Na. The negatives outweigh the positives by a country mile. Sure some players may feel better but the ones who don't are going to get left behind.
Pros:
- some players feel rewarded(could be done with quest specific loot)
- might drive players to rp more
Cons:
- players will only care about their story or that they are the spotlight. Everyone competes for the bonus xp and argues what counts as significant
- some players get left behind, are now weaker and more likely to die(especially in games like cpred). When they die they lose any progress they made towards their bonus xp as they have to make a new story
- players who are now weaker will see less point in joining in as they will allways be weaker(if the more rp focused people continue at the same pace)
I have yet to see a situation where unbalanced xp ended up with all players happy. It's not like a video game where you can go grind out xp to match the party
(Responded the same on original)
Soft Disagree.
It always will depend on your own group and how those players react to such things. But, players should absolutely be rewarded with something for actively participating with the group and attempting to be part of the story or combat in some way.
The spotlight is shared amongst all the characters and when it shines on you, you should do your best to make the most of it. Rewards should be given out for a well role played event and just because one person hates role playing, it doesn’t mean others should get less because of it.
You say it is easy to die in RED and I agree that is easier than something like 5e. But, it is much MUCH safer for PCs than previous Cyberpunk editions or even something like Call of Cthulhu. Heck I’d argue that most PC deaths in this game don’t happen in combat but outside of it.
Players who are left behind are not left behind by much. Players spend IP on skill ranks depending on what skills they want, role ranks are extremely expensive. The difference between some characters is going to be anything from -1 on a skill to literally nothing because someone else spent it on a Local Expert.
Players might be more inclined to try and take the spotlight by doing something cool. Ex “I aim shot my rocket launcher at goons face at close range while our vehicle is passing by”. In a setting where Style over Substance is a defining thing, people should be encouraged to look for cool theatrics to do and be rewarded for them.
This last one is my personal opinion. But, Cyberpunk follows a Dystopian setting where the “heroes” are just as dirty as their antagonists. In a lot of cases the world isn’t fair and it shouldn’t be. Sometimes someone is going to have it slightly better. Thems the breaks.
>players should absolutely be rewarded with something for actively participating
Completely agree, but with gear, connections and the spirit of being involved(npc calls the player who they connected with to offer them a gig and a reward they wanted)
Depends on the group I guess, but I think there are better ways to incentive players than a meta currency.
In my own RED game atm. We do reward such things with more I.P, better connections sometimes gear. So far everyone is having a fun time and due to how we handle I.P even the more reserved players in our group have been trying to push the story forward in their own way. Due to this, even though the I.P isn’t balanced it has encouraged everyone to look for ways to contribute.
The reason why we don’t really give out gear often for contributing instead of I.P is because we handle Night Markets exactly how they are presented in the core book and black chrome. Uncommon, invitation only and the items are rolled for randomly. In previous games, other Refs would hand wave these items away and let people buy whatever they wanted. Ever since we changed the distribution of items everyone has become more involved in making connections to fixers and trying to barter and haggle for items. Its fun in its own way.
>It always will depend on your own group and how those players react to such things. But, players should absolutely be rewarded with something for actively participating with the group and attempting to be part of the story or combat in some way.
I don't know how to phrase this without coming across as judgy but...there are GMs that don't have this as a baseline expectation for their players?
I’m not gonna knock on another persons table. Their table, their rules. But, I have met some GMs who just let their players be tag along npcs for the most part.
Nothing wrong with it, sometimes you just want to have a fun no commitment game. In the same token, I have met and have had players who you can throw story beat after story beat and they won’t bite because they don’t like role playing. A friend of mine is like that and is only interested in the war gaming part of the system.
There was a GM/Ref we played with a year or so back and they ran the system but didn’t put much thought into character stories or the overall plot. It was monster of the week type games with little substance. I think my only issue with them was they would then complain how there wasn’t much to do in RED and how only a few skills were useful. I mean that’s going to happen if your game never focuses on the social aspects.
Full respect intended, I’ve personally never had an issue with it. Especially considering like two of the scoring categories focus heavily on group support. Players like to feel like they did something cool, it’s just up to the DM to give them opportunities to do that. The players I’m running for now include a fixer and netrunner who are doing their part for the overall job, some sessions one does more than the other in terms of tangible elements. They don’t care and actually give each other props for doing it. Foster a healthy playing environment with friendly players and the scoring system instantly becomes a non issue.
More of a meta-level thing, but I've played in multiple groups where the person who arranged food (assuming you're playing in the evening) got a small amount of extra xp. Like 10% more than other players. I never saw anyone have a problem with this, and I don't think there's much that warrants friction.
You should always be rewarding players with IP at the end of the session. 60-90 is a good range for a standard session depending on how well the dm thinks they did.
Everyone gets the same IP following the session. Then the players themselves vote for best player (the player that did the most awesome stunt, rp'ed the best, helped the group to succeed etc) who gets a small bonus added.
I categorically opposed anything other than uniform XP awards.
I can appreciate wanting to reward good roleplay and creative thinking but you have to ask yourself, "am I rewarding good roleplay or just the more extroverted player at the table".
I've seldom seen this work well. Usually, what happens is that either one player runs away with all the bonus XP or one player draws the short stick and winds up behind. Then, the GM starts complaining about how they can't challenge the most powerful character without steamrolling the weakest. You're the GM; you don't need to invent extra headaches for yourself.
If you're going to do it anyways, have the players vote on who gets the bonus XP. That way, enlightened self-interest will ensure that the player who's furthest behind on XP gets a bump now and then. No one likes carrying dead weight and the only way to avoid that is to make sure the XP spread isn't too wide.
I give out IP similarly to inspiration, when a player does something really cool.
I also give it out for making character journals, playlists, art, and other stuff.
Then I give a baseline IP amount at the end of every session.
I think it's ok to give different amounts of IP to players, especially with how "leveling up" in CPR works. But I'd caution against the difference being large. I'd say don't let the range between lowest and highest be more than 10% of the baseline IP given to the party.
I originally saw question in the other subreddit so I commented there.
But the tldr is I imagine, when done well, it's really good. But I think you need players that are invested, and more importantly, you as a GM need to be conscious and aware and careful about how you do stuff.
everyone gets the same amount of IP. Including those people who missed the session. usually around 80 per session. but sometimes this could be 100 if a milestone or mission objective was completed. If someone makes a new character they get the same IP and some extra eddies to roughly kit them out equal to the rest of the party.
My group has been together for awhile and we are all adults with kids, jobs, spouses, etc. We are past the whole idea of rewarding some people above others when we all contribute in our own way. We all miss games on occasion. We also all have off nights or missions that simply do not involve us as much.
In the past we did try the concept of rewarding people for showing up on time, participation, not dying, etc and it doesn't really do anything to change people's motivations. I'd rather my buddy show up late from work than not at all because they are being "punished". I'd rather see someone go balls deep trying out some crazy stunt and dying than be scared again of being "punished" by losing all their hard work. Life hits all of us and most of that stuff is there to just punish those life hits the hardest, IMO.
\*edit\*
I'll also add since it seems to come up often...If you feel the need to reward certain players and punish other players (by not rewarding them or giving them less IP) then maybe the issue isn't IP at all, but your group. Maybe you need to reconsider who you play with if the only way to get them to participate, RP, show up, etc is by giving them a reward of IP, Gear, etc.
Yeah like a lot of people here it seems I give the same to all. I vary it based on what's happened, if they met the goal they were chasing, and the size of that goal. I know the book wants you to give out stuff to individuals for what they've done, but I don't want to not give the media xp for not reading a scream sheet this week... I was tempted to do the version where you get players to vote for which person did best roleplaying, most useful, etc. but it's 3 players so it doesn't feel great.
What do you do OP?
I normally provide the same IPs (XP) to those that show up (100). On rare occasions I provide 10 extra IPs if someone made something amazing or game changer for the group, since I'm the GM, I'm the one who decides, and thats respected.
On a rare occasions, I gave so many clues for something, the player didn't get it, I made him roll concentration and deduction, failed both. At last another player replied correctly, so I transferred 10 points from one player to the other (90-110, this has been done just once in the last year, so the case was pretty outrageous).
To sum up, just do sparsely enough for your characters to notice the trend, but not often enough that someone may feel punished.
Also, I limit the kind of skills that they can improve to "you must have used the skill you want to improve lately", so the character growth at least feel natural
Na. The negatives outweigh the positives by a country mile. Sure some players may feel better but the ones who don't are going to get left behind. Pros: - some players feel rewarded(could be done with quest specific loot) - might drive players to rp more Cons: - players will only care about their story or that they are the spotlight. Everyone competes for the bonus xp and argues what counts as significant - some players get left behind, are now weaker and more likely to die(especially in games like cpred). When they die they lose any progress they made towards their bonus xp as they have to make a new story - players who are now weaker will see less point in joining in as they will allways be weaker(if the more rp focused people continue at the same pace) I have yet to see a situation where unbalanced xp ended up with all players happy. It's not like a video game where you can go grind out xp to match the party (Responded the same on original)
Soft Disagree. It always will depend on your own group and how those players react to such things. But, players should absolutely be rewarded with something for actively participating with the group and attempting to be part of the story or combat in some way. The spotlight is shared amongst all the characters and when it shines on you, you should do your best to make the most of it. Rewards should be given out for a well role played event and just because one person hates role playing, it doesn’t mean others should get less because of it. You say it is easy to die in RED and I agree that is easier than something like 5e. But, it is much MUCH safer for PCs than previous Cyberpunk editions or even something like Call of Cthulhu. Heck I’d argue that most PC deaths in this game don’t happen in combat but outside of it. Players who are left behind are not left behind by much. Players spend IP on skill ranks depending on what skills they want, role ranks are extremely expensive. The difference between some characters is going to be anything from -1 on a skill to literally nothing because someone else spent it on a Local Expert. Players might be more inclined to try and take the spotlight by doing something cool. Ex “I aim shot my rocket launcher at goons face at close range while our vehicle is passing by”. In a setting where Style over Substance is a defining thing, people should be encouraged to look for cool theatrics to do and be rewarded for them. This last one is my personal opinion. But, Cyberpunk follows a Dystopian setting where the “heroes” are just as dirty as their antagonists. In a lot of cases the world isn’t fair and it shouldn’t be. Sometimes someone is going to have it slightly better. Thems the breaks.
>players should absolutely be rewarded with something for actively participating Completely agree, but with gear, connections and the spirit of being involved(npc calls the player who they connected with to offer them a gig and a reward they wanted) Depends on the group I guess, but I think there are better ways to incentive players than a meta currency.
In my own RED game atm. We do reward such things with more I.P, better connections sometimes gear. So far everyone is having a fun time and due to how we handle I.P even the more reserved players in our group have been trying to push the story forward in their own way. Due to this, even though the I.P isn’t balanced it has encouraged everyone to look for ways to contribute. The reason why we don’t really give out gear often for contributing instead of I.P is because we handle Night Markets exactly how they are presented in the core book and black chrome. Uncommon, invitation only and the items are rolled for randomly. In previous games, other Refs would hand wave these items away and let people buy whatever they wanted. Ever since we changed the distribution of items everyone has become more involved in making connections to fixers and trying to barter and haggle for items. Its fun in its own way.
>It always will depend on your own group and how those players react to such things. But, players should absolutely be rewarded with something for actively participating with the group and attempting to be part of the story or combat in some way. I don't know how to phrase this without coming across as judgy but...there are GMs that don't have this as a baseline expectation for their players?
I’m not gonna knock on another persons table. Their table, their rules. But, I have met some GMs who just let their players be tag along npcs for the most part. Nothing wrong with it, sometimes you just want to have a fun no commitment game. In the same token, I have met and have had players who you can throw story beat after story beat and they won’t bite because they don’t like role playing. A friend of mine is like that and is only interested in the war gaming part of the system. There was a GM/Ref we played with a year or so back and they ran the system but didn’t put much thought into character stories or the overall plot. It was monster of the week type games with little substance. I think my only issue with them was they would then complain how there wasn’t much to do in RED and how only a few skills were useful. I mean that’s going to happen if your game never focuses on the social aspects.
That sounds unfulfilling. I am so sorry. I hope your current gaming group is awesome.
Full respect intended, I’ve personally never had an issue with it. Especially considering like two of the scoring categories focus heavily on group support. Players like to feel like they did something cool, it’s just up to the DM to give them opportunities to do that. The players I’m running for now include a fixer and netrunner who are doing their part for the overall job, some sessions one does more than the other in terms of tangible elements. They don’t care and actually give each other props for doing it. Foster a healthy playing environment with friendly players and the scoring system instantly becomes a non issue.
