Comments on: A cool way to bribe my players

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:38:03 +0000

I’m running a Call of Cthulhu game at the moment (Masks of Nyarlathotep). During the first session, I gave a player a notebook, and told him that he should keep notes.

Anyone familiar with the system will be aware of the high mortality rate amongst players. I’ve told them that if, perchance, they all die, their next characters will only have the notebook to work from. Assuming it survives intact.

I usually keep an in-character journal for games I am in. I’m currently playing a Bard in a 4e game, and just between us, I think he’d be dead if the other characters found it. :p

By: reveal

reveal — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:37:33 +0000

@Vbwyrde – The plan is to use the stories written by the players in-game, so hopefully there’s not much disconnect.

By: vbwyrde

vbwyrde — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:42:05 +0000

I’m not so sure how I feel about this prospect as a Player, to be honest. Our GM has offered something similar (xp for journal entries), and to be fair it’s not a bad idea, but I just don’t find myself actually doing it. It’s not that I don’t like getting xp, but then again, it’s just that getting xp for something that I the player does, instead of what the character does, somehow seems too artificial to me. I could get hero points but then my character is heroic not because of something in the game-story, but because of some metagame benefit. It just strikes me as disconnected, and so I just haven’t felt compelled by the idea. Has the reward been something linked to the game-story itself, then that might make a difference to me.

By: Viriatha

Viriatha — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:33:24 +0000

I’ve done this for years. Started with rewarding for snacks brought to the game and branched out from there. It works wonderfully.

Recently, I teamed it up with allowing players to spend personal xp to improve hirelings, pets and the like, which gives them even more reason to want xp. Win
.-= Viriatha´s last blog ..Classes and Levels Suck [Opinion] =-.

By: reveal

reveal — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:33:54 +0000

@Sean – I used to keep an in-character journal in a game I was in and I found it a lot of fun.

@Swordgleam – Well, I’m not trying to get them to keep session records, my wife does that any way, but really I think it will allow them to take more of a “storyteller” role for their characters instead of just a “note taker.”

By: Swordgleam

Swordgleam — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:15:10 +0000

I think we DMs tend to forget that there’s a reason we’re one one side of the screen and they’re on the other. Every time I’ve tried to bribe my players into keeping session records of any kind, it’s failed miserably. =P

But if you players are the type to go for it, more power to all of you! I would love this as a player, in those rare times when I get to play.

By: Sean Holland

Sean Holland — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:49:08 +0000

I kept an in-character journal for one of the game I was it. It was great fun and the character was a scholar, so it fit the character too. It also gave an interesting perspective on the campaign as the character knew far less of what was going on then we (the players) did so there were a set of out-of-game notes for those . . . .-= Sean Holland´s last blog ..The United Network Command for Law and Enforcement =-.