Remember, XP is at least as much about a quantifiable increase in the Characters’ abilities through “experience” aa it is about rewarding the players themselves.
And this is exactly my point from the start, characters do not exist, so they do not need rewarding, and as for players, the best reward is for me to actually play the game. When I'm playing cards or a board game for fun, no one expects anyone to distribute candies to whoever does well... :D
So do PCs in your campaign remain 1st level forever?!?
Also, I did not say “reward the character,” I said:
“XP is [sic] a quantifiable increase in the Characters’ abilities through “experience.” That’s not a “reward,” its a yardstick.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
For me, one of the best system ever was the one from Runequest:
Specific skill advancement based on skill usage during the game, and it had to be usage, not success, and you had to roll over the current skill to progress. And of course, it had to be meaningful usage, and in a stressful situation.
I HATED that with the fiery passion of a thousand dying suns. If you sucked at something and wanted to be good at it then increasing that skill was damned near impossible. No thank you sir.
I'm not someone that gives out rewards to motivate good behavior. I do not believe in participation trophies for just showing up. You play, you put in effort and then you earn the reward.
This right here is a fundamental contradiction. Or rather, this only works if all Players are making equal effort.
If you have an audience member Character which just rolls their attack dice in combat, and otherwise make no tactical, story, or role-playing contribution, and you give them an equal share of Party XP, or you are leveling them up with the rest of the party when you hit the Milestone, you are handing out "participation trophies". They are getting the same advancement as everyone else merely for showing up.
If you give out advancement awards based on actual contribution, then you are "[giving] out rewards to motivate good behavior", even if you didn't intend to do that: contributory Players get more than non-contributory Players, so be a contributory Player ( incentive! ).
Only if everyone is making an equal contributory effort, does this make sense - or rather the two approaches look identical, so it doesn't matter which you're doing.
However - I cannot think of a single example of table I've seen where all Players were contributing equally.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Remember, XP is at least as much about a quantifiable increase in the Characters’ abilities through “experience” aa it is about rewarding the players themselves.
And this is exactly my point from the start, characters do not exist, so they do not need rewarding, and as for players, the best reward is for me to actually play the game. When I'm playing cards or a board game for fun, no one expects anyone to distribute candies to whoever does well... :D
So do PCs in your campaign remain 1st level forever?!?
Also, I did not say “reward the character,” I said:
“XP is [sic] a quantifiable increase in the Characters’ abilities through “experience.” That’s not a “reward,” its a yardstick.
Practice the general skills of Spellcasting and fighting.
So do PCs in your campaign remain 1st level forever?!?
Also, I did not say “reward the character,” I said:
“XP is [sic] a quantifiable increase in the Characters’ abilities through “experience.” That’s not a “reward,” its a yardstick.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I'm familiar with the Runequest style of advancement - although I never played Runequest - but Call of Cthulhu used a similar system.
It is not without its flaws - mainly Players spamming out as many skill rolls as possible to try and maximize their advance.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I HATED that with the fiery passion of a thousand dying suns. If you sucked at something and wanted to be good at it then increasing that skill was damned near impossible. No thank you sir.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
This right here is a fundamental contradiction. Or rather, this only works if all Players are making equal effort.
If you have an audience member Character which just rolls their attack dice in combat, and otherwise make no tactical, story, or role-playing contribution, and you give them an equal share of Party XP, or you are leveling them up with the rest of the party when you hit the Milestone, you are handing out "participation trophies". They are getting the same advancement as everyone else merely for showing up.
If you give out advancement awards based on actual contribution, then you are "[giving] out rewards to motivate good behavior", even if you didn't intend to do that: contributory Players get more than non-contributory Players, so be a contributory Player ( incentive! ).
Only if everyone is making an equal contributory effort, does this make sense - or rather the two approaches look identical, so it doesn't matter which you're doing.
However - I cannot think of a single example of table I've seen where all Players were contributing equally.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting