From: tbarnes@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Re: GURPS character questions
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 03:34:27 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.161230.58558@cc.usu.edu> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
>
>First, in your campaign, how many points and how much starting money 
>do your players get to build characters? How many characters do the
>players have? Please mention the type of campaign/setting when you 
>answer.
>

Generally I tend to give my players about 100-150 points to build
characters on, with caps on skill levels and advantages (giving them
lots of skills at lower levels) and keep them pretty poor.
   However, in a WWII spies game I did, the characters were airdropped
with a small arsenal of weapons and a small fortune in couterfiet francs
which they had to distribute to the locals. However, this caused no
problems in the game, since any character who was conspicuous about his
money or his weapons got hauled away by the Gestapo.


>Second, how much experience do you award? Do you award individual 
>experience to players/characters who play well or do something out-
>standing? What do you award experience for? What things do you look 
>for when deciding how much experience you will give?
>

I generally give about 1 to 2% of the character's starting point value
in experience at the end of ANY adventure. If the players were really
dumb, obnoxious, or didn't role play their characters they get only 1
point. It's impolitic to stiff your players on experience.
   Outstanding cleverness, roleplaying or entertainment merits extra
points, generally 1 to 3 extra for medium power characters.
   Something I do which I hope my players like is to tell a player what
he did during play which caused me to reward him. ("John, you get an
extra 2 points for coming up with the clever plan for the jailbreak and
then leading the group effectively while they did it. Mike, you get a
point for that incredibly lucky roll you made to fast-talk the guard".
GM gets to play Santa and Players learn what the GM considers to be good
play.)
   Extensive use of a skill, in such a way that they character might
have learned something by it, generally results in a point being given
to increase that specific skill. ("Mike, add that point I gave you to
your German language skill for successfully passing yourself off as a
visiting SS officer.")

>Finally, when do you give experience? Let's say you begin a sceanrio --
>the players leave on a trip, go into a battle or embark to solve some
>problem. You get half way through the event and the game ends for the
>evening. Do you award experience? Must the characters seek training to
>use their experience points? If you do award experience ``mid-adventure,''
>do you put limits on how the characters can use their points? Limits
>such as they are only able to improve skills they have used during that
>session/game? 
>

I generally give experience between "episodes" when the characters have
a chance to recuperate, rest and reflect. Generally this works out to be
at the end of a gaming session. 
   If the adventure isn't complete when the session breaks up, I will
award points if at least a week of game time passes during the session
or if the characters use their skills a lot or do something important to
solve the scenario I have presented.
   I assume that the characters use the "down time" to practice what
they have learned.
   I generally allow about 1/2 of the points awarded to be used for
"free skills" (any skill which is known in the campaign, as long as
there is a teacher or the equivalent available) and 1/2 to be used for
"dedicated skills" (skills which the characters used or could have
easily learned on the adventure - desert survival in the desert - for
example.)
   Occasionally, I will award an advantage instead of character points
for completion of a major adventure. (The king like you so much he
promotes you to Captain...)
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Chadd VanZanten SL9B4@CC.USU.EDU + ``Gentlemen!  You can't fight in 
>here, this is the War Room!''   --Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove

Hope you have fun, 
     
   Tom
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc