D&D 4E No Roleplaying XP in 4e

[BlindOgre]

WotC posted an excerpt about quest XP... in the middle of it, there's this:

"The Roleplaying Reward

I’ve seen a lot of games (both in early RPGA and home games) that gave XP for good roleplaying. By good roleplaying do I mean the quality of your character acting? The problem with the roleplaying reward is this: You’re almost always going to give out the maximum to everyone at the table. Why? Because telling someone that they didn’t do a good job of roleplaying in a game where everyone is there to have fun seems overly judgmental, can create hurt feelings, and is… well… just downright crappy. It’s also so very meta and arbitrary that it begs questions about other forms of bonus XP. Why not give similar bonus XP for rule knowledge? Playing well with others? Bringing the most snacks?
--Stephen Radney-MacFarland"

Having been one of the RPGA judges in the old days who helped test Roleplaying XP award systems, I find this to be trite and inaccurate at best. Awarding XP for good RP can be encouraging and competitive in a friendly way - as long as the players know up front the basis for the reward and that not everyone gets a trophy.

I've been using Roleplaying XP awards for over 20 years and it works very well on many levels.

I was holding out a faint glimmer of hope for 4e, but this just snuffed that out.

Thoughts?

 

[Khuxan]

I was holding out a faint glimmer of hope for 4e, but this just snuffed that out.

Thoughts?

No one's going to stop you from handing out RP XP if you want to. I don't see how this would snuff out anything.

 

[Mort_Q]

Thoughts?

If they work in your group, use them anyway.

 

[baberg]

I was holding out a faint glimmer of hope for 4e, but this just snuffed that out.

Thoughts?

That's all it takes for you to completely dismiss a new set of rules before you've even read them? A mouthpiece saying "There is no default rule for rewarding XP for in-character roleplaying"?

I'm not sure you really want to know my thoughts on the subject.

 

[DandD]

I am glad to not play in groups that award "roleplaying" XP at all. I consider games that have explicitely written how to award advancement points for "roleplaying" to be inferior and making the game experience poorer for everybody. That was so in The Dark Eye 3rd edition, and it's still so in Shadowrun. The players can roleplay and have fun as much as they want. Also, there is even less logical reasons why a character who acts like the player (the one guy or gal who created the character by the way, you know?) wanted anyway suddenly gets better when he gains a level-up, just for being himself.

The only way roleplaying XP-awards could be justified would be if the GM handed out prepared character-sheets with detailled behaviours of the character to the players, and the players have to act "correctly". Only then would judging "roleplay" performance make sense.

But such games I wouldn't even touch with a ten-foot pole. If one really wants to perform before an audience, learning to be a stage-actor or making a movie would be a far sensible choice.

I am glad to know that D&D 4th edition will not support the dumb idea of "roleplaying XP"-awards.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's not that it lacks XP for role-playing. You get XP for skill-challenges (which involve heavy RP) and quests (which have RP elements) as well as combat (which ALSO has room for plenty of RP, I'm not sure why so many people think that it's either-or.)

It's that the DM isn't encouraged to award XP to his favorite method-actor at the table.

Fitz

 

[KidSnide]

Because telling someone that they didn’t do a good job of roleplaying in a game where everyone is there to have fun seems overly judgmental, can create hurt feelings, and is… well… just downright crappy. It’s also so very meta and arbitrary that it begs questions about other forms of bonus XP. Why not give similar bonus XP for rule knowledge? Playing well with others? Bringing the most snacks?

Having been one of the RPGA judges in the old days who helped test Roleplaying XP award systems, I find this to be trite and inaccurate at best.

I agree with you that it's trite, but I also think it's extremely accurate. XP should be a method of tracking in-game progress, not a reward for giving other people a good table experience.

 

[sirtayls]

We've done something slightly different - instead of roleplaying XP, we have done 'group XP' for good roleplaying, which is kept track by pennies (DM sees good roleplaying, he drops a penny in front of the screen). Each penny is worth so many XP, which is then added and divvied up at the end of the session.

I've also used glass tokens as rewards for good roleplaying - giving out certain colors meant certain things (such as a free re-roll on a d20, +1 to a saving throw result, etc.)

Taylor

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Please show me the codified rules for roleplaying XP in 1e,2e,3e, or 3.5e.

Thanks.

BTW, old school RPGA amateur thespianistic roleplaying? Ick. Do Not Want.

 

[FadedC]

The article perfectly mirrored my own experience both in home games and living games. I've never felt comfortable saying "bad roleplayer no XP for you" to my friends. And it was rare to find a living campaign adventure that didn't get max xp awards unless the DM had an axe to grind.

I have no problem believing there are rare people who made it work, but the rules should not be designed around them.