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I just don't give out XP. Players level their characters when I tell them to. Solves the whole issue. Players that like to RP will, and will probably be rewarded in game as a result via gaining additional information from their contacts or working out creative solutions to problems presented and such. Or by generally having fun RPing. Theoretically the people you game with are your friends, or at least people you like, and I don't believe in penalizing my friends because they prefer combat encounters to social ones or aren't top notch actors.
I don't give out role played experience because it is subjective. Who am I to tell the players how to role play? I do give out xp for using skills for overcoming obstacles and I give out story awards.
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- Reward only good players - bad players get only XP for encounters?
Let me know!
Thank you!
I cant say I like the sound of this. What is good roleplaying and what is bad roleplaying? Unlike encounters this is very subjective and might not be fair to your players. Another problem I see is players acting a certain way they believe to be rewarded and avoiding other RP opportunities because they wont be rewarded.
Personally I dont even use XP anymore and my games have only been better for it. My players are more interested in the story and less interested in "If we kill this it will be worth big time XP!!!" Your proposed system I believe will affect your game in a similar way.
Edit: Ninja'd by Ringtail :)
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We also don't level by xp anymore, we either use leveling points if its an AP, or I semi-keep track and then somewhere appropriate storywise and achievementwise, they level (as in our Kingmaker game currently). When I did use roleplaying xp, I use to divide xp up into 5 groups:
Roleplaying XP- awarded for selecting and maintaining and accent, doing something within character that wasn't always the most advantageous, acting out a negotiation or scene in an adventure, etc. The awards were not so much about quality as making the effort.
Monster XP - awarded for defeating encounter (not not necessarily killing).
Story awards XP - awarded for things like, rescuing the hostages, defeating the BBEG, stopping the bandit activity in the woods near town, etc.
Party unity xp - taking the time to help a downed teammate or uncrippling someone hurt by a spell vs using your actions to directly kill monsters always, working together to support the group
Great idea xp - this was a special award for a really cool or appropriate action or use of spell that only came up once in a while. Like grabbing your shield on a hill and sliding down into the enemy with an overrun, an innovative solution that was unexpected to a tricky puzzle, etc.
Because I wanted to encourage roleplaying and story advancement over hacking monsters and looting, I weighted the roleplaying, and story awards to be probably 65% of the total XP, with encounter xp making up the other 35%. Great idea and party unity xp were sprinkled in as bonus xp.
Because of this system, the group did not get full xp for killing monsters, which I told them up front when we started the games. Overall, they got more exp this way with all the awards, so people were happy. I added the party unity xp in because I had one party where everyone except the cleric was selfish and he was always trying to help everyone who often left him hanging it there was something else to their benefit. After he gained an extra level over them from the accumulation of these awards, the party started becoming more cooperative and worked together.
I don't give out role played experience because it is subjective. Who am I to tell the players how to role play? I do give out xp for using skills for overcoming obstacles and I give out story awards.
+1
The players' accomplishments earn the party experience; roleplay will be required regardless of an XP reward. I expect my characters to roleplay in one of three ways:
- Narrate their charater's attempts and dialogue in third person. Whether they use actual dialogue or paraphrase is usually not an issue.
- Narrate in first person. Again, dialogue of paraphrasing are both viable options.
- Switch on thespian mode and act everything out. I don't run LARPs, but players that are comfortable with them tend to appreciate this approach.
I just don't give out XP. Players level their characters when I tell them to. Solves the whole issue. Players that like to RP will, and will probably be rewarded in game as a result via gaining additional information from their contacts or working out creative solutions to problems presented and such. Or by generally having fun RPing. Theoretically the people you game with are your friends, or at least people you like, and I don't believe in penalizing my friends because they prefer combat encounters to social ones or aren't top notch actors.
Same. Did away with XP recently. Haven't regretted it yet.
I suck at roleplaying. I'm working on it, but I sick. I enjoy the system mastery aspect of Pathfinder.
Why should I be punished?
I see having every one be at the same level to be very important for a GM.
I give out XP to anyone who contributes to a roleplay encounter, for good or ill.
I suck at roleplaying. I'm working on it, but I sick. I enjoy the system mastery aspect of Pathfinder.
Why should I be punished?
I see having every one be at the same level to be very important for a GM.
