Do you enjoy meta-rewards for good roleplaying?

Exalted stunting is pretty much the only way i like meta-RP rewards.

>just for not being an asshole and showing you want to play the game, you get a minimum 2 die bonus over an NPC who is your equal

>Reward the introverted player more.

But then you're not being fair to the guy's who put the effort into being a good roleplayer and really brings it, every session.

Any reward structure should have a related objective structure for obtaining the reward. "Roleplaying good" is subjective, squishy, and lousy game design. Players should be able to know that if they do a thing, they will get the reward. With this kind of setup, though, they need to do something vague, hope the GM isn't too busy scribbling notes or whatever, and that the GM likes what they did, and then maybe they'll get the reward.
That stinks, and it opens the door for both GM favoritism, and suspicion and unfair charges of GM favoritism, which are all poisonous for a group dynamic.
Someone once told me that it's not enough for a judge to be fair, he must also avoid even the appearance of unfairness.

I don't think it's a bad idea to have a little carrot for acting out your characters persona and motivations. The Inspirations system in 5e is a good example imo.

>the guy's who put the effort into being a good roleplayer
>implying equal effort means equal performance
If one guy can bench press 300 pounds, and another can "only" bench press 200 pounds, who are you to say the latter isn't putting in as much effort as he possibly can?

fun is a meta award.

But this isn't something you can measure like a bench press. At what point is it "fair?" How many times do you reward the good roleplayer who does it all the time vs the one who manages once in a blue moon?

If you give them the same number of rewards, then you're shortchanging the skilled player, and you're not rewarding "good roleplay" anymore.
If you give the skilled player more, then the unskilled one falls behind and feels discouraged.
There IS no good solution for this, it's a shitty idea that only sounds good in theory.

It's not really all that vague, and it's hardly about favoritism to give a bonus based on effort.
In the hands of a bad GM, it can easily be turned into an extra layer of poison for the group, but the same result would happen regardless of what the bad GM decided to do.

In the hands of a good GM, it gives them the opportunity to give encouragement when it's needed. A GM really isn't supposed to be an impartial judge, even if they like to present that appearance.

Assuming they are both of similar stature, it means the other guy didn't practice his lifting as much as the first guy did and thus put less effort into it.

My point exactly. If you want to reward effort, you might as well assume all players are trying their best unless they clearly perform worse than usual. Performance is not effort.

Even if you're correct and different people don't have different innate talents, the other guy might have practiced less in the past, but can you really say he isn't trying right this moment? Can you really say he's able to lift 300, 500, 1000, 1000000 pounds right now but chooses not to?

Are these meta rewards in the form of giant boobs?

>My point exactly. If you want to reward effort, you might as well assume all players are trying their best unless they clearly perform worse than usual. Performance is not effort.

I see, I thought you were going a different direction there.

I've always preferred the old school D&D method of just turning GP into XP. It encourages players to find solutions other than fighting, it's easy to figure out how to get more, and if somebody behind a level or two, the party can, at their discretion, give him a bigger share of the loot when they get back to town.
Roleplaying should be its own reward, not something you do to get a carrot from the GM.

I'm not a huge fan of rewarding role playing in-game as I assume role playing is a given in an RPG, and I as well as most the people I play with are usually animated enough to get everyone else at least attempting to role play.

I do, however, like the idea of giving out hero points for doing cool shot that will allow a player to occasionally bend the rules in pursuit of doing further cool shit.

>DM: "I'm going to be giving out XP awards for good roleplaying"
>proceeds to reward players for OOC jokes, in-character "randumbness xD" and all but indulging NPCs in ERP
>sessions devolve into anal clownery as everyone tries to one-up each other sucking up to the DM

>and all but

Count your blessings.

No, that's retarded. Also your shitty dA waifu is retarded, and the comic she's in is shit.

The only way I can see this working (roleplaying XP rewards) is to put such XP in a bonus pool. The one player who always RPs his heart out is contributing to this pool, and the shy introvert who RPs once in a blue moon also contributes to this pool.

At the end of a session, adventure, or arc, everyone gets a share of the bonus pool. The more RPing everyone did, the more XP everyone gets (because the pool will be larger).

In this way it both encourages roleplaying, but no one is left out mechanically.

>Assuming they are both of similar stature,

Why though?

That's probably the best implementation of this idea I've ever seen, and the only one I'd use. Good job, user.

Not really. As I see it, roleplaying is part of the game. In-universe rewards are fine, but out-of-universe roleplaying is its own reward. "You get an inspiration point" takes me out of it, if anything.

