XP REWARDS YOU GIVE TO YOUR PLAYER'S CHARACTERS IN YOUR D&D GAME???

What are some bonus XP rewards or penalties that you give to your player's characters in your D&D games to rewards your players for showing up to sessions, updating characters for the next session on time, role playing more, rolling critical hits, etc... Thoughts???

I'm not sure why you posted this with all caps in the topic, but um... ok, i'll try to answer: I have always found that XP as a reward leads to players of differing power levels, and can unbalance the game.  There are also times when absences can't be helped.  For example, all players in my games are made aware that I live with my grandfather, who I care for.  If, a few hours before a game, he has some emergency, he comes first, and I won't be there, even if this is a game I am GMing. What i find is a flavorful macguffin for showing up, or a temporary penalty for absences that i wasn't told about in advance seem to work.  For example, I'll give the players who are on time a fate point, or one free re-roll to be used that evening, and players who miss a session may find that they begin the following session unsure where they are, or possibly fatigued, drunk, or have some other penalty that can be rested off applied to them.  Just enough to remind them that they should have been there, but not enough to make them hate me, or not enjoy my game. As for penalties or cookies for things like updating the characters ahead of time or roleplaying more, that's pretty easy to handle as well.  Fate points, for example, simply aren't going to the quieter players as much,  It's just how they work.  The last game I ran, I updated the players characters myself when they leveled up.  They were given plenty of notice, and the option to ask me for help leveling themselves up.  If they didn't, they got the one i designed.   This meant that if they had a specific goal in mind for their character, they had to make the effort, but if they didn't really care, they still had something useable at the level they should be. Overall, I wouldn't look at it as a system of rewards and penalties, but as causalities and preparations you can make as a GM. I hope my reply was helpful.

Everyone gets the same experience. Role-playing interesting options I grant extra experience because I give less for combat; however, the bonus is granted to everyone. The reward for showing up is staying in my game.

Twenty five to one hundred is typically the range I give out as bonus xp should a player warrant it. While an extremely small amount regardless of level it does eventually add up should the player consistently keep up the good work. While I do not reward or penalize attendance other than allowing them to stay should it become a problem, I do reward those that stick to their character concept, come up with a creative idea, create a good/interesting roleplay, hilarious quip as well as a few others I can't think of off the top of my head. Once again it isn't that much but there is some recognition for them.

For my games (I run 4e pretty much exclusively; sometimes I run nWoD or other systems, but generally as one shots or short term games), I give every character 80% of the experience for an encounter whether they are there or not. If the player showed up, they get 10% more (90% total). If they didn't piss me off by misbehaving, bringing the game to halt to have an argument over a ruling, leaving the game for extended periods of time without having a *very* good reason for it, etc., they get a further 10% (100% total). If they went above and beyond the call of duty, whether by roleplaying very well or performing some deed of heroism or self-sacrifice (and actually *succeeding* at it; if it was only *potentially* awesome, it doesn't count), they'll get up to another 10% (110% total). In live games, a sufficiently good snackrifice (bringing drinks/snacks for the night, bringing something kewl like a cake or chili) will also work for the "above and beyond" category (since, even if it's not in character, it's still above and beyond for a *player*). As an addendum to all of that, since my goal is to keep everyone within a reasonable range of each other's xp (depending upon the campaign, between half of a level to a whole level), I tend to be more liberal with the bonuses to those players that have missed a few games and are behind the curve and more conservative with those players that are ahead of it. The penalties are always kept standard though. It keeps the party reasonably close to each others' level so nonattendance doesn't end up crippling the party (since it's a team effort game and everyone has to rely on everyone else, ya know) but attendance provides a tangible benefit. I also like providing the extra xp as an impetus for the players to have their *characters* routinely take the path that is more difficult but more heroic to boot (going out of their way to save a dying unimportant NPC rather than just leaving him/her to die; fighting the big monster when they're running on fumes rather than taking a rest and letting it get away; etc.). I've arrived at these numbers over a lot of years of GMing. I've played games where missing meant no xp, half xp, and the like and where going above and beyond either had no reward (beyond the mechanically intangible stories that are told afterwards) or had a *huge* reward (I had a GM that provided an extra 50% xp based on roleplaying). Generally, they screwed over the group as much as the player that didn't attend because, if they miss more than one game (or miss a big game), they end up behind everyone else, oftentimes becoming a handicap for the group.

