Role-Playing Bonus XP

[Xeriar]

D&D does not lend itself to RP awards the way point-buy systems do.

Even still, it's good to reward things that make the session more enjoyable. The party in one D&D game I was in spent a whole hour around a coffee table (we had just burned through three heavy-combat sessions, and a few more were looming on the horizon - we needed a brather)

We had a riot. Too bad we didn't actually start one, that'd have been fun...

 

[Vocenoctum]

I give out XP as follows;
monster xp (per DMG)
a roleplaying bonus (50Xlevel per session, more if you risked something to stay IC, otherwise the bonus is for staying IC consistantly)
Deed bonus (300Xaverage party level split among the group. More for major events. This is not earned every session, only when something occurs that solves a particular problem in the adventure.)

 

[Crothian]

I actually lump all the XP into one thing. I don't say such and such an encounter is going to worth X xp, becasue it's impossible to know exactly how challenging the encounter will prove to be. I also feel the PCs need to advance at a certain place, so at the end of each sesion I give out an amount that reflects this progression. Now if the players have a good day, they will get more then anticipated just like if they have a bad day they will get less. By good and bad I mean role playing and being in character.

 

[Fenes 2]

It doesn't seem that way to me. Even if you don't give out role playing awards, characters usually have to advance the story, fight or sneak past monsters, and at a bare minimum, survive, in order to gain levels.

I must agree here. The "DM thinks you deserve a level now" method also has mechanical problems since D&D has a number of spells and item creation feats which cost experience points. If experience points are never quantified, there's no way to quantify the sacrifice that casters make to scribe scrolls, enchant armor, etc.

snip

Well, I quantify the sacrifice, or rather, I decide how something has to be balanced if an item creation feat would be taken. Normally, that would mean that the item creating PC would not lose xp, but the rest of the PCs would be compensated to balance the result. I may even look up how much xp the item created is worth, and dish out matching items, if that is necessary to balance the game.

Since the DM controls everything, I do not think it is wrong for him to decide when the party levels, especially not if the players have some say in that as well.

In my campaigns, my highest priority is for everyone to have fun. I don't use CR and encounters, I just aim for a pleasant evening. If everyone had fun, then the session was a success, no matter if the PCs slaughtered an army of fiends or just hang around at a ball "doing nothing".

If "DM says you level" sounds too strong, then see it like a set of house rules: There is only story award XP in my game, XP is dealt to all PCs equally, and only when a new level is reached, and items do not cost xp - the whole party advances roughly equally in gear, no matter if you make it yourself, or if you find or commission it.

 

[Saladrex]

Thanks!

Ok, thanks all for the ideas and experiences, I'll send them to my DM and Group, and for sure we will get a good reward system for RP.

[]s

 

[randcortin]

One thing about experience for Role-playing is that it's totally subjective. What may be role-playing to one may be just plain cowardice to another. For example: my group is in a dungeon fighting some home-brewed monsters (called Empties) and at one point my character sees a portal open and sees the DM's arch-villain, a Vampiric Minotaur, on the other side directy his army of empties into the portal coming into the room. Now I'm the only one who can see this (I'm standing in the doorway) so I let out a call of "Vampiric Minotaur!" and a friend's character, Samnell is his ENworld name, he's playing a halfling who's been taught to fear things bigger than him, hears about a minotaur, and decides to run. It is completely in-character for a halfling to run from something that scares the living hell out of him, so he runs, as does another halfling and an elf druid.

Anyways, the other three people in the party are cut off and have to fight. When an opeing appears, I take the chance and run; the other two, a fighter and a rogue, stay and defeat the remaining enemy and close the portal with his death. We're all third level characters, save for Samnell's, who is second, and the two that stayed behind and fought was awarded 400 bonus experience for "superior roleplaying". Which annoys the heck out of Samnell, for his character ran as a matter of role-playing, and even died soon afterwards in the name of role-playing. He didn't get any experience. So the conclusion that he came to was that the DM considers suicidal and/or insane behavior as roleplaying, while cowardice is its own reward. That said, can you see why role-playing experience is an iffy subject?

 

[bwgwl]

That said, can you see why role-playing experience is an iffy subject?

i totally agree. i've seen DMs give out bonus XP on the basis of who was the better "actor," if you know what i mean. now some people are more outgoing, talkative, and dramatic than others. using something like that as one of the sole criteria for bonus XP is pretty close to discriminating against shy people...

 

[randcortin]

Let me specify that I am not against role-playing experience in general. If, at the end of the session, the DM awards 100 XP to everyone who stayed in character, made in-character decisions, and limited metagame thinking, I'm all for it. But even then, the DM has to be careful, and has to have a good idea of the PC's personalities, to see if they really remained "in character."

 

[Leopold]

at the end of every session i had out paper to all the players and tell themn "Vote for the best roleplayer". That leaves the handing out of xp and choose who is hte best roleplayer to the PC's. That way it's completely decided by THEM and not me. Gives them incentive to do well to impress the others.


I do the 50xp/highest level of the PC in the party. in the case of tie i divide the xp beetween the 2 winners..