Points per each Game Session? What is average or normal?

[Qoltar]

Question for both GURPS GMS/reffs and the writers and designers of the game system :

What is the 'normal' number of points award for each game session?

Two?

Three?

When do you give more? When do you award less than usual?

-Ed C.

[johndallman]

"Awarding Bonus Character Points", p. B498-99, has some pretty good guidelines.

Personally, I can usually reply on my players to roleplay well, and to make progress towards objectives, so I usually give 3 points per session, with occasional general bonuses for achieving exceptional results.

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Question for both GURPS GMS/reffs and the writers and designers of the game system :

What is the 'normal' number of points award for each game session?

Two?

Three?

When do you give more? When do you award less than usual?

-Ed C.

I like giving 5 or even more, but that's because I like my players to climb in power quickly, for games over the top, and also because I like to play "from zero to hero" games. I also do extensive time lapses where I dump a bunch of points to them - for example "20 years have passed, when your phone finally rings the bell". So, in that time period, the PC go back to "university arcana", "psy-ops academy" and in theory spend those years sharping their skills. This is very common in my games with immortal chars (vampires, wizards, ultra tech campaigns etc), and when Im in the mood of those power games.

If you want a regular rate of growth, 3 is fine, but 2 or even 1 will do good for more "street level" games with a very slow rate of char development.

Heck, some superheroe comics have even 0 points growth (but most often its the result of reboots).

So the answer is: it depends on what you want. Remember that the amount of points is entirely arbitrary, based on what kind of game you want. This question is the same as "should my starting PCs have 100 points or