I don't like to give out X.P at all just tell the players when they level.  I don't like different players having different level characters.  In game rewards like action points ect...work well too. I have never heard of giving bonus X.P for critical hitting is that a thing?  I mean even back in the 1e/2e days of gold for x.p  and when clerics got bonus x.p for each hit point healed I never saw bonus X.P for critical hits, they are there own reward.

Yeah I don't suggest giving out bonus xp for critical's or anything luck based for that matter.

I give exp rewards to all players upon completion of a chapter.  Usually I bypass exp rewards and reward them with levels.  Players that show up to sessions get better swag.

Waffles said: Players that show up to sessions get better swag. What kind of swag do you give and for what?

Master MJ said: Waffles said: Players that show up to sessions get better swag. What kind of swag do you give and for what? Most of the time it's items purvey to the characters that show up.  So if a player always attends sessions, he's going to be better geared with items his character needs/wants, than others.  A frequently absent player may still be using +1 studded leather, while a player who shows up all the time may have met a master smith that forged the mithral ore the players were set to retrieve into +3 mithral chain shirts.  Also, all items players equip in my games that are magical / exotic / rare attune themselves to the PCs to prevent sharing.  If a player takes an already attuned item, it becomes a cursed item for them. It's not extremely crippling to miss sessions in my game, but frequent misses tend to make players undergeared.  For a wizard, this means lacking spells from others' spellbooks, for a fighter it means exotic varients of weapons they have that don't require proficiencies.

I have been using bonus xp for good initiative or roleplaying. However I am impressed with som eof the ideas here. I will implement group bonus xp (or other group bonuses such as temporary rerolls or temporary skills bonuses) for character roleplaying by individuals. It will work well for my group since they all know each other and we have been playing together for quite a while. This will hopefully lead players to feel a shared success over their actions and spurr on more of these. I hardly ever use penalties for poor roleplaying, beyond ingame consequences, but most of my players do not stray too much from their concept, so I am blessed in that regards.

I haven't read every reply, and I'm sorry, but I simply don't have as much time as I'd like. One thing I saw mentioned, though, was imposing penalties on players who didn't make a session. So what, exactly, encourages them to come back? I don't play games with people so that I can get punished for something. Good excuse or not, they don't owe you gaming. I'm certainly down with rewarding players for making every session and playing the whole game through, but penalizing them because they didn't show up on time, or at all, or left early? That's exactly the kind of GMing I get irritated with. Off the top of my head, though, some rewards for showing up on time and staying the whole session could easily garner you a bonus for the next session, whether material (in-game) or not. A bit of extra gold, or an extra action point, a re-roll for that session on any single roll, A small bonus (+3 or so) that the player can split up into any number of rolls however he wants, whatever. Imagining up a bonus that's not game-breaking would certainly encourage people to show up on time and to stick around.

