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1. Opened subplot for another player. (Ex: Tom shoots his mouth off about how Rex can shoot even better than William Tell, and so the local Baron demands that Rex compete in the upcoming competition against his champion Sir Tell.)
2. Opened subplot for Self. (As above, but lesser xp award.)
3. Unselfish bonus. (To reward the Good Guys who either stick to their character's character in spite of evil reward or who try to stay honorable in spite of the other characters.)

I also penalize xp for reusing the same ability over and over or trying to milk an ability for all it's worth.



From: John B.

With regard to Encouraging Roleplaying over combat I think one good way to encourage players not to shoot first, ask later is to allow them to go into a combat situation, slay the bad guy and then present an unexpected outcome from the combat.

For example, one of the "villains" just killed could have been an undercover agent for the king and the players actions instead of being heroic have just put the kingdom on the brink of war. For this to work properly you do have to provide the players with some way to figure it out before they enter combat through roleplaying. If they rush into combat without thinking they face the consequences of their actions...


From: Tony

I've found that the most effective way to encourage roleplaying is to ask each player to write a detailed history for their character before the campaign begins. Some players will be able to write detailed histories without any trouble at all. For those that have difficulty, spend some time outside of your normal gaming sessions talking to them about the game world and asking them questions about their character. Throwing around ideas for an interesting character background can be a lot of fun.

Player: "Maybe he used to be a soldier in some army." GM: "Yeah good idea, the Kingdom of Arthania is at war with the Gors at the moment, your character might be a Knight of Arthania, or a hired mercenary?" Player: "A mercenary yeah cool! He'd be a hard old guy like Clint Eastwood except with a soft heart..." etc.

It's a lot of fun and really primes the player, even a new player, to start roleplaying from day one. Character histories are great for the GM too, as they usually supply a whole bunch of NPCs and story ideas ready to work into the campaign.


From: Toran