I find that if all I'm getting rewarded for is showing up, I tend to be less interested in what goes on.

Quote from: TonyLBI suspect that you mean "non-mechanical" rather than that second "OOC," but anyway, it's all cool.  I believe your way is cool.  I believe my way is also cool, in a whole different way.  We're good, yes?

Yeah, so long as you stop talking like you're a primary school teacher or social worker or something.

Quote from: James McMurrayWhat's the point in establishing character traits if they're never expressed?

That's the thing, develop-in-play folks establish character traits by expressing them in-game.

QuoteYou're not punishing the guy that didn't think up a good way to express his character's personality traits, you're rewarding the guy that did. Punishing him would mean he didn't get something he was supposed to get. Rewarding him means he gets something out of the ordinary.

Setting up the reward system to benefit one playstyle and not others inherently disadvantages the neglected playstyles. That's a penalty for not playing the game right in my book.

Quote from: James McMurrayI'll bet you dollars to donuts he really did mean "OOC." He doesn't strike me as a guy who tells characters in game to stop being disruptive assholes when Joe (a player) farts directly in Fred's (another player) face.

No, when that happens I giggle like a little girl.

Then I tell Joe to lay off Fred for a while and crack a window open.

Quote from: flyingmiceBut if all you are getting rewarded for is showing up, then you are also free to do what's fun, right?

That is true.  Flat rewards are cool.  Tailored rewards are also cool.  They're cool in different ways.

Are you slipping into a Winner-Take-All mindset, where tailored rewards have to defeat flat rewards (i.e. be clearly better in some or all cases) in order to be valuable?

Quote from: WarthurSetting up the reward system to benefit one playstyle and not others inherently disadvantages the neglected playstyles. That's a penalty for not playing the game right in my book.

So? IME every group will have one player whose playstyle does not click with the others in the group. As long as that playstyle is not disruptive things run smoothly. I see no reason why "rewards" should not given for what the majority does. Also traits are but one aspect of roleplaying. So a player who develops traits in game has other "roleplaying" opportunities to earn rewards.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: TonyLBThat is true.  Flat rewards are cool.  Tailored rewards are also cool.  They're cool in different ways.

Are you slipping into a Winner-Take-All mindset, where tailored rewards have to defeat flat rewards (i.e. be clearly better in some or all cases) in order to be valuable?

Nope. I use flat rewards or none, depending on the system.

-clash

Quote from: WarthurThat's the thing, develop-in-play folks establish character traits by expressing them in-game.

And expressing them earns you XP. I guess I'm confused about what the problem is.

QuoteSetting up the reward system to benefit one playstyle and not others inherently disadvantages the neglected playstyles. That's a penalty for not playing the game right in my book.

Like I said, a matter of perspective. I see it as rewarding some styles, you see it as punishing the rest.

For my current D&D game, I give out XP for overcoming challenges and accomplishing character goals, but it seems like GM fiat outside of anything irrelevant to combat. For my next campaign, I'll use something less nebulous (like xp for gp or any other more concrete and numerical measure of how greatly characters should be rewarded).

This varies quite a bit, depending on the game in question, but I'm generally not keen on awarding XP for OOC reasons (the quality of roleplaying, snacks, what have you). For Nobilis, I follow the usual "one character point per story" guideline, but will also grant an additional CP "dedicated" towards some purpose that a PC actively pursues during actual play: for instance, if a player wants his character to become immortal, he can reach that goal in half the time by playing out the research and investigations into the various means of transcending mortality.

I play D&D. When I DM, I give group XP for defeating monsters at the end of every encounter, and on-the-spot individual awards for clever ideas. We use the "hero points" idea from Arcana Unearthed as a reward for good roleplaying and clever one-liners and stepping up to fight the big bad even though it's gonna be a tough fight, etc.

Each of the guys who DMs has their own method designed to suit their idea for the campaign. My buddy Curtis gives XP for roleplaying in a chunk at the end of the session, calculates group XP based on CR challenges after each encounter, and gives hero points for wit and spunk. That's because Curtis loves the roleplaying aspect the most, and wants to encourage it.

My buddy Rob, our current DM, gives us group XP in a fat chunk at the end of each session, plus hero points. The size of the chunk depends upon how fast he wants us to advance our power, rather than the CR challenge or whatever.

I'm the only guy who gives small on-the-spot awards when I'm DMing, and my reason is that in the group, I'm usually the guy who proposes plans. They don't always get accepted, but I usually lay out the options and the other guys pick and modify things. So, when I'm DM, they sometimes get a bit passive and wait for a push. To counter-act that, I give them XP for coming up with a good idea. Seems to work pretty well.

Quote from: AlnagI don't use XP. I use the method mission accomplished = level up.

Pretty much this, but I may do an advancement mid game if events are reaching a climax and I want to pump the group up a bit. That's pretty rare though.

Quote from: TonyLBIt's not required.  It's fun.

I personally find that getting rewards also helps me focus:  I have a tendency to be pulled (a) toward what I find fun and (b) toward what gives me advantage in the game.  I find it relaxing to know that (a) and (b) will always be the same direction.

But that's just me.  Other people may find other strengths in the technique.

Gotcha, took me a while but I gotcha.

Doesn't work that way for me, people are indeed the coolest things.  Should by some odd chance I ever end up in a game with you though I'll seek to reward appropriately :-)

Quote from: PseudoephedrineI play D&D. When I DM, I give group XP for defeating monsters at the end of every encounter, and on-the-spot individual awards for clever ideas. We use the "hero points" idea from Arcana Unearthed as a reward for good roleplaying and clever one-liners and stepping up to fight the big bad even though it's gonna be a tough fight, etc.

Each of the guys who DMs has their own method designed to suit their idea for the campaign. My buddy Curtis gives XP for roleplaying in a chunk at the end of the session, calculates group XP based on CR challenges after each encounter, and gives hero points for wit and spunk. That's because Curtis loves the roleplaying aspect the most, and wants to encourage it.

My buddy Rob, our current DM, gives us group XP in a fat chunk at the end of each session, plus hero points. The size of the chunk depends upon how fast he wants us to advance our power, rather than the CR challenge or whatever.

I'm the only guy who gives small on-the-spot awards when I'm DMing, and my reason is that in the group, I'm usually the guy who proposes plans. They don't always get accepted, but I usually lay out the options and the other guys pick and modify things. So, when I'm DM, they sometimes get a bit passive and wait for a push. To counter-act that, I give them XP for coming up with a good idea. Seems to work pretty well.

Bugger, Pseudo nailed me (albeit not in a sexual sense to my knowledge).  We sometimes give out what we refer to as brownie points in my group, there's points you spend to modify a roll or whatever, drama points essentially but low key.

You get them (when we use them) as a matter of GM perogative usually for doing something cool or that makes the whole table laugh.

Actually, I don't think we do it anymore as the group makeup shifted and it became a less popular tool, but my principled stand against giving out rewards for behaviour at the table did just get rather holed below the waterline.

Ah well, at least they don't count towards advancement, I still don't like linking rewards and advancement personally.