Fucking why though.

Because it actually works, holy shit why are you so fucking stupid.

Saying Veeky Forums Explained is shit is stupid. Everyone on Veeky Forums knows it's shit, but they've come to enjoy it anyway. It's our little withered blanket.

That's not a good reason to do it.
>everyone on Veeky Forums enjoys this shitty dA webcomic
No.

>That's not a good reason to do it.

That depends wholly on whether or not you think "to encourage roleplaying" is a good reason to do something.

It's not even that bad. It's actually gotten better over the years.

Mind blown.

I don't, but anyway, the flaw I see with that system is that it could well breed resentment in the group. The people who roleplay might not be down with providing free rewards for those who decide not to roleplay anyway.

Why even have a bonus for RP mechanic then though?

Spotted the Ayn Rand fan!

You don't make sense.

>the flaw I see with that system is that it could well breed resentment in the group
If you are the same poster as the similarly negative posts above, you seem to have a consistent view that players getting together to play a game, will be petty and antagonistic.
I'm not saying that won't ever happen, but some people can see others rewarded and be happy for them, not demand their reward too.

The suggested system divides the reward equally though.

>If you are the same poster as the similarly negative posts above

Nope, I'm the guy above and I'm satisfied that dividing roleplay XP evenly is a good enough fix that it would work. It's still not something I want to do, but I don't consider the possibility that someone would resent their friends being "freeloaders" to be a significant problem of the mechanic. That's a player problem.

>meta rewards
This smacks of playing mindgames with the people at your game, ostensibly your friends, trying to manipulate them? Just be cool. Otherwise what are you trying to be a drama queen and give the girl player more exp hoping she will go out with you or some shit? I wouldn't put it past you people here to try a stunt like that.

It's a social leisure activity for fun, why would any self respecting person need to be buttered up with Goodboy Points being handed out by the King Nerd. It's the same kind of "Bribe le DM with snacks XD" meme.

>for those who decide not to roleplay anyway
Who says they're making a decision? It's possible they're just not as capable as others.
They might improve over time, but right now, that is their best.

If the fact that someone doesn't roleplay "enough" is such an issue for other participants that a reward has to be given out for roleplaying, then I think the entire situation points towards a certain pettiness. We're chill about low RP participation at my table, so we don't need any carrots or sticks.
What purpose does the reward serve then?

Ah, I thought I recognized a consistent voice, but it seems I was wrong.

It's a good system, plus it's simple.
I prefer the greater simplicity of my just rewarding each player that roleplays well in the session with a small, capped bonus.
But, it's subjective and therefore shit as a system for general use.

>Why a subjective but simple system is better and worse:
A group of workers in the auto industry used to adjust the machine when it worked itself out of sync by tapping the lever with a hammer until it was correct by eyeballing it.
It worked accurately because they knew where it was supposed to be by experince, but it was subjective.
The correct system involved retrieving calipers, measuring, adjusting, measuring again, and pausing to recalibrate.
It was an objective system that always worked all the time for everyone who did it.
It also took 45 minutes instead of a few seconds.

But an rp pool is elegantly effective and simple.

>What purpose does the reward serve then?
None at all! I think it's a bad idea that only causes more problems!

I don't "prefer" my shitty subjective system.
I preferred it when I used one.
My current view is mirrored by Rufus user here.

>implying you don't give the some Jolly Ranchers for good role playing, or just being a This Guy.
>implying you don't give Grape Jolly Ranchers for being a shitty player.
come on now.

No, if anything they ruin roleplaying for me.

Good roleplaying is its own reward, and if you enjoy it, then you shouldn't need tangible rewards to do it. Conversely, if you don't like it, you shouldn't be penalized because you don't want to do it, or because of some arbitrary ruling about whether you did it well enough.

Why not be merciful and just force-feed cough syrup to the shitty player.

because I am not merciful GM, and i have to get rid of them somehow.

As the user you're both quoting, I have no idea. I don't tend to reward RPing with XP or bennies or any meta currencies because RPing brings its own rewards. The PC (and by extension the party) gain allies, contacts, and access to the occasional rare resource because they've made a connection in the game world.

I feel that is reward enough. I merely speculated that the only "fair" way to use roleplaying bonus XP would be to put it in a pool, and everyone share it in equally.

I give my players candy if they're good roleplayers. Except for the diabetic guy. He gets candy for being a bad roleplayer.

...

yes i do a lot and im not the best at rp

Subjectivity doesn't invalidate a system, especially once you realize just how sibjective most systems really are.