Or to see it another way: what if you're character is naturally quiet, or doesn't say the right thing most of the time, or any other number of characteristics that are common in the world?
If you are a naturally quiet person and you play a naturally quiet character, is this good or bad roleplaying when you don't speak up?
I give out RP XP for acting with your alignment, for staying in your background as you gave it to me, and for furthering your character. I also give it out for overcoming RP challenges (I assign an RP challenge rating, and if you succeed, you get RP Experience). If the group does so, they split it, just as if it were a trap in a dungeon. If they flub it up, they lose exp.
I'm playing in a game now where the GM does not give out xp for roleplaying, and I really really hate it. The GM has us Rping a bunch of stuff, and there are sessions where it's all RP, and nobody get's any experience and it's grindingly slow to level because of it. *sigh* Very frustrating, since it devolves the game into hack and slash if you want to grow your character.
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I only give role-playing awards when the players use role-playing to overcome a challenge that would normally grant encounter XP, and just like encounter XP the reward is shared by the whole party.
If the party encounters an ogre and the Fighter kills it while the rest of the party just watches? The whole party gets XP.
So if the party encounters an ogre and the Bard talks it into moving on to greener pastures and leaving them be while the rest of the party watches? The whole party gets XP.
But I never reward one player for being better at improvisational acting than another player. That seems entirely unfair to me.
I only give role-playing awards when the players use role-playing to overcome a challenge that would normally grant encounter XP, and just like encounter XP the reward is shared by the whole party.
If the party encounters an ogre and the Fighter kills it while the rest of the party just watches? The whole party gets XP.
So if the party encounters an ogre and the Bard talks it into moving on to greener pastures and leaving them be while the rest of the party watches? The whole party gets XP.
But I never reward one player for being better at improvisational acting than another player. That seems entirely unfair to me.
I require skill checks despite how good your role playing is, so I guess it's more like XP for a skill challenge.
When it comes to leveling systems like Pathfinder, I do not like handing out different amount of xp to different players. I think they need to lv at the same time and all be the same lv otherwise it makes more work for the GM.
Recently a friend and I discuss a system that he has started to use that works with most systems. Whenever a player entertains him (through rp, situation, ooc comment) or impressed him (giving rp a good effort) he gives them a poker chip. Chips are exchangeable for a pluses to the d20 rolls on a 1 for 1 bases.
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Hopefully you're playing with grown-ups - which means, it's not your role to educate them. It's the same like DMs who look for tricks to bash munchkins - if the DM (or someone else) has a problem with anyone (in this context, a minor problem: "you don't RP well"), he should talk directly to the person.
Players are not to be educated and especially they are no dogs of pavlov (exp triggers good role playing)
In some other systems (I grew up with The Dark Eye and in TDE 4e, levels are only a measure), level differencies aren't that big of a deal, in d20 only one level difference can be quite important (especially at low levels) and if the characters are at different levels, there'll be bad mood at the table
I just don't give out XP. Players level their characters when I tell them to.
+1
I give out RP XP for acting with your alignment, for staying in your background as you gave it to me, and for furthering your character. I also give it out for overcoming RP challenges (I assign an RP challenge rating, and if you succeed, you get RP Experience). If the group does so, they split it, just as if it were a trap in a dungeon. If they flub it up, they lose exp.
I'm playing in a game now where the GM does not give out xp for roleplaying, and I really really hate it. The GM has us Rping a bunch of stuff, and there are sessions where it's all RP, and nobody get's any experience and it's grindingly slow to level because of it. *sigh* Very frustrating, since it devolves the game into hack and slash if you want to grow your character.
I've gamed with those GMs before. I don't like it either. The easiest solution is to just grant XP for overcoming a challenge whether it's done through combat or roleplaying. My players often find roleplaying solutions even though I don't give them anything extra for it.
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As much as the grognard in me missing adding up XP, the new way of story point leveling is a much better system for the flow of the game, especially if everyone is older or has limited time at the gaming table. You can level up at the end of sessions away from the table or right before the group breaks.
It also is very convenient for groups like mine, which has 10 players. This large a group means we are usually missing 1-3 players, and its never the same 1-3. If you were using the old XP method, and you miss a couple key sessions, you are now a level or so behind everyone else.