First of all.  GREAT, GREAT, GREAT INPUT FROM EVERYONE!!!  Thank you so much for your thoughts and experiences. Here is what I have decided to do and please feel free to leave some constructive criticism based on your points of view on the information below.  We are playing D&D 4E by the way... PLAYER GOLD CARDS (PGC) Each player will be rewarded ( 1 ) PGC at the start of each session for showing up on time.  To be considered on time, you will need to be logged on and ready to play at 7:45 AM MST, so we can start promptly at 8:00 AM MST. Then ( 1 ) PGC will be awarded to player who have their character current and correctly updated and uploaded to iPlay4e.  All rulings will be made off of the iPlay4e character sheets listed. A PGC will then be rewarded during each session when players do great things like, rolling natural 20's on dice rolls, perform amazing feats and actions during the session, role playing their characters keeping in mind alignment, background and developing story line, offering and playing absent players characters, and various other deeds and actions, etc... A PGC will then be penalized when the opposite situations happen during the session, such as when players roll natural 1's, a player does not maintain a PG-13 language level during the session <only one F-Bomb per session and NO other R-Rated language>, not being courteous to other players, etc... *** AT THE END OF EACH SESSION ALL PGC GOES AWAY AND YOU START OVER FRESH THE NEXT SESSION *** PGC FOR PLAYER EFFECTS Exchange ( 1 ) PGC for ( 1 ) FREE REROLL (Grants one re-roll of any dice roll.) Exchange ( 2 ) PGC for ( 1 ) AUTO HIT (Grants an automatically hit with an attack.) Exchange ( 2 ) PGC for ( 1 ) AUTO MISS (Prevent an attacker from hitting you with an attack.) Exchange ( 2 ) PGC for ( 1 ) AUTO PASS (Grants an automatic skill check success.) Exchange ( 2 ) PGC for ( 1 ) AUTO SAVE (Grants an automatic saving throw success.) PGC FOR CHARACTER HEALING SURGES & ACTION POINTS Exchange ( 3 ) PGC to gain ( 1 ) HEALING SURGE Exchange ( 4 ) PGC to gain ( 1 ) ACTION POINT CREATING AUTO CRITICAL HITS Exchange ( 2 ) PGC & ( 1 ) ACTION POINT to cause a AUTO CRITICAL HIT.

I like this idea, but...  To quote Christopher P above: " Good excuse or not, they don't owe you gaming. I'm certainly down with rewarding players for making every session and playing the whole game through, but penalizing them because they didn't show up on time, or at all, or left early? That's exactly the kind of GMing I get irritated with." I would definitely NOT penalize anybody something as valuable as a PGC for simply rolling a 1, and I'd think hard about gifting one for simply rolling a 20. The former is, frankly, just kinda being a jerk... UNLESS you make it that the loss of a PGC means that they're able to modify or mitigate whatever their fatal fumble dieroll made happen. And natural 20s often create good story, and work very much to the player's benefit anyway... it may be overkill to give them a reward as well, unless they're doing something awesome with that natural 20 anyway. In that case, you're rewarding their advancement of the story in an awesome way, and not the simple 5% odds of getting a good die roll. Yawn. And in your list, it looks like it would take 4 PGCs to get an action point... how is someone reasonably supposed to ever get that reward level? They'd need to, like, not only just show up on time, but also roll a natural 20, do something awesome in-character, AND something else worthy of a PGC, all in one game... the whole time, without rolling a single 1 or dropping an F-bomb or something. Kinda hard to attain. The one-or-two PGC levels are properly balance, I think. 3 or four? Too expensive. I've used Brownie Point rewards (much the same as your PGC concept) before with some success, but have soured on the idea since it's not really needed, when you've got the right group and the right game and the right story. Throw 'em a bone once in a while and let 'em reroll if they've been playing well, and (in my opinion) you're doing it right. But there's nothing saying that a PGC now and then isn't worth doing, it certainly is, but it can easily get out of hand. This is just, like, my opinion, man! I could be wrong! I'm sure you'll get as many opinions as you do responses, and they're all valid. Make your game your way; if the players have fun, you're doing it right. End of story.

I also agree that you shouldn't reward or penalize based on rolling 1's or 20's, both have their own associated boon/bane so adding to them just seems like overkill. I do think that your system is very interesting however I don't know how I feel about rewarding the players in such a way as to me it seems like you are taking a little away from the whole experience. By that I mean it almost seems like a lot of stuff will come off as feeling "forced" as players will probably start attempting to garner as many PGC's as possible. In essence you are making excellent ideas, roleplaying etc. into a game mechanic. Now this just might be the old school gamer in me but players shouldn't do all that stuff in order to gain a boon but because it makes sense. Regardless, it is very interesting.