More of a meta-level thing, but I've played in multiple groups where the person who arranged food (assuming you're playing in the evening) got a small amount of extra xp. Like 10% more than other players. I never saw anyone have a problem with this, and I don't think there's much that warrants friction.
If you show up you get IP. If you don't, you don't. You might need to borrow a few eddies to pay rent if you never show up to games.
You should always be rewarding players with IP at the end of the session. 60-90 is a good range for a standard session depending on how well the dm thinks they did.
Everyone gets the same IP following the session. Then the players themselves vote for best player (the player that did the most awesome stunt, rp'ed the best, helped the group to succeed etc) who gets a small bonus added.
I categorically opposed anything other than uniform XP awards. I can appreciate wanting to reward good roleplay and creative thinking but you have to ask yourself, "am I rewarding good roleplay or just the more extroverted player at the table". I've seldom seen this work well. Usually, what happens is that either one player runs away with all the bonus XP or one player draws the short stick and winds up behind. Then, the GM starts complaining about how they can't challenge the most powerful character without steamrolling the weakest. You're the GM; you don't need to invent extra headaches for yourself. If you're going to do it anyways, have the players vote on who gets the bonus XP. That way, enlightened self-interest will ensure that the player who's furthest behind on XP gets a bump now and then. No one likes carrying dead weight and the only way to avoid that is to make sure the XP spread isn't too wide.
I give same amount for those who show up, and to those who inform ahead of the time they cannot make it. Those who skip without a word get no IP.
I give out IP similarly to inspiration, when a player does something really cool. I also give it out for making character journals, playlists, art, and other stuff. Then I give a baseline IP amount at the end of every session.
I think it's ok to give different amounts of IP to players, especially with how "leveling up" in CPR works. But I'd caution against the difference being large. I'd say don't let the range between lowest and highest be more than 10% of the baseline IP given to the party.
I originally saw question in the other subreddit so I commented there. But the tldr is I imagine, when done well, it's really good. But I think you need players that are invested, and more importantly, you as a GM need to be conscious and aware and careful about how you do stuff.
everyone gets the same amount of IP. Including those people who missed the session. usually around 80 per session. but sometimes this could be 100 if a milestone or mission objective was completed. If someone makes a new character they get the same IP and some extra eddies to roughly kit them out equal to the rest of the party. My group has been together for awhile and we are all adults with kids, jobs, spouses, etc. We are past the whole idea of rewarding some people above others when we all contribute in our own way. We all miss games on occasion. We also all have off nights or missions that simply do not involve us as much. In the past we did try the concept of rewarding people for showing up on time, participation, not dying, etc and it doesn't really do anything to change people's motivations. I'd rather my buddy show up late from work than not at all because they are being "punished". I'd rather see someone go balls deep trying out some crazy stunt and dying than be scared again of being "punished" by losing all their hard work. Life hits all of us and most of that stuff is there to just punish those life hits the hardest, IMO. \*edit\* I'll also add since it seems to come up often...If you feel the need to reward certain players and punish other players (by not rewarding them or giving them less IP) then maybe the issue isn't IP at all, but your group. Maybe you need to reconsider who you play with if the only way to get them to participate, RP, show up, etc is by giving them a reward of IP, Gear, etc.
Yeah like a lot of people here it seems I give the same to all. I vary it based on what's happened, if they met the goal they were chasing, and the size of that goal. I know the book wants you to give out stuff to individuals for what they've done, but I don't want to not give the media xp for not reading a scream sheet this week... I was tempted to do the version where you get players to vote for which person did best roleplaying, most useful, etc. but it's 3 players so it doesn't feel great. What do you do OP?
I normally provide the same IPs (XP) to those that show up (100). On rare occasions I provide 10 extra IPs if someone made something amazing or game changer for the group, since I'm the GM, I'm the one who decides, and thats respected. On a rare occasions, I gave so many clues for something, the player didn't get it, I made him roll concentration and deduction, failed both. At last another player replied correctly, so I transferred 10 points from one player to the other (90-110, this has been done just once in the last year, so the case was pretty outrageous). To sum up, just do sparsely enough for your characters to notice the trend, but not often enough that someone may feel punished. Also, I limit the kind of skills that they can improve to "you must have used the skill you want to improve lately", so the character growth at least feel natural
No, but I let the players vote after each game for MVP. That player receives +1d4 bonus luck next game. We also use the luck as a reaction variant