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View Full Version : Bonus EXP Mechanics..



Mikeavelli
2008-11-20, 01:22 AM
I've been thinking about ways to generate competition among the Players, encourage good roleplaying, etc. In that vein, I've been thinking about trying out "Roles" that the Players themselves can take up which affect their xp gained.

This sprung up from seeing "Bonus RP" mechanics that were inconsistent, and often either irrelevant or game-breaking, there's a need for a codified system that is easily understandable and enforceable. To that end are Roles: When presented with a conflict through which RP can be gained (Encounter with a monster or Hostile NPCs usually) - Your character gains bonus experience if the conflict is resolved in a way that fulfills your Role. Now, since these roles are mutually exclusive, the players will argue about the course of action the party should take, some preferring diplomacy, some preferring sneakiness, some preferring to outthink, and some preferring to just bash the thing over the head.

The challenging part here will be to myself, as a DM, to provide situations that can potentially be solved in all these ways, but that's for another post.

Proposed roles:

Violent: Your character likes to fight, they live to fight, they solve every encounter by hitting things until they die. For example, if a Troll is guarding the Bridge, and the party chops it up into itty bitty pieces, then burns the remains, you get 10% more xp than the rest of the party.

Diplomancer: Your character prefers to talk things through, be reasonable. For example, if a Troll is guarding the Bridge, and you convince it to let you pass, or simply pay the toll, you gain 10% bonus xp.

Sneaky: Your character prefers the indirect route. For example, if a Troll is guarding the Bridge, and you convince the party to just swim around, or fly across the river, etc. - You gain 10% bonus xp.

Crafter: Kinda've a special role, you never get bonus xp, but you don't have to pay xp to craft magic items. Ideally, this would be combined with the campaign being time-sensitive, the caster would have to convince the rest of the party that its a good idea to wait around for a few weeks while they create an item to solve whatever problem they're facing. This is in here because my group has never, ever used the Craft item feats, and I want to encourage it, even though it could easily break the game.

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What I'm looking for here is suggestions, how to improve the system, fine-tuning the balance, additional roles that might be created, thoughts about problems I haven't seen yet, and better names for the roles, because only a boardmonkey like myself would get the name "Diplomancer."