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Necomancer
2006-12-24, 11:12 PM
Have you ever had a moment in a game where a player did something that the DM saw worthy of bonus XP because it was either very clever or very amusing? I've had a few myself, and am intrested in others. My latest one happened when a PC who was a undead rogue that knew little about the world was studying in a library. She read a book called how to serve man, and later a book called "The adventures of Quickie the Lobster and the evil giant kraken."

The bonus XP moment came when a NPC showed up and asked the PC about what she learned today. Her reply was:

<Galatea> "I have learned the origin of the common verb structure, the history of this school, seventeen recipes for humanoids, and why lobsters should not forget their umbrella despite the fact that they live entirely underwater and thus seem, on the surface of it, to not require one."

I figured this was worth bonus XP, especialy after another player said "He should get bonus XP for that".

Hario
2006-12-24, 11:26 PM
Well I'm unsure if this was bonus xp for doing something to DM wasn't expecting or XP for overcoming a challenge/defeating something (it could have been intelligent for all I know...) In my old D&D campaign we were in a nordic setting, and I had a lvl 9 Sorcerer who was essencially the party leader at that point. We were sent on a mission to destroy the son of Sultur and stop the forging of the weapon that would eventually destroy Frey. So we get there in the obvious fire pit of hell (not litteral for nordic setting cuz then it'd be cold...) I fly by everything and just run up and sneak up to the forge w/o being noticed. Everyone tries to catch up by killing everything in sight. My turn comes back up a light flashes in my head and I burst out laughing. I used dimension door on the sword (giant sword at that) and ripped it in two parts, not permenently destroying it but making it near impossible for repair. Needless to say the DM didn't plan on it and the sword failed its will save. I got around 2k bonus XP for it.

Krimm_Blackleaf
2006-12-24, 11:39 PM
Well, this hasn't happened, but I've had fantasies about it and it makes me chuckle. But in my campaign there is a half-succubus elf bard with charisma out the wazoo and max ranks and lots of synergy to diplomacy. So I'm thinking if they're fighting someone near bluffs or any kind of high cliffs she could seduce them enough to make them walk right off. Her being safe because of her wings. That, I would give XP to. Too bad it's not likely to happen.

Mike_Lemmer
2006-12-25, 12:06 AM
Anything that makes the GM spurt liquid out their nose is worth bonus XP.

Gralamin
2006-12-25, 12:11 AM
Well I'm unsure if this was bonus xp for doing something to DM wasn't expecting or XP for overcoming a challenge/defeating something (it could have been intelligent for all I know...) In my old D&D campaign we were in a nordic setting, and I had a lvl 9 Sorcerer who was essencially the party leader at that point. We were sent on a mission to destroy the son of Sultur and stop the forging of the weapon that would eventually destroy Frey. So we get there in the obvious fire pit of hell (not litteral for nordic setting cuz then it'd be cold...) I fly by everything and just run up and sneak up to the forge w/o being noticed. Everyone tries to catch up by killing everything in sight. My turn comes back up a light flashes in my head and I burst out laughing. I used dimension door on the sword (giant sword at that) and ripped it in two parts, not permenently destroying it but making it near impossible for repair. Needless to say the DM didn't plan on it and the sword failed its will save. I got around 2k bonus XP for it.


That is not possible RAW, but still funny. Us DM's allow funny things to not slow down gameplay.

unfortunately nothing has been worth bonus xp yet.

However the quote: "Robot push button" is the closest.

Jades
2006-12-25, 12:12 AM
I award most of the XP to players based off of Roleplaying.

Jade_Tarem
2006-12-25, 01:07 AM
I played a swashbuckler in a very low level game and had a spat with the local tavern keeper. He wanted something like 10 silver for the overnight stay in some crummy run-down upper room, and refused to be bartered down. My character left the tavern, climbed up the wall, broke into the room through the roof, turned the taps on and plugged the drains, then left the message "It's gonna take more than 10 silver to fix this" on the wall. The following situations followed this theme:

Me: What's on tap here?
Barkeep: What's dripping?

Needless to say, the other two party members burned down the inn and died after I left. The DM let them recreate exactly the same characters and keep playing. My DM awarded me bonus XP both for the situation above and when I blurted out:

"Wait a minute... all the party members except me died and were replaced with clones... I'm the main character!"

