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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5690647" data-attributes="member: 92305">I don't think I'd give an XP penalty, but I routinely award good ideas and exceptional roleplaying with XP. A player that uses his noggin and RP's well will always get a little more (sometimes a lot more) XP than a player who doesn't contribute to the game as much.    I'm not an ogre about it. If somebody struggles, I'll help them out--maybe even make some suggestions. I don't want someone saying, "Hey, my Handle Animal is 11. I should know a lot about that." I want the player to use his head and not use the skill check as a crutch. Usually what I do is just have the player describe what he's doing. Player: "I'm going to use my Handle Animal skill." DM: "To do what?" Player: "I want to use the wild horse for my ride." DM: "OK, how are you going to do that?" Player: "What do you mean?" DM: "How are you going to get the wild horse to allow you to ride him?" Player: "Hmm... I'm going to approach him slowly, with my hands open." DM: "That's good. What else?" Player: "I'm going start using words like 'Easy...easy, boy, easy' in a soft, soothing tone." DM: "That's gotten you up to the horse. He's staring at you out of the side of his head, and he's snorted a few times. But, he hasn't bolted. What do you do now." Player: "I'm going to calmly put my hands on him, pet him a bit, talk to him, all with the soothing voice." DM: "That's good. Make your roll."     I enjoy that type of experience much more than just having a player say, "I'll use my Handle Animal skill!"  I also find that players, when forced to play this way (It's amazing how fast even a good player will get lazy and just want to make a skill roll.), tend to come out of the scenario "gettign into" the game more, having a deeper, richer, more fulfilling roleplaying expereince. I find that this type of gaming "invests" the player more in the gaming universe. Depending on the situation, I will sometimes make the roll myself, not letting the player know the outcome, roleplaying the results. For example, instead of having the player roll in the above example, I might just roll the character's skill check behind the screen and then roleplay what I see. If the check is a failure, then I might have the horse buck when the character attempts to ride him. Or, I might have the character climb up and move a foot or two before the horse starts bucking. Or, I might even have the horse, all of a sudden, get spooked and trot away--all just depending on how the role play goes.</blockquote>

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