarily rewarded with XP. In my experience, people who want to engage in intrigues, romances, etc., do so regardless of whether it helps gain levels -- which are pretty irrelevant to such pursuits anyway. ("Now I'm the equal of five normal men at killing goblins! [I]That's[/I] going to help me become the kingdom's top fashion designer!") People who are not interested in such pursuits tend not to have their fun improved by the coercion of holding XP hostage. A game of competing for the most over-the-top thespian performance tends to rub very much the wrong way folks who came expecting to play D&D, not American Idol. A common goal (such as glorious treasure, whether plunder or bounty) enables characters to team up even if they share no other objectives. It can also establish a theme for the campaign -- which in old D&D was "sword and sorcery". In that context, braving perils and exploring is simply what adventurers do; it's not the utility of the Emerald Eye of Enire that chiefly matters, any more than that of the peak of Mount Everest, the headwaters of the Nile, or the ruins of Troy. [/QUOTE]

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