Also, we have players in the US Navy, who go to sea or training for 3-4 months, and then return. Since everyone stays the same level, even if they miss months, when they return, they are the same level as everyone else. All they miss out on is the character development time.
For the GM, its convenient because players don't fret about sidestepping encounters or letting monsters get away because it will reduce their XP, which is rather counter-intuitive to how their characters would feel. Also, everyone remaining the same level is very helpful when plotting CL's of encounters.
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I actually DO hand out additional role-play XP.
Essentially, I start with a base of 500 XP per session. This can be reduced if we break early or if it's a particularly encounter-heavy session with little actual role-playing, since the encounter XP will off set it, anyway.
But I do award an additional 50-100XP if a player comes up with a novel solution to a problem, or if they find opportunities to play to their characters' alignment/backstory that is not immediately presented to them in the story.
I don't believe in penalizing anybody, but I do feel seeking out role-play opportunities should offer an XP reward the way seeking out an encounter opportunity would.
I suck at roleplaying. I'm working on it, but I sick. I enjoy the system mastery aspect of Pathfinder.
Why should I be punished?
I see having every one be at the same level to be very important for a GM.
BECAUSE YOUR HEAVING BADWRONGFUN!!!!!!!!1oneeleven
;P
I actually DO hand out additional role-play XP.
Essentially, I start with a base of 500 XP per session. This can be reduced if we break early or if it's a particularly encounter-heavy session with little actual role-playing, since the encounter XP will off set it, anyway.
But I do award an additional 50-100XP if a player comes up with a novel solution to a problem, or if they find opportunities to play to their characters' alignment/backstory that is not immediately presented to them in the story.
I don't believe in penalizing anybody, but I do feel seeking out role-play opportunities should offer an XP reward the way seeking out an encounter opportunity would.
But you're not playing Amber. You're playing Pathfinder, which is a rules-heavy system with a focus on combat. Only rewarding role playing, which is only one aspect of the game seems wrong.
So, I submit to you that you must award extra XP for players who master the system. Who can come up with optimised characters. Extra bonus XP for overdrive min-max power gaming!
I don't give out roleplay XP. The players level when I say they level. I do give out extra hero points for good game play(good role-play, clever ideas, etc)
I'm playing in a game now where the GM does not give out xp for roleplaying, and I really really hate it. The GM has us Rping a bunch of stuff, and there are sessions where it's all RP, and nobody get's any experience and it's grindingly slow to level because of it. *sigh* Very frustrating, since it devolves the game into hack and slash if you want to grow your character.
That's why I use a flat XP system now. I like the sense of advancement, and I like how players who show up more regularly advance slightly faster, but for any players who show up ... 20k XP. Period.
I've had entire game sessions of roleplaying and entire sessions that were one ginormous combat. But either way, everyone's advancing.
I think it actually encourages roleplaying, because they no longer have to Kill Things And Take Their Stuff (TM) to advance - they advance just as well having a conversation with the isolated tribe of dwarves they just found and helping them spruce up their dismal living quarters.
In starwars we used to give out 100xp to the first player who could work "I have a bad feeling about this" in a legitimate sentence.
also we are going to start voting on the best player of the night and maybe a small xp bump, but I dont think you should ever penalize somebody for role playing badly that is just mean.
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I think it actually encourages roleplaying, because they no longer have to Kill Things And Take Their Stuff (TM) to advance - they advance just as well having a conversation with the isolated tribe of dwarves they just found and helping them spruce up their dismal living quarters.
Yeah I noticed that too. It seems like the story point or GM determined leveling point systems encourages parties to no longer get bent out of shape about flat out avoiding an encounter or giving up on getting into certain areas. They are more focused on character based agendas and less on the metagaming aspect to maximize experience. The difficult part is awarding bonuses to characters for excellent play, but between hero points and faction awards(assuming you use this system), it is possible to compensate them in other ways.
This was the only reason I ever gave out roleplay experience, so the XP hounds in the party would take the time and effort to attempt it now and then vs "using their time more efficiently" chasing monster-killing XP.
I give out some roleplay experience. In my opinion it does help to encourage more roleplay in the group. I get around the problem of one person getting significantly more exp by adding the roleplay exp to the total before I divide it among the players. No one gets left out just because they aren't very good at roleplay, but at the same time, no one complains when we have one of our periodic no combat sessions.