PC vs. PC XP

[gunter uxbridge]

As the DM of this group, I have read all of the posts here and this is my ruling...

No XP for the fight. XP is meant as a reward to encourage the group to work together and overcome challenges as a group. PC on PC action is outside those bounds.

HOWEVER!!!!

If you read the character histories of these two, the conflict was well within the scope of role playing. A bonus for the RP aspect would not be out of line, though it will not be huge.

Although the actual role playing was a bit bloodier among the party than I am used to, they were still playing their parts, and I have every confidence that the issue will be resolved quickly. The fight was not personal or as a result of outside play interpersonal issues. It was a part of the game. Sometimes PCs just don't mesh right off the bat. I'm OK with that.

 

[Infiniti2000]

The fight was not personal or as a result of outside play interpersonal issues. It was a part of the game. Sometimes PCs just don't mesh right off the bat. I'm OK with that.

Do what you will. If your group enjoys PvP and metagaming, good for you. Most people don't like it and, more importantly, take aversion to it. This is why this issue is getting such a negative reaction here.

 

[Conaill]

My final decision for my future game, by the way, is to award XP if this situation occurs after a resolution has been reached. A PC fighting and beating a PC should learn from the encounter - you can spar with people all the time, but in a real fight, you learn the real differences in style.

So I feel XP is warranted, but I like the aspect that everyone is focusing on in the team aspect. Hence, I think I would award an ad hoc amount to everyone who participated in the encounter and RP'd to a good (i.e. team-building) conclusion.

XP is linked to overcoming challenges. "Getting along with your party members" is *not* a challenge (and even if it was - you obviously failed at it). No XP.

The PC's don't get to make up encounters of their own. The ranger doesn't get to say "I just went out to fight some random wolves in the forest - now give me my XP!" Likewise, the PC's don't get extra XP for getting themselves into an unnecessary interparty conflict and "resolving" it in a violent way. No matter how much roleplaying was involved leading up to that situation, there's no way it could be considered a "challenge" or an "encounter".

Now, if some BBEG managed to Dominate half the party and sic them on the other half, *that* is a challenge. And killing the Dominated PC's in this case could be considered "overcoming the challenge" and thus warrant XP to the survivors. Pretty poor solution to the challenge of course, as it's left half the party dead...

 

[Elrond Half Elven]

I don't think there should be any hard and fast rules about PVP and XP, each situation should be looked at by the DM and awarded (or penalised) according. I grew up with 2nd Edition, and I've included individual XP awards in 3E/3.5 before. In this situation I wouldn't award XP for the fight, but I’d maybe tempted to deal out a much smaller award for role-playing (obviously I've not seen both characters backgrounds and all the conditions which lead to the event). My reasons for this are:

Not all forms of Role-playing are expressed through Dialogue (although admittedly a substantial amount), characters actions could also be considered Role-playing.

freebfrost has already mentioned that the character has encountered violence when attempting to interact with 'civilised people' before (being stoned when approaching the local village), this could well have affected her vision of people.

I would only deal out this Rping Xp if this action truly fitted into the characters personality... this would require continuity on Freebfrosts part. This continuity could be broken with the character maturing, however I need to see a learning curve in the character- it's all character development.

Having said all this I strongly discourage PVP combat, however a little tension in the party does add another role-playing element. After all in real life not all work-mates get on with each other (friends don't also get along all the time).

I hope that made sense…

Hanx
Elrond

N.B. I disagree with people who have pretty much said "Your not playing your druid correctly"- its unto each player to decided what their characters personality is like and the DM to decided wither or not their meeting any requirements for there class. Of course if the players not meeting the strictures then the DM could limit the use of granted abilities.

 

[Plane Sailing]

As the DM of this group, I have read all of the posts here and this is my ruling...

Well done. Good to hear a nice, clear consistent ruling from the DM.

I hope the game goes well. Have you thought of writing up an account for the Storyhour forum?

Cheers

 

[freebfrost]

Well done. Good to hear a nice, clear consistent ruling from the DM.

I hope the game goes well. Have you thought of writing up an account for the Storyhour forum?

Cheers

For this game we do journal entries for bonus XP, so usually everyone chimes in with an entry from the point-of-view of their character. These are posted on our website.

I know I wouldn't have any issues with them being collected and reposted here. I'll ask the DM and the other players what they think about this.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[gunter uxbridge]

For this game we do journal entries for bonus XP, so usually everyone chimes in with an entry from the point-of-view of their character. These are posted on our website.

I know I wouldn't have any issues with them being collected and reposted here. I'll ask the DM and the other players what they think about this.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Go for it!

 

[irdeggman]

Well done. Good to hear a nice, clear consistent ruling from the DM.

I hope the game goes well. Have you thought of writing up an account for the Storyhour forum?

Cheers

I concur.

Good job. Way to promote role-playing and not reward behaviour that is contrary to party unity.

Hmm you know I believe this is pretty much what I said earlier - role playing award might be warranted (IMO same thing as an ad hoc award or at least under the same broad umbrella).

Key point is that the party needs to work together so that they can overcome the "real" obstacles and challenges awaiting them. . . .

 

[irdeggman]

Oooh, excellent point. I had forgotten that fact...

So would you agree with the question I posed to DanMcS? Given that there are leveled NPCs in the world who obviously do not gain XP from necessarily working in cooperation with a team (an assassin for example), is this something that you think can be worked into the way the game setting works or do you think that this is something that really can only be maintained for PCs to encourage them to work together?

A party can consist of a single individual (such as NPC assassins) but when there is a party - such as has been portrayed here then they function as a party and not as indidivuals fighting each other. Remember that all of the exp tables and rules in the DMG for awarding exp involve dividing by the number of party members.

If this was the initial meeting of the druid and the rest of the party - well that has the potential to be something else, but I don't know that situation. I am operating under the assumption the druid was a member of the same party as those she attacked.

 

[Ferrum]

freebfrost hasn't said anything to this effect, but if I had to go by the storyline I could see why a druid would take aversion to the ranger skinning the fallen wolf... I mean, the ranger and sorcerer had fallen, and yet they could be healed up and restored to full health. Unless the wolf was dealt quite a bit of damage, it was probably dying, but not actually dead yet.

If, as the druid, I felt that the wolves' attack on the children was done out of misunderstanding as opposed to malice, I would want to attempt to mend fences and impress upon the wolves that this was not acceptable behavior. Such actions would result in people hunting them, thus worsening the problem. All this after healing them, and bringing them back from near death (hopefully invoking some amount of reverance or at least gratefulness).

But then the overzealous ranger has to go and start skinning one? Before its even dead? ATROCITY!!!

Well, thats how I would have RPed it if I were the druid, and if I was the DM, I might have given a little RP xp, but only if I felt the group would feel its an acceptable one-time thing. Any future in-group melees would result in at least one of the characters becoming an NPC.