Proposal for Xp awards for Bios, please give your thoughts

[Analogkid]

I wasn't aware that one can get XP from writing stories ...maybe i'll now make a journal of Toby's day to day activities ((day 1, read and copy down a scroll, day 2, read, go for a walk, copy another scroll).


Anyways I say go ahead and give xp for submitting a bio. In fact I would go as far as to say make it enough to have a PC reach level 2.

Level 1 is too dangerous, level 2 drastically changes things.

[Galadorn]

I love level 1. So scary/fun.

I love RPing "new PCs". And weak PCs. Meeting others, surprises, RPing your new PC's quirks and character traits, etc.

As many have mentioned, getting to level 2 really does not take long now... so for me it's just a fun time, i try to drag it out as long as i could, but playing alone and a new PC it's just so many statics that are so much more number-rewarding TO a level 1, that even when you try, it comes quickly anyway.


In fact (as i've mentioned before) my next PC, i'm asking for the first 500xp to be removed ...back to 0xp.
(to simulate "level 0", i.e. -500xp).

Additionally, i hope to create a "OOC LEVEL ZERO RING ITEM" that a DM/HDM will let my level "zer0" PC wear from the start, that will reduce all abilities by 1, and give my PC a -1 (or -2 maybe) to all skill rolls.

I'll also choose a Feat that will have very minimal in-game effect, or an effect that i can effectively "cancel" on my own when playing... like, maybe choose a "Skill: Focus" feat, and whenever I roll that feat's skill... just take the roll at -3 intentionally... or something like that.

Unless, ....can you "not" choose an initial feat, and get it later?
I don't think so. Anyway. That's the plan.

[Mikayla]

I believe I am the most prolific author in ALFA's library, and I don't think I've ever gotten XP for writing a story. Of course, I make no claims about quality, so perhaps quantity is not enough. *shrugs*

M.

[t-ice]

I like to read bios and will always prefer to DM PCs who have one. Especially bios that tell what the PC would want to DO and strive to ACHIEVE. Guess I'm just a big savant who doesn't really care how a PC feels while he picks his own navel. Or read what accounts to a short novel while I'm DMing. If we give a xp award, I think we should also make a short "bio form". Like what Heegz suggested his players provide. Core info on a couple paragraphs, and then a "here, write a novel if you feel like it" at the end.

I would love it if infra and tech would make the PC bio database a part of the website interface. So that each player can write their own bio there, without needing a DM. Have a public side, and DM-only side. The DM-only side would include background and future goals chapters, 200 words max each. Then on both sides there would be a "free word" field. Every player can see the public side of each PC bio, and every player could of course see and update their own PCs bio on both sides.

I think players will be much more inclined to keep their bios up to date if they saw it themselves, as opposed to buried on DM forums. Also they could maintain a version, as opposed to add stuff sporadically.

[Matti]

+1 to t-ice

I don't see the great benefit in providing more static xp by providing a bio. But I do see that an easily managed and scrutinized bio/snippet/plothook form both enhancing immersion and the overall experience for players and DMs alike. Adventures and plots that actually pull on the imagination you poured into the written bio will provide both the individual character with depth and add an easy but powerful tool for the DM to use in search for inspiration.

[Swift]

+1 to both these posts.

Leave the XP for PCs actually doing/learning something in the game.

[Khazar Stoneblood]

I love level 1. So scary/fun.

I love RPing "new PCs". And weak PCs. Meeting others, surprises, RPing your new PC's quirks and character traits, etc.

As many have mentioned, getting to level 2 really does not take long now... so for me it's just a fun time, i try to drag it out as long as i could, but playing alone and a new PC it's just so many statics that are so much more number-rewarding TO a level 1, that even when you try, it comes quickly anyway.


In fact (as i've mentioned before) my next PC, i'm asking for the first 500xp to be removed ...back to 0xp.
(to simulate "level 0", i.e. -500xp).

Additionally, i hope to create a "OOC LEVEL ZERO RING ITEM" that a DM/HDM will let my level "zer0" PC wear from the start, that will reduce all abilities by 1, and give my PC a -1 (or -2 maybe) to all skill rolls.

I'll also choose a Feat that will have very minimal in-game effect, or an effect that i can effectively "cancel" on my own when playing... like, maybe choose a "Skill: Focus" feat, and whenever I roll that feat's skill... just take the roll at -3 intentionally... or something like that.

Unless, ....can you "not" choose an initial feat, and get it later?
I don't think so. Anyway. That's the plan.

How many PC's have you played at level 1 in ALFA? I ask because I remember your toons being very static.

I've been much more cautious then I was in ALFA-1... and I've still got 4-5 dead toons in my vault in a month of playing. And it's not at simple to get to level 2 as some think. Yeah, it probably is once your familiar with the content of the server, but if you're going through the first time and don't know where any of that static content IS... it's much harder.

For example, on TSM my extremely non-combat oriented Bard was trying to help another bard with his muse... and got smacked dead by a spirit in the middle of the city. With that, the gnome Chomsky who I had spent a lot of time developing in my head went poof. It probably is fine for existing ALFA players. But it's very tough for new arrivals.