Dhavaer
2006-12-25, 01:24 AM
A 'courting' scene between two characters, during which a good bit of the backstory of each came out. It was on these boards, the only place I've really done all that much roleplaying.

JMalone
2006-12-25, 01:30 AM
I got bonus xp for making the DM's train of thought die.

So we were extremely high level, and I have just disenchanted a suit of artifact armor. My Tallfellow halfling wizard is standing there, looking smug and thinking about how good a trophy the non-magical armor would make, when the DM says a bright light glows, an elderly man in gold and purple robes stepping out.

I know that's Boccob, my wizard knows that's Boccob; hell, I'm fairly sure our Tank knew it was Boccob. However, instead of going bowing or paying respect, or even acknowledging "Hey, it's Boccob," this is what I do.

I look directly at him, and say, "Grandpa?"

Game got paused because the DM honestly didn't know how to react to that.

Seffbasilisk
2006-12-25, 03:40 AM
Well it wasn't d20, but in a LARP I'm in I played a twitchy, near-paranoid (only near, because when he's paranoid about someone it's always right), very neurotic human gunslinger. Just a man with a gun. In a space station with all sorts of interesting peoples who could throw fireballs, or turn into a bat at will and such... Anyway, Tyler (my character) was behind basically a wall of fire and another character was 'hated' on him (basically a mind-effecting thing which forces you to attack the designated player). The other character was a human repairman sent in to fix the machines before the station went haywire. A character that ran from every problem, and was absolutely terrified of Tyler. His name was Arnold.

Now when Arnold was hated on Tyler, the first thing he did, was pick up his fire-axe, and walking in front of the wall of fire say "Tyler. You've always been a bitch."

That precise momenent got him awarded bonus SP (like XP), even though he was horribly gunned down a second later.

GolemsVoice
2006-12-25, 05:32 AM
Hmm, our DnD DM had us encounter a sphinx, which, of course, guarded a brigde and asked us riddels. In a moment of brilliance, I solved the three riddles in no time, much to the suprise of everyone else. That earned me some XP.

NullAshton
2006-12-25, 08:43 AM
I got some XP for figuring out how to navigate a 11x11x11x11 hypercube. I even came up with a coordinate system!

My name is Wanda
2006-12-25, 09:04 AM
There was the time when my character managed to get away with killing the high priest of Hextor - after he'd been brought to trial for killing said high priest of Hextor.

He was in a zone of truth, had a completely useless will save, and there were several witnesses who could attest to the fact that he was the only person visible at the scene of the crime, and that he had announced to the general population that "Fleet Halfelven will win the day!" shortly before the priest was sent flying through his own blade barried by an explosive intensified lightning bolt. The nice people who were running the trial had even cast the zone of truth several times, to guarantee that I was going to admit to committing the crime.

... they would have killed me for sure had I actually committed the crime. As it was, I hadn't even actually made a move against the priest. My character had recently accidentally turned himself into a lich, and had discovered a few sessions previously that clerics could control him. Being a coward, he had decided to keep his distance while his friends (namely the invisible halfling wizard with the item of reduce person and the druid who was in hawk form) killed the priest. My character had a 27 charisma, though, so naturally he took the credit.

I ended up not only managing to get myself off the hook for the crime, but I did it without incriminating my friends and even managed to have the priest himself cop the rap. "He killed himself through the tyranny he inflicts on his people."

The DM was quite impressed. He had absolutely no idea how my character was going to get out of that. For some reason, he'd completely forgotten that my character was technically innocent.

Later on, I got the credit for killing the head of the country's army and their most powerful mage. To be fair, I actually had something to do with killing the head of the army - I kept on running away and healing myself while he and his horse pummeled me to death, thus helping my allies to kill him. I also got my very own riot, during which I took the credit for tearing down the court house and the temple to Hextor.

I think I may have even gotten useless bonus XP in the last session, where there was a battle between the champions of Heironeous and Hextor. I went out early and set up a sausage stand. I made a mint. :smallcool:

Khantalas
2006-12-25, 09:27 AM
I would award XP to a friend of mine for trying to heal his vampire friend with Cure Moderate Wounds (he was a bard with 7 Intelligence). I almost killed that vampire with CMW, what was he thinking, anyway?