All I know is I need more Cestree in my life.

Depends. My favorite system doesn't have power levels for characters instead it has "votes" for how the story goes. People who contribute more aggressively end up racking up more votes in the future. It's very easy for the DM to be like "that was awesome, take a 1d6 relationship to that guy just for that" without creating a lot of havoc.

OTOH, I'm a bit more careful with something like D&D. I measure power level by group not individual player but I do have a "+" card that I hand to a player for creative, funny, heroic, interesting, or risky play. They keep it until they want to cash it in to a change *anyone's* rolled fail to an auto succeed for non-attacks or to re-roll an attack, then they give it back to me. Since there's only one they're pretty quick to cash it in on just about anyone's turn and get it back to me in hopes of them or someone else re-earning.

Ultimately both are out to encourage what I think good DMing should be about: make the players fans of each other. Succeed there and you get a whole lot more for free.

>My favorite system doesn't have power levels for characters instead it has "votes" for how the story goes.

What system is this? It sounds familiar, but hell if I can think of it.

Dogs in the Vineyard. You roll dice for anything on your character sheet that's involved with the scene, good bad or indifferent, then go around the table and raise/call/help with them until one side or the other runs out of dice, then whoever has dice left narrates out the rest of the scene.

I had some trouble getting my head around it when I thought of them as "power levels" but it makes a lot more sense once I saw them as "votes." "Blind: 3d10" doesn't mean I get 3 huge bonus dice for being blind, it means that when the fact that my character is blind comes up I want a lot of dice power to work with. Likewise "I am the greatest sniper in the whole wide world: 1d4" means that I might well be the greatest sniper who ever lived for story purposes but I don't care much if at all to vote on that part of the story.

Amazing system but coming from a D&D/Pathfinder/Mechwarrior background it was one hell of an adjustment to make.

Thanks. Sounds weird and confusing, but that's exactly the kind of game I'm looking for right now.

I've never played DitV, but I hear it does a great Dark Heresy game.

It's weird and confusing until it clicks and then it's *really* straightforward. Just remember it's votes not power levels and that it values telling a good story more than it values making good tactical decisions and it'll click faster for you than it did me.

The included setting pretty much is a Wild Wild West Dark Heresy game to begin with. You play a bunch of "teenage virgin gunslingers" charged with going from town to town in this pseduo-Mormon settlements with the literal power to interpret the holy book as you see fit and render judgements, including death sentences, in pursuit of rooting out hidden corruptions.That'll work with quite a few paintjobs all by itself.

Once you have the base mechanic down, though, it's ridiculously easy to rework it for any type of setting or goal you want. One of my favorite things to do is steal the setting from another more tactical game and redo with the DitV system so it becomes "D&D, but more narrative" or "Mechwarrior, but more narrative."

It's also great for doing lightning-quick Unofficial RPGs for branded properties. You can watch a movie and have a basic RPG ready to play by the time you drive home.

>Goodboy Points handed out by King Nerd
my view also and I lol'd. i think people are conditioned to think like this because of our poor excuse for education systems and employment hierarchies. ttrpgs are a leisure activity.

Everybody has the same amount of XP. Any extras earned by any person go into that shared pool.

Actual individual rewards for good RP is more opportunities for RP.
If you can't RP then sorry, that's just you.

That's how I handle bonus XP in general, but I don't give it out for roleplaying specifically.

I know this scenario all too well, my friend.

My group doesn't even need the goodboy points incentive... They just act that way, naturally.

Here I am, sitting on a 9 page backstory for my character, role playing my ass off, and trying to investigate the happenings in the game.

Meanwhile, they're trying to see who can come up with the most puns related to things in the previous room.

No, because rewarding people for doing the thing that's the entire point of the fucking exercise is retarded.

If you have to give out gold stars for role-playing in a role-playing group, your role-playing group is shit.

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy role-playing systems that give players ways of influencing the story and other meta shit, but "earning" them through not being terrible at role-playing is absolute cancer.

>find this practice absolutely disgusting
>don't have to worry about players asking to play a system like this
>because I tell my players I'll take care of the exp >but I really just arbitrarily decide when they level up

Good Roleplaying is an reward in on itself!
Or it should be. No of course you dont get special powers etc. but since you romanced that Mage, of course there is a discount for magic items for you since, well you are her spouse.
In our World a lopt of NPCs a willing to give good stuff to the PCs but not because they are "part of the group and there" but if they are Friends. Because thats what friends do, helping each other.

The DM's little sister rewards us with these when we do well.
Best girl.