Role-Playing Bonus XP

[Saladrex]

Hi all,

My DM gives extra XP to the best role-played character at the end of each session. What are the opinions of you guys about that? The main problem is when there are 2 or 3 good role-plays and only 1 guy will have the prize.
What do you experienced DMs do? Any good ideas to improve this "bonus system"?

Thanks

 

[Eternalknight]

I reward a bonus of +20% XP to the best role-player of the session, and +10% XP to any others that role-played well.

 

[Clint]

I found that giving rewards based on a percentage of what was earned that session was pretty uneven, since combat and success varies from session to session. In fact, roleplaying tends to happen more when there's not as much combat.

I give out 1/2 of one successful encounter's worth of xp to each character if they roleplayed well. For example, a 6th level PC who roleplays well gets 1/2 the XP awarded for a EL6 encounter. I think that it works out to be 4% of the XP needed for next level.

It's not much, but it adds up. Roleplaying well for four sessions might mean the character levels up a whole session ahead of his or her peers. Not bad.

 

[Xarlen]

I wouldn't give it to the best.

I have a standard RP XP. That's generally 100-200, if there's combat that day. Right now, my party's going through a murder mystery, and they're doing nothing *but* RP (Not that they mind). So, I'm not handing out Xp per session, but at the end of the adventure. Thinking of dolling about about 3,000.

 

[Altin]

As a Gm, I find that giving individual 'roleplaying' awards is one of those things that seems like a really good idea at the time but comes back to bite you in the rear down the line unless you balance it out of existance.

Unless the extra xp reward rotates reasonably regularly, what you will get is an xp gap developing between the 'good' roleplayers in the group and everyone else and you'll start getting the situation where they're leveling ahead of other people and that leaves things open for accusations of favouritism and feelings of bitterness. Also, people who never get the 'reward' or consistantly get the smaller rewards would probably not appreciate the weekly reminder that their Gm considers them 'weak' roleplayers.

The situation is improved a little (but not much!) by not making the extra rewards public knowledge but simply informing the recieving player privately. That way, the feeling of missing out by those who don't get it is reduced somewhat and people stay happier for longer.

But I would recommend that, if one feels compelled to give out this type of reward at all, to make it a 'group effort' reward which is shared equally rather than a prize which the players have to compete for. There is, after all, a difference between roleplaying and ham acting.

Yours,
Altin

 

[Saladrex]

Thanks all for the ideas.

One big detail I forgot: The winner of the "prize" is chosen by the other players (voting). What do you think of this? Should only the DM be able to judge role-play (based on the unknown background of the character to the other players) or this avoids the "favoritism by the DM" thoughts?

[]s

 

[Umbran]

Thanks all for the ideas.

One big detail I forgot: The winner of the "prize" is chosen by the other players (voting). What do you think of this? Should only the DM be able to judge role-play (based on the unknown background of the character to the other players) or this avoids the "favoritism by the DM" thoughts?

Voting among the players runs the risk of turning into a popularity contest, or otherwise hurting someone's feelings.

The simplest variant I've found to fix this is not to give a single "roleplay award" - that makes things too much like a competition between the players, which it isn't. If you give out a single reward, what happens if the best roleplay of the evening was between two PCs, and they both did amazing jobs? Award only one? Nonsense!

Instead, award any and all players who "advance the story" - do things outside of combat that gets interesting things happening at the table. That includes good role-play, but also includes being crafty, taking initiative, initiating new plots, and the like. The players usually soon find that the fastest way to do this is by interacting with each other - which then tends to even out the awards, since everyone is involved.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Well, what we do...

What I do is I give a Story Award to everyone that roleplays well (which is my entire group, I'm proud to say). Then there's an additional private vote for an extra story award, so the group decides who gets that extra XP. Seems to work well for me.

 

[Fenes 2]

In my campaigns, there is no individual xp, nor xp in the strict sense at all. All the PCs advance equally fast, i.e. whenever the group feels like it - roughly every 2 to 3 months - the PCs raise a level. The amount of combats does not matter, and neither does attendance. For example, If you had to spend 3 weeks in the army, your PC still advanced.
XP-costs for spells and items - so far nothing in that direction came up anyway - will be replaced by other balancing factors, if needed.

I cannot really understand why one should use individual awards - what I like about RPGs is that there is no competition, and no "winner".

 

[Tonguez]

I found that giving rewards based on a percentage of what was earned that session was pretty uneven, since combat and success varies from session to session. In fact, roleplaying tends to happen more when there's not as much combat.

What people give out XP for combat? <Sarcasm off>

Seriously though the XP for combat fallacy remains one of DnDs biggest flaws and so I give ONLY story rewards. Based on the uncovering new hooks or the reaching of certain Plot points in a storyline.

Bonuses for RP should be given to ALL good Roleplayers (not just one) and be done so based on a set citeria eg innovative skill use +250, Creative ideas +250, entertainment value +500 (that sort of thing)