[Brokenbone]

Well... bio writing (as well as any other fiction) is zero risk, but check it out, we do reward for zero risk activities IN GAME, via DM, as DM RP XP.

http://www.alandfaraway.org/node/448

The "well you didn't take any risk in game" thing is really all that would disqualify any kind of "story" from a completely separate kind of XP, which is DM Quest XP which takes into account challenge, whether something drained resources and nearly killed your PC etc.

...

I am not hugely supportive of any current practices that individual DMs might have to reward for library or bio type stuff, because it is not supported by our current rules. Change the rule, such as maybe under that DM RP XP link to say "you can reward up to 200xp per month for writing / songs / illustrations / etc. made available to you or the community at large under whichever of the poor thru exceptional headings you see fit."

Maybe some amazing piece of art, a DM says "BAM! That is easily a lot of hours of exceptional RP, look at how that dwarf is cutting off orc heads!", immediately bury the needle for the month in terms of reward.

Maybe in a "group" forum or IC rumor posts, a DM reads some IC "planning" posts for an expedition, says to themselves "hah, not a bad plan but kind of ignoring some of the negatives I've tried to give hints on... and that post probably took less than 15 minutes to make, .25hrs x 45xp for good RP, eh I'll give a 10xp cookie as it's easier than awarding 11xp next time I see that PC."

Same'd go for poems, songs, longer library stuff, whatever. And bios which was the point of the thread right? Some kickass bio, could be muliple hours at the highest xp per hour figure. Some regular "um, family slaughtered by goblins, now he is off to see the world and carve out his fortune, all the while despising goblins" is just a quick (30 mins) average (30xp/hr) kind of thing, 15xp. That latter example does however mean there's "plenty of room left" under any kind of monthly cap on that kind of thing, maybe a boring "hates goblins" generic background ends up enhanced when writing some after action report of being taken out to some goblin camp by more seasoned adventurers, DMless, and a better tale is put together about in game events, some rumor post about Joe Nooblin parading around the local bars with a severed goblin head on a pole sticking out of his pack, good for a laugh. People like reading about adventures, that's the "better" place to make rewards, even DMless, right?

[Rumple C]

I got 140xp from Riot once, after writing a song about being a patriotic Ffolk person (for propaganda reasons) with my bard, and performing it around the place in MS . It was neither expected, nor was i ever under the expectation that i would see more xp for anything i wrote in the library, and there has been quite a bit over the last year. Most of it crap, but whatever.

I do it for my own enjoyment.

[StephenUmpf]

I like the idea of updating a players BIO along the way! It could be in the form of a letter home or a letter to a priest or a diary entry or a dream or pillow talk.... whatever. But the idea that it gets added to a BIO in the DM forums is great. Players motivation and such changes from level 1... updating it would be cool. Good idea.

As for EXP for a Bio, I am against. It is just part of the game. Do it. It shouldn't require a carrot or for that matter a stick. If you play within your Bio and act accordingly, sure, why not EXP. But for writing one? Just play.

Stephen

[t-ice]

I like the idea of updating a players BIO along the way! It could be in the form of a letter home or a letter to a priest or a diary entry or a dream or pillow talk.... whatever. But the idea that it gets added to a BIO in the DM forums is great. Players motivation and such changes from level 1... updating it would be cool. Good idea.

I would note that the central message of the bio should be updated and maintained within a controlled length (say, 200 words).

In addition to this, there could be the collected volumes about the PC in the bio, but a TLDR version is the key so that a DM can actually do something with the PC without first reading for an hour.

By the way, writing especially IC accounts of your character to the Library forum is already much recommended.

[gonz.0]

I like the idea of updating a players BIO along the way! It could be in the form of a letter home or a letter to a priest or a diary entry or a dream or pillow talk.... whatever. But the idea that it gets added to a BIO in the DM forums is great. Players motivation and such changes from level 1... updating it would be cool. Good idea.

As for EXP for a Bio, I am against. It is just part of the game. Do it. It shouldn't require a carrot or for that matter a stick. If you play within your Bio and act accordingly, sure, why not EXP. But for writing one? Just play.

Stephen

Actually that is how I am updating my bio for Rhodes, letters home. It is a fun way.

[gonz.0]

I think players will be much more inclined to keep their bios up to date if they saw it themselves, as opposed to buried on DM forums. Also they could maintain a version, as opposed to add stuff sporadically.

+1

[FoamBats4All]

I think players will be much more inclined to keep their bios up to date if they saw it themselves, as opposed to buried on DM forums. Also they could maintain a version, as opposed to add stuff sporadically.

+1

I keep my bios on a wiki, for just that reason.

[Ronan]

...got smacked dead by a spirit in the middle of the city.

If you got killed by some sort of ghost in the middle of Silverymoon, that sounds like some thing or some one might've screwed up. Might be grounds for a tech rez. I would inquire with a DM.

With that, the gnome Chomsky who I had spent a lot of time developing in my head went poof. It probably is fine for existing ALFA players. But it's very tough for new arrivals.

You played a gnome PC named Chomsky, and you expect us to have mercy on you? Though I do recall a PC named after a car model, which is likely worse. Kidding aside, yeah ALFA is very nasty for newbies. Its not so much the sheer difficulty as it is the complexity and unfamiliarity combined with perma-death, as you say.

Your best bet is always to join up with an existing group of players.