NullAshton
2006-12-25, 09:32 AM
I would award XP to a friend of mine for trying to heal his vampire friend with Cure Moderate Wounds (he was a bard with 7 Intelligence). I almost killed that vampire with CMW, what was he thinking, anyway?

Actually, wisdom would be the defining attribute there, as an actual cleric with 20+ wisdom would never do that.

Though our cleric(favored soul) has hit one of our undead party members with a mass heal before. Good thing he was a ghost and came back after a few days...

Khantalas
2006-12-25, 09:39 AM
Well, he was a bard and had a Wisdom of 8. In addition to that Intelligence.

We also had a wizard with 5 Constitution.

Everyman
2006-12-26, 01:19 AM
We also had a wizard with 5 Constitution.
My group calls characters like that "pokeables".

I've gotten bonus XP on many occasions, but that's because my playing group is fairly liberal with handing out EXP. Not to liberal, but we appreciate any action that makes gameplay more fun. However, one time my group got experience out of pity...

We were fighting in a courtyard and it was literally filled with zombies. Some of them were rather large, tough zombies, but they were zombies none the less. In the 8 rounds of combat (we were only beginning characters), each member of the party (5) managed to roll at least 5 20s.
...
Against the only freakin' enemies we could have possibly encountered that would negate the usefulness of that roll significantly.

Our DM was laughing so hard at our "good" luck that he gave us 500 XP for justing rolling that "well".:smalltongue:

Necomancer
2006-12-26, 01:35 AM
My group calls characters like that "pokeables".

I've gotten bonus XP on many occasions, but that's because my playing group is fairly liberal with handing out EXP. Not to liberal, but we appreciate any action that makes gameplay more fun. However, one time my group got experience out of pity...

We were fighting in a courtyard and it was literally filled with zombies. Some of them were rather large, tough zombies, but they were zombies none the less. In the 8 rounds of combat (we were only beginning characters), each member of the party (5) managed to roll at least 5 20s.
...
Against the only freakin' enemies we could have possibly encountered that would negate the usefulness of that roll significantly.

Our DM was laughing so hard at our "good" luck that he gave us 500 XP for justing rolling that "well".:smalltongue:

I had a session in wich every character rolled a critical at least once. I was all happy since I was using a sycthe.

OzymandiasVolt
2006-12-26, 01:42 AM
In MURPG, I got bonus stones (like exp) when I managed to do a superior job of roleplaying my character being paralyzed, burned, and splattered across two walls and a ceiling (don't worry, he got better.)

Yeah, the DM made us earn the extra points we got by taking weaknesses. Too bad one of our party members was based entirely on the use of abilities that would cripple my own character. I think I got bonus stones for not complaining about it, too. <_<

Matthew
2006-12-26, 08:33 AM
Hmmn. Yes is the short answer, usually for good roleplaying or excessive risk taking for the good of the game.

Ravyn
2006-12-26, 02:52 PM
In games I've been and played in, it's usually come from really good ideas, though every now and then it's just a really priceless line.

Best time it ever happened to me was on these boards. I was playing Kitsa, a gnome--rare in that campaign--and the bard had been asking her for lessons in her language. Then we got into a fight with a couple of displacer beasts, and when it was over, the bard asked what she called those. To which Kitsa replied, "I'm not sure of the technical term, but I am sure at some point they have been known as (insert Gnomish syllables here, since I forget what exactly I used)--or, in your tongue, "What the heck IS it? Get it away from me!" Pity the game died.

Though I think everyone I've known has been hit at some point. One person usually gets it for good lines (one person during a rather loud moment once got one for giving a soap opera style "Next time"), another for clever plans--even my quietest player's been rewarded a couple times for being the only one who figured out a riddle. As a general rule, if it can wow me, there will be experience.

Fualkner Asiniti
2006-12-26, 03:01 PM
One time the party wizard was obcessed with fire (still is.) He saw an alchemy shop and though out loud:Fireball + Alchemy shop = big explosion...

You just have to give someone bonus exp. for that.

ExHunterEmerald
2006-12-26, 03:11 PM
Well, he was a bard and had a Wisdom of 8. In addition to that Intelligence.

