OK, let's say you want to encourage character development in your campaign and let's say you're willing to reward players for doing this. What form of reward are you willing to give? XP, loot, reroll tokens, bonus feats; there are a number of options. What I'm wondering is what other DMs may have used and liked in the past.
Go carrot and stick (that's what I did when I started Savage Tide):
If you don't have X (a minimum amount of info you want for character development) by the time the game starts, you get half XP until it's in DM possession.
If you're the first player to get in a good background, you get a bonus.
If you're submission is the best of the batch, you get a bonus.
I used character points (analogous to flaw/advantage points) that the player could spend on various things--points could get him a bonus in GP, XP, bonus feat, alternate (possibly LA +1) race, etc.
All players responded well and I eneded up with 4 well-developed characters (and so didn't have to use the stick portion of the above solution)!
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Depends. I'm not fond of giving away loot/magic items 'for free'. If you have a generally inexperienced group, I would say that giving them an XP bonus is good because it's a tangible reward... Their growing skill is giving them real opportunities for character advancement. Also, definitely explain why they are getting a bonus. "Way to be in character! That's how I think a halfling druid would act."
If they are a more experienced group that you already know can role-play, but just slip into roll-play, I would use reroll tokens/hero points/action points (whatever name you want to use). Giving them xp bonuses might just be inducing them to be thinking "If we kill the next three encounters, I'll be leveling up!"
Feats are something close to sacred (i.e. they can have a big freakin' impact on your campaign) and I wouldn't give them away lightly.
Just my thoughts.
I like your suggestion of 're-roll tokens' as a bribe to the players. I'm fond of action points and similar things that let the players enjoy the limelight while they have it without worrying so much about falling on their face just because of a bad die roll in the middle of their plot moments.
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I had some friends that used "fate points" (before that action point stuff).
They used to gamble fate points and wishes in eachothers' games. They'd bet football games, or they'd give fate points for snacks.
"I really want that Reese's."
"Do you want it....a wish worth?"
"Gaah! You fiend! I'm through talking to you.
Okay. 5 fate points."
I give out XP bonuses for good roleplaying, in the hopes of encouraging more of it. Usually, at the end of a session, I issue a base XP award, then go to each of the players and give them a bonus (or subtraction), along with why. "I liked the scene between you and Tebryn when you were arguing about why you couldn't change the past. Excellent roleplaying. An additional 500xp," or something similar.
well, I dont see it as bribery; that is what players should do to gms; bring beer. I encourage roleplaying by asking my characters to do write ups; have explained this before on other threads, it is more or less a journal that each character keeps much like a diary that has their ambitions and desires and thoughts on various topics; I reward this with exps. This helps the characters remember plots, sub plots; and micro threads as well as npcs and various groups. I cannot stress just how much this really can improve anyones game; this has become so popular with our group that it has spread to many other groups and games. Nobody liked it at first; but now my players do it for any game they play regardless of who is runnning it because it really enhances your players ability to get the role and feel of his character.
If characters follow a plot of sub plot thread in gaming then they typically get a game reward such as an item or perhaps a feat; this usually cannot be accomplished without much roleplaying.
I give spontaineous exps awards if someone makes a great pc decision or course of action or act of leadership or such.
IMC, each player gets give one other player an 'Inspirational' award each session (I'm doing sessional experience) worth 10 x level. And then at the end of the session, each player also casts a 'Pity' vote. Whoever wins the pity vote gets 15 x level bonus xp. In the spirit of being generous I don't split the Pity award if the vote is a tie. My players know that I use the Inspirational and Pity awards as a barometer of who I need to shift focus on and so vote honestly (at least I hope they are).
I also give 50 x level for a journal entry each session. The journal has no specific length - the only requirements are that when reading it I get a general sense of what happened last session and learn a bit more about the PC in question. The journal doesn't even have to be written - the first painted mini for the character counts, as do drawings, or anything else the player can think up.
Another 50 x level is rewarded if, before the last person leaves, my house is at least back to where it was before we started.
As you can see, I like to award lots of little bonuses. I think this is going to work well for this campaign.
STAP does this in two ways: it offers "regional" feats in the Player's Guide, with the recommendation that they be bonus feats, which at least gets the PCs thinking about what their character is like and where they're from, while the feats themselves aren't overly powerful compared to normal feats; and it uses affiliations from the Player's Handbook II in Dragon 348's Savage Tidings article, which further develops characters and gives them something to belong to, again without being overly powerful.
While either of these methods aren't going to get any overly deep characters by themselves, combined they are enough to give players a clear direction for their characters without having to do a whole lot of work (some might say it's actually fun to decide which bonus feat/affiliation you want) and also granting them some crunchy bonuses (though those bonuses aren't game-breakingly powerful).
The Forgotten Realms books have some detailed regional feats you can use/steal ideas from, and the PHII has a bunch of affiliations. Kolja Raven Liquette posted a good article on the D&D official website about character "dead levels" with some skills you can give the core classes on the levels where they don't earn anything new besides HD and saves and such. That's got some good ideas on perceptible bonuses that don't actually alter the character's power much.
For my two cents, I like the (somewhat underpowered but cool)regional feat idea and the idea of cool affiliations, because they give your players enough direction that, with some good DMing, they feel rewarded without feeling forced and the rest comes as the plot evolves. Just giving the characters a dice roll bonus now and then for acting out their characters is, combined with the above tactics, usually enough to get the ball rolling without breaking the game or awarding any extra EXP.
My reroll tokens were actually pretty popular, and could be beneficial in surprising ways. I had a player once whose character ended a session in a really bad way (trapped by a roper). I awarded "hero points" based on character development. The player brought two sketches of his character and some diary entries because he was so sure his character would bite the big one without a couple hero points to back him up.
I'm not proud, I'll take it.
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I use action points. I give them out for *really* outstanding roleplaying or custom-built miniatures or written backgrounds for the PC (I've given 3-4 in the last 2 years).
I use action points normally (UA), except I don't give out points every level, just the initial 3 plus what the players earn themselves.