AliceTheOwl Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Having just about wrapped up my very first GMing of the Hero System, I'm about to reward XP. It's in a play-by-post game, run through Josh's aldaric.com site. Basically, he needed a break and I came up with some plot ideas, so into the fray I went. (Yes, the 2 on here who are players can contribute to this thread.) Now, I've been rather impressed with some of the roleplaying going on during my stint, from two players in particular. However, I didn't want to punish the players who DIDN'T go above and beyond, so I have a better idea for how to reward these players for their awesome roleplaying, without unbalancing the game. I'm going to give them points to put straight into stats. For the first player, this is easy. He neutralized an entire threat I'd plotted out through good roleplaying, and figured out the major mystery I hadn't expected ANY of the players to catch onto. So he gets points directly into Deduction. The second player is a bit more difficult. He's been mending bridges, forming alliances, creating contacts and, just now, proving himself very impassioned and persuasive in talking other players into going along with the last of my plot threads. My thought is to give him points in Persuasion, but I'm not sure how much mileage that would give him. This character generally isn't the most social of creatures, and tends to underestimate his abilities. (And before anyone knocks this approach, it's the humility that made him so good at mending bridges.) So, is there a better skill I can enhance with my reward, based on what I've described of the impressive roleplay, or should I just go with Persuasion and hope he finds a use for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Rather than give him points in Persuasion, why not give him an 8- contact if he's so busy trying to make them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted October 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Because they're ALL getting this contact. He wasn't the only one interacting with the contacts, he was just the one who put the most work (or arguably, the 2nd most work) into making sure the contacts stayed friendly and talkative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Persuastion or Conversation, and possibly even Bureaucratics would all be appropriate places. Alternately, you can just give him a 2 point bonus to PRE, and if he keeps it up, he'll eventually get a +1 to all Interaction Skills and an extra PER Attack die. So he's not charismatic, he's humble in a way to gets and hold onto peoples' attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioKAOS Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Persuastion or Conversation, and possibly even Bureaucratics would all be appropriate places. Alternately, you can just give him a 2 point bonus to PRE, and if he keeps it up, he'll eventually get a +1 to all Interaction Skills and an extra PER Attack die. So he's not charismatic, he's humble in a way to gets and hold onto peoples' attention. Agreed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ura-Maru Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players A positive rep, something like ‘Decent and Trustworthy’ or ‘A Great Guy.’ Not a big deal with most supers, but normals, and even cranky officials like him, because he doesn’t put himself above them, and seems genuinely more concerned with helping people. Best if you don’t even let him know it’s there, except through play. He’s the guy people come to when they have real problems. Give him an occasional moment where the normals stand up for him, not the other way round. (Remember that great bit in Spiderman 2?) And give the particularly vile bad guys a hate-on for him, for the same reason. Having Dark Seraph say “You, above all others, I despise!†is a reward in it’s own right --- “Are there no true knights among you?!†Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted October 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Ah, sorry. I should've specified; it's a low-point-level Fantasy game, and they're always on the move. But these suggestions definitely work. I'm going to see about combining a couple of them. Thanks, guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players You could always give the guy who did the extra work a little better version of the contact. Maybe +1 to the roll or +1 to the relationship. So he can get things out of the contact that the others can't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ura-Maru Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Doh! Still works, though. Maybe moreso, actually . . . wandering groups of adventures are pretty much indistinguishable from bandits to most normals in fantasy settings. Having someone on the team that the peasants actually trust can’t be a bad thing. I was actually thinking of ‘Sir Duncan the Tall’ from the Hedge Knight short stories. That’s where the quotes from, actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted October 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Indeed. And he already has Distinctive Feature, so he's easily recognized. ^ v ^ That works really, really well, actually. My players are gonna love you guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent X Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players You could use one of those luck points systems that are out there. Basically, they get a few points that don't stick around to modify their rolls or reroll a bad roll. It doesn't really change their stats but it is a reward, and once they spend them, they're gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players I don't know that it is all that different. Re-read the section on awarding Experience. There are suggestions for awarding targetted Experience Points (they used to be called, "Skill Points," but I can't remember if 5E/5ER kept this terminology). You might consider awarding some normal Experience as well, though, so that the players still have a sense of freedom where character growth goes (you might say, "Well, they can always do things in game to develop what they want," but in practice the story doesn't always leave room for developing things a player might want for their PC). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted October 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Heh. Well, it's new to ME. ^ v ^ Yeah, I planned on giving them XP on top of this, too. I just wanted to give the two who put more effort into it a little pat on the back to show them I was paying attention, and to make it worth it for them to have put that work into fleshing out their characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Do you know, when I read the title of the thread, I really wondered what I was going to find here Lots of good suggestions, not a lot to add really. You might consider a slightly less direct reward too. If, for example either of the star players have a hunted, the next time you roll for the hunter to show up let the first spot some clue that he is lurking around, thus avoiding an ambush, or let the second be warned by one of his new buddies that a stranger was hanging around asking after him. Not a points based thing at all really, but a worthy and appropriate reward nonetheless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted October 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players *feels a need to point out she's happily married, and has a code of ethics several chapters long* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players *feels a need to point out she's happily married' date=' and has a code of ethics several chapters long*[/quote'] Well, hubby could be one of the players Anyway, I probably meant something clean and wholesome: I just can't remember what it was now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Cookies! That was it! You could give them milk and cookies for turning up and being such fun people to be around. That's slightly different..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted October 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Well, hubby could be one of the players Anyway, I probably meant something clean and wholesome: I just can't remember what it was now Riiiiiiiight. Well, he IS one of the players, but he's not one of the ones surprising me with excellent roleplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Riiiiiiiight. Well, he IS one of the players, but he's not one of the ones surprising me with excellent roleplay. Must.....not.....write.....what......I'm......thinking....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Squirrel Posted October 3, 2005 Report Share Posted October 3, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Yeah guys, I'm having a terrible time roleplaying. Alice, lets go practice! Be back in an hour! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Yeah guys, I'm having a terrible time roleplaying. Alice, lets go practice! Be back in an hour! I think it's time for me to bow out of this conversation gracefully. Actually, I think that time was probably just before I got INTO this conversation..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Wow. I need to get my mind back in the gutter. I thought you were refering to all the intermixing everyone seems to be doing between Disadvantages and Experience, and all the threads that seem be be coming up about it lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Well, there is the theory that the role-playing experience is its own reward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Well' date=' there is the theory that the role-playing experience is its own reward. [/quote'] GAAAK... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: A slightly different way of rewarding players Well' date=' there is the theory that the role-playing experience is its own reward. [/quote'] Watch it, partnah. Yer likely ta get lynched with that kinda aditude! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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