Dude, you were playing Elan?
...pre Prestige Class, anyway. A side quest seems to have given him a brain.

Bonus experience, bonus experience...
No, I don't think so, but then I haven't played long.

I think the closest to getting it would be the time my Paladin saved Christmas the group, if only because it gets us rolling every time.
We'd all split up to do our things, and the paladin fell in with a psionic warforged with adamantium plating, and the psionic artificier.
The paladin, new to the game, had agreed to help find a stolen item, and decided the best way to do that was to ask a thief.
So, being a noble, he realizes he can draw their attention by offing his armor and parading around the slums with just his glamerweave noble's clothing and his sword.
A bit of searching and the three of us are accosted by four brigands. I make a natural 20 on my diplomacy check and get them to talk, but I can't get anything about where or how to find the stolen item.
So I've agreed to pay them all for their help, but, trying to play a LG right, I can't let them go on being brigands. I try to persuade them to change their ways, even offer them more gold (not that I could trust them), but they take offense, and we throw down.
One of the brigands is an Orc with a strength of 23 and wielding Cestus. He charges our 'forged and in about three rounds, drops him. This is somewhat alarming to us, because he's doing like eleven damage a round through his damage reduction. I've taken out one bandit and was working on another, but I turn and charge the orc when he downs the 'forged. While the artificier is keeping the other busy, I'm stuck between the Orc and the other standing bandit, with no armor. I'm down, after using about half my lay on hands, to ONE hit point.
At this point, we decided it would be prudent to start using action points. Long story short, I quadruple-splat the orc over two turns.
We were actually going to be in trouble, though, even after bringing down the big guy, but the DM made the other bandits cut and run so we didn't die. As he put it, we deserved the break since I was the first to use action points. And we AoO them and cut them down as they flee.
And the best part? After this massive bloody fight that nearly killed us all, my paladin uses his remaining lay on hands, and heals each bandit. That way they don't bleed to death. Maybe it's me, but I thought that was paladiny.
We later found out that the fight was CR 7. We were level 3.

Raool
2006-12-26, 11:24 PM
Careful with that XP for making jokes. Your entire game can turn into a circus really quickly. :P

Kesnit
2006-12-27, 08:00 AM
I was playing a Paladin of Heironeous, while most of the party were followers of the Morninglord. We met the High Priest of the Morninglord, who offered to let me change deities. I kept repeating "My heart and my steel belong to Heironeous." After about 5 repetitions of that phrase, my DM gave me a nice chink of XP.

Narmoth
2006-12-27, 05:36 PM
I give players bonus Xp for realy using their brain. This happends once in maybe 10 sessions. I revard for solving problems with thinking rather than game mechanics. For example they get more Xp if they talk to the Ghost and get some usefull information rather than destroy it. These can be both group and individual avards

blackout
2006-12-27, 06:50 PM
I teamkilled the most annoying guy in my party,Kobold bard. As a result, I got about 700 XP, which is about 200 XP more than I SHOULD have gotten. I obviously got a bonus for killing the lizard-rat-thing.

Proven_Paradox
2006-12-27, 09:41 PM
I teamkilled the most annoying guy in my party,Kobold bard.

Deekin!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Anyway, my DMs have been rather stingy with xp. I haven't gotten xp for a joke, ever, and I got a little extra for solving the ONE riddle I've ever gotten without a problem while the others were still thinking about it. I don't remember what it was, unfortunately...

Jarl
2006-12-28, 09:15 AM
Old game. First/second edition hybrid. Heavily homebrewed, obviously.
Kay, so, we're perched on the top of a carriage, surrounded by a swarming mob of kobolds. The ranger behind me is firing arrows into the crowd, trying to kill as many as he can. I, the Fire Mage/Magic Enthusiast, am scared out of my wits, smacking any Kobolds that try to climb up with my staff. Suddenly, an idea.
"Shay!" I shout out, getting the ranger's attention, "Shoot that way!"
He turns towards me, aims at some kobolds ahead of me, and fires.
As the arrow passes by my head, I cast enlarge on it.
Four (count 'em) FOUR kobolds, one blow. Thud. That was awesome. I still don't feel I've ever matched that moment. Sure, maybe it's not quite viable nowadays, but it was Jarl's finest hour. sometime later, he was blinded and abandoned by the party. Good ole days.

