Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4578221" data-attributes="member: 54707">Good advice. I give out experience for anything a person would gain real experience from in real life. For instance for combat you'd gain combat experience, for problem solving, problem solving experience, for doing their job, job experience (in game terms, role-playing their profession), and so forth and so on. I don't differentiate, they just gain the same kind of experience points (usually, though they can exchange certain kinds of experience for other kinds of benefits) for both combat and non-combat achievements, in the form of points, but I don't discriminate either, favoring one kind of experience over another. Part of your job in a role-playing game is almost always combat of some form, but then again it is not the only form of experience you gain, so other forms of experience are valuable as well (diplomatic, social, problem-solving, survival, etc).So I give out experience for all kinds of things, well done, and penalize for all kinds of things done poorly, including poorly done combat. A poorly executed combat might earn a particular character negative experience or some other type of penalty. (Not for suffering bad die rolls, that is beyond the control of the player, but for making bad combat decisions.)But as far as developing a back-story, I think it an excellent exercise. I think however that the DM/GM should also participate as much as necessary in background development because without good and detailed information on the cultures involved, the world, the religions, the myths, the societies, and so forth it is very hard to develop a meaningful back, especially one that ties to and adheres to the general campaign storyline or storylines and general milieu in which the characters will play.That is to say, if the World is that of Victorian England (for example) unless you know exactly what Victorian England is like then making up a back for an Indian Shaman who has never been to England won't be of much benefit. Such a character will be a fringe character with little if nay direct relationship to the culture in which he must operate. But if the player can becomes in some way deeply immersed in the structure of the world in which he operates then he can devise a character that not only reflects that world, but is an interesting and natural part of it.What I mean is that when players make up character back-stories give them as specific a set of guidelines and cultural background information as possible and they can then start to weave together the threads of a character that will not only make sense but will also fit naturally into the environment in which they must operate.</blockquote>

Verification