Re: [WW] XP Award for starting characters

[gathomas4@juno.com]

On Tue, 21 May 2002 05:01:40 EDT Weirdwarsvet44@aol.com writes:

> I think its a good idea, but i am not sure if 100% extra is maybe a 
> bit too much, sure alot of players wont get that but there is a chance
they 
> will. 

Well, the 100% is only as much as the WM allows, because the "of what"
part of the percent is determined by the WM.  For example, i tried this
in a recent D&D campaign where the characters were 16th level or so.  i
decided that i didn't want the player starting with less than 78,000 and
no more than 105,000xp.  Based on the character write-up, i awarded the
player a percent of 27,000xp and added that to 78,000 to determine the
characters starting xp.  For a Weird Wars starting campaign, i might set
the minimum at 0xp and the maximum at 6,000xp.  My experience is that
most players will start in the neighborhood of 3000 to 5000, which, being
3rd level, is the recomended starting level for WW.  For the rare
individual who gets 100%, that's still barely 4th level.  Even so, if
6000 is too much, set the maximum at what you're comfortable with: 4000,
3000, whatever you want.

>To be honest most players should really put alot of those things you 
mentioned 
> into creating a characters background without having to get extra 
points, i 
> think they should want to do it from a roleplaying point of view.

i absolutely agree, but some players just don't do it.  Power gamers,
which are encouraged with systems like d20, are not ones to roleplay.  By
telling them  with concrete results that "roleplaying is the path to
character power, " i'm hoping to improve the quality of the sessions.  i
realize their habits will likely stay the same and i don't consider it my
job to teach them my way to roleplay - but i think it's both possible and
legitimate to take measures to improve the quality of play for everyone
else.

On the other hand, what if some of the award is based on the players
established record of roleplaying?  If the WM knows that this is the kind
of person who roleplays well, but maybe puts off doing a character
write-up, then award a percent, or a portion thereof, based on that.

> One of the players in my group never writes a background as he feels
that you 
> are  jinxing the character to die, which to be honest i have seen
before, 
> they do not write a background for quite some time, then when they have
done 
> a few adventures they think now is the right time to add more to the 
> chararcter, but no sooner is it done a unlucky(or lucky depending on
who it is) 
> shot blows them away.

i have personally waited until several sessions have passed to decide a
character's history, and so on based on the way i've been roleplaying the
character, so i sympathize with this point of view.  These kinds of
players are fine since power usually doesn't interest them as much and i
try not to set the minimum "punishingly" low.  In addition, i reward
roleplaying during the session, because that's the lion's share of
awarded xp in my games, and those who roleplay well will pass the
powergamers pretty quickly.



Happy Gaming, =)

screenmonkey




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