Ok, so I played through a session with the rewards I had listed above and here is what I have found out... AUTO HITS, MISSES, PASSES & SAVES drop them totally.  They are too Over Powering in game and can be hindering to role playing.  Took our the penalties period, so players would have a chance to gain PGC to use in game.  Took out the Auto Critical Hit too.  Way to powerful...  Also, a dice re-roll for 1 PGC is too little for such a game changing reward.  Below is what I am thinking about for the next session to even the playing field. ( 1 ) PGC = ADD +1 BONUS Grants a +1 modifier to ANY dice roll in game ( 1 ) PGC = ADD -1 PENALTY Grants a -1 modifier to ANY dice roll in game ( 2 ) PGC = ONE DICE RE-ROLL Grants a re-roll of ANY dice roll you make ( 3 ) PGC = HEALING SURGE Gain a Daily Healing Surge ( 4 ) PGC = ACTION POINT Gain a Free Action Point Thoughts?

Master MJ said: Ok, so I played through a session with the rewards I had listed above and here is what I have found out... AUTO HITS, MISSES, PASSES & SAVES drop them totally.  They are too Over Powering in game and can be hindering to role playing.  Took our the penalties period, so players would have a chance to gain PGC to use in game.  Took out the Auto Critical Hit too.  Way to powerful...  Also, a dice re-roll for 1 PGC is too little for such a game changing reward.  Below is what I am thinking about for the next session to even the playing field. ( 1 ) PGC = ADD +1 BONUS Grants a +1 modifier to ANY dice roll in game ( 1 ) PGC = ADD -1 PENALTY Grants a -1 modifier to ANY dice roll in game ( 2 ) PGC = ONE DICE RE-ROLL Grants a re-roll of ANY dice roll you make ( 3 ) PGC = HEALING SURGE Gain a Daily Healing Surge ( 4 ) PGC = ACTION POINT Gain a Free Action Point Thoughts? Seems a bit underpowered.  I mean, the power adds up, but it still seems lacking.  4 sessions is 12 hours of someone's time, I liked your first chart better.

Since this is a 4e game couldn't you just give people who show up on time and prepared an extra action point?

Or for 1 PGC you can affect a roll by 1d6. That way it adds a little randomness to it and makes the PGC have some potential but not guarenteed potential.

I like the idea with the addition of a roll to modify the bonus or penalty amount.  How about this? ( 1 ) PGC = ADD BONUS Grants a 1d4 Mod Bonus to ANY Dice Roll ( 1 ) PGC = ADD PENALTY Grants a 1d4 Mod Penalty to ANY Dice Roll ( 2 ) PGC = DICE RE-ROLL Grants a Re-Roll of ANY Dice Roll ( 3 ) PGC = HEALING SURGE Gain a Daily Healing Surge ( 4 ) PGC = ACTION POINT Gain a Free Action Point

1d4 is probably better than a d6 now that I think about it.

I like to give out individual awards for good role-playing, especially when the role-playing is entertaining for everyone in the room. Sometimes I will give out other rewards when they are more fitting (extra gold for a bounty, free drinks at the inn, etc). I like my games to get more involved. I will often have one-on-one sessions with players during party downtime to further develop a character's individual story. Often times, these little side excursions can lead to a good hook to get the entire party somewhere, and I try to keep these sessions as equal as possible. Eventually, either through occasional absenteeism or temporary imbalances in side-sessions, there can be a party imbalance. In the grand scheme of things, the small rewards given out really don't account for much. D&D 3.5 is my poison of choice, and after level 10, a difference of 1,000 experience across two characters is pretty marginal. What it really comes down to is positive reinforcement of good behaviors. Give your players whatever it is that will encourage them to continue to play well. Here, I'd like to site the TV show, Big Bang Theory, where in an episode, Sheldon used the principles of operant conditioning through the use of chocolates to get his room mate's girlfriend to keep quiet during a movie. Give your players what they like!