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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eric Finley" data-source="post: 4814589" data-attributes="member: 83401">Mesh is absolutely right.  The proposed system is a social disaster waiting to happen; at best, it'll break even through better RP, and even that is unlikely.The only way to make something like your character points system work is to integrate it heavily into the core of the system; you'd need a much bigger rework of the system than you're proposing to make it work.  Generally this needs to involve tradeoffs somewhere - not because the tradeoffs are inherently necessary, but because they redirect any resentment or ill feelings which may end up cropping up among the players and because they allow you to worry much less about elements of subjectivity in the social dynamic.-------------For an example of a game where something similar truly does work, check out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riddle_of_Steel" target="_blank">The Riddle of Steel</a> by Driftwood Publishing.  (Alas, Driftwood itself is functionally dead due to medical issues, but the fans have self-organized a "buy PDFs and we'll send Driftwood the money" <a href="http://www.trosfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=115" target="_blank">system</a> to both keep it available and help out the publisher.)   Read its section on Spiritual Attributes, be puzzled, and then play the system for a while and feel the lightbulb come on inside your head.  To generate its analogue in D&D, I might do something like this:- All monster defenses are +3, and monster HP are +level (double for elites and 4x for solos); all monster attacks are +3 to hit, and add 1/3 level to damage.  All skill check and attribute check DCs are +3 as well.  (Or do this by subtracting from the PCs, whichever fits your style of game prep better.)- Each PC has five Character Facets.  Each of these is an aspect of the character which drives them - a higher goal, a love or a hate, faith in a deity, a destiny, etc.  Each has a score from 0-5.- Every time you make a significant decision in-game which is clearly and obviously driven by one of your facets, the GM increases the facet score by 1 at the end of the encounter.  If the facet score is 0-1, you basically get the point for the asking, you just have to point out how.  If the score is higher, the DM sets a higher bar; to raise a 4 to a 5, you have to really have done something foolhardy or extreme (or extremely moving) because you were driven to do so.- When making a roll whose clear purpose is to pursue, fulfill, or respond to one of your facets (basically, the facet is one of the reasons for the roll), you add the facet score to your roll, and half the score to your damage.  If multiple facets apply (you're killing your longtime nemesis, while in your signature blind rage, because he's defiling your god's altar with your true love's entrails), they stack.- You can expend facet points into a Characterization pool on your sheet; do this whenever you like.  To level up, you need both sufficient XP and Characterization points equal to your level in the pool; this empties the pool.Try this, and I guarantee you'll enjoy the results.  Casual combat becomes fatal; you fight when it matters, and when it really matters you kick ass.  It's a very different style of game; I wouldn't use it in my current D&D game because I'm enjoying the more laid-back, tactical style of D&D after playing TRoS for a couple campaigns back-to-back.  But it'll give you RP benefits like you wouldn't believe.  (Or, of course, just play TRoS and see what I'm talking about.  As a bonus, the combat system was designed by an accredited Senior Free Scholar (effectively a black-belt or top-mastery level) in the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts - it's AWESOME.)-------------Another trick along a similar vein is an idea called Fan Mail, from a game called <a href="http://www.dog-eared-designs.com/games.html" target="_blank">Prime Time Adventures</a> (where you play out episodes of a TV show).  Also an awesome game.To port fan mail into D&D, you'd do it like this:- At any time, when any player is about to make a hit roll or be attacked (but before the die roll in either case), one of the other players - never the one who is acting, and never the DM - may give them a free +1 to the roll or to the defense targeted.  This is understood to be a player-judged reward for cool roleplaying moments, or integration of background, or an awesome stunt.  Any given player may only add to a given die roll once, but if other players agree they can do so as well.- However, every time this bonus is given, the DM gets a token.  He can save up the tokens as long as he wants, and spend one or many on any encounter as the encounter begins.  Each token is worth equivalent XP to one minion of the party's current level; this is "free" XP toward his XP budget in that encounter.  He gets to add monsters worth that much and/or level monsters up by that much, and the party doesn't get extra XP for this increase in danger.Once again... you will see cool things happen in your game because of this.  It prompts players to appreciate each other's cool stuff rather than resent it, and yet to restrict that appreciation to when it's real, because there's a price.--------------Basically, when rewarding cool backgrounds and good RP, it's a difficult design puzzle to do so in a socially beneficial way.  Most of the "naive" ways to do it, many of which run along the lines of your proposed house rule, lead to problems in the end, or at best do as much harm as good.  But it's not a problem you have to solve starting from nowhere; good solutions do exist.  Those are just two examples out of a wide field of others.</blockquote>

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