More recent:
Human male paladin (straight) is seduced by the party's CN elf male rogue. The paladin's fiancee had died, and the rogue was trying to cheer him up (plus, "If I can do him I can do anybody" sorta thing, like Belkar's attitude towards Miko). At the very least, it's an alternate sort of challenge.

-Huh. CR of a straight male paladin...

pestilenceawaits
2006-12-28, 10:28 AM
We were playing alternity when our dm had his DMpc steal our ship and left us stranded on a freighter with a bomb about to go off but he forgot that it was the same freighter he used to teleport troops onto our ship in the first place so I just teleported the bomb back to the ship he was on and watched the pretty explosion. he needed to rethink the adventure after that but it was worthy of good xp.

Fualkner Asiniti
2006-12-28, 02:02 PM
-Huh. CR of a straight male paladin...

I might have to sigquote that.

Runolfr
2006-12-28, 02:30 PM
A couple of characters were fornicating in a royal guest house, and the party rogue wanted everyone to get on with the adventure, so she climbed to the bedroom window and started banging on the shutters and shouting.

Someone said of the busy couple, "Should they have to make a Concentration check?"

Hilarity and XP bonuses ensued.

Lektor
2007-01-10, 10:47 AM
We;ve had a few moments like that. My half orc barbarian once took out an entire monster group in one cleave charge, the other party members didn't even get a turn. We also once took out a hydra with over 200hp with two critical hits from my magical great axe.

The funniest one was one of our group solving a riddle before the DM had even read it out...

Takes some doing!

Indurain
2007-01-10, 01:10 PM
Only time I can recall getting bonus XP was managing to actually produce tears when my PC's father died in his arms.

Benefits of being an actor!

Duggan
2007-01-10, 02:25 PM
Well, he was a bard and had a Wisdom of 8. In addition to that Intelligence.

We also had a wizard with 5 Constitution.
Och... I wish the DM of our campaign allowed for low stats like that. As it is, he let the players reroll until no one had a stat under 13 (his excuse being that he felt his campaigns were so dangerous that no one with low stats would survive [sidenote, he also complains about how hard it is to give us challenges. Can't please some people, I guess.]) so even the "dumb as rocks fighter" was coming up with potential tactical insights and the "ugly half orc" had a 15 charisma. Meh, I say...

As for bonus XP moments, the current trend in the campaign is to award entirely even XP rewards, even for roleplaying by particular characters, but I did have one time when I was promised an extra award although it got swept under the carpet shortly thereafter. We were fighting an enraged enemy (not the actual rage ability, just really mad at us). My monk character snuck up behind him and I announced "I give her a backrub." Everyone stopped and stared blankly at me whereupon I smiled and pointed at the 15 ranks of Profession (Massage) on my character sheet and explaining, "Well, she looks tense and I figure it's distraction enough that we can get her to talk." A high roll on my profession check, followed by a high Diplomacy role (maxed ranks in that too, as well as a high charisma) and we had a bloodless resolution to our fight. I've also had a fun time roleplaying the diplomacy checks for talking down the (sometimes very mentally unstable) other characters in the party during that one nightmare realm incident.

Wolf53226
2007-01-10, 03:38 PM
We stopped giving bonus XP for jokes and stuff because our sessions just got silly, but the time I think someone deserved it the most was one player who played an android in a star wars campaign that was specifically very literal, and the conversation went a little like:

GM: As your walking in the slums, and old man comes up to you and say "Credit for an old man"
{Without hesitation}
Player: "WHY ARE YOU SELLING OLD MEN!?!"

This of course led to the awkward moment of silence, followed by much laughing as we started to make an entire monetary system based on the fact that one credit could buy and old man.

mikeejimbo
2007-01-10, 10:16 PM
Let's see... I didn't get bonus XP for this, but a PC gave me money when I found a cleric of my god to perform a miracle. One of the other PCs even thought up a way to word the miracle so that two of our fallen comrades could be brought back. And at first I was going to offer to pay the XP, then I decided to make the guy getting resurrected pay the XP. (Our DM allows others to pay their experience cost. You want the wizard to make you a potion? Hand over the XP for it)