Personally i dont like it exactly because it starts to lead players into making weird choices to level their stuff.
Playing a game where the GM does this on another system , you can be sure my "free" time and actions are all changed so that i use certain skills and not others...
Reminds of oblivion , it was better to walk around jumping or in stealth to level something , so you go ask , many will say they did exactly this.
Ofc , all deppends on the mentality of the players in the end.
I don't see this as so much a reward for just saying your character is sneaking everywhere to get extra experience at sneaking. This isn't like Skyrim where you would just sneak everywhere and gain a level. Something like that offers nothing to the game via roleplaying. It would be for describing a particularly epic use of the stealth skill to do something unexpected or heroic or whatever the DM designs as worthy of this bonus. Down time would have nothing to do with this unless you roleplayed the down time.
Yes ofc the GM is not some auto system that you can easilly trick , that isnt my point , my point is your very actions change to make sure you are using the skills you want the most.
For example really , on this table im playing , on current adventure we had to go to this "evil" town , full of vampires and slaves... So my group had to decide , we could go stealth/killing or try to go diplomacy/reason.
So we had to make a choice mostly , either we go to kill or we go to try and solve things with much less fighting.
I didnt really mind one way or the other here , so i mostly allowed the other players to make the call , but if we were using this system that wouldnt have been so , because even if i didnt care much , my char is mostly linked to charisma and social skills , so i would pretty much try all i could so we would go the social route and i had the chance to get more diplo... skill ranks.
This is just one case and it isnt the best example , but it shows my point , this system will make some players "run after" situations that allow them to lvl the skills they want.
Ofc , like i said above it deppends on the players.
PS: Yes , neither the GM nor any of us think a race should just be something in general , so while there are many evil vampires , there are also many neutral and even few good ones in said city. Which is the reason we could manage a diplo route.
Well, if you use skills to complete encounters instead of combat you get exp which eventually levels you up which gets you skills. I wouldn't give additional skill points for doing it as this skews the power base of the class, but that's me.
Pretty sure the Core Rulebook specifically mentions the option of awarding exp for good roleplaying. I wouldn't suggest it unless your whole group likes to roleplay as it's generally a bad idea to have members of the party at different levels. However, an emphasis on roleplaying with groups who enjoy it is a great idea.
In the end, it makes the most sense to play in a way that everyone at the table enjoys. So if everybody's happy then you really can't be doing it wrong.
Just to play devils advocate - why WOULDN'T the social...I don't see this as so much a reward for just saying your character is sneaking everywhere to get extra experience at sneaking. This isn't like Skyrim where you would just sneak everywhere and gain a level. Something like that offers nothing to the game via roleplaying. It would be for describing a particularly epic use of the stealth skill to do something unexpected or heroic or whatever the DM designs as worthy of this bonus. Down time would have nothing to do with this unless you roleplayed the down time.Yes ofc the GM is not some auto system that you can easilly trick , that isnt my point , my point is your very actions change to make sure you are using the skills you want the most.
For example really , on this table im playing , on current adventure we had to go to this "evil" town , full of vampires and slaves... So my group had to decide , we could go stealth/killing or try to go diplomacy/reason.
So we had to make a choice mostly , either we go to kill or we go to try and solve things with much less fighting.
I didnt really mind one way or the other here , so i mostly allowed the other players to make the call , but if we were using this system that wouldnt have been so , because even if i didnt care much , my char is mostly linked to charisma and social skills , so i would pretty much try all i could so we would go the social route and i had the chance to get more diplo... skill ranks.
This is just one case and it isnt the best example , but it shows my point , this system will make some players "run after" situations that allow them to lvl the skills they want.
Ofc , like i said above it deppends on the players.
PS: Yes , neither the GM nor any of us think a race should just be something in general , so while there are many evil vampires , there are also many neutral and even few good ones in said city. Which is the reason we could manage a diplo route.
Well sure , but the rest of the group isnt that good at it and end up leaving to my PC talking out pretty much any important discussion, you know , mostly we require diplo rolls often in this situation and im the one with high char and other bonus.
So i didnt want to push the adventure in this direction since it would make their PCs feel less useful and mine is still capable of fighting anyway , i dont mind only using the social skills on small parts.
Mostly my fun comes from doing insanely high performances , im quite sure next time i will manage to reach 100 with strings :P
The most that should be done is let them convert a useless trait that they may have lying around into the skill focus feat at whatever level is half way through the campaign, skill focus is already such a waste of a skill that a one time use of it isn't terrible when its replacing dumb abilities. Ranks and Abilities should still never be handed out but "because they aren't" isn't a reason to minmax skills or take skills your character doesn't need or wouldn't take (like a paladin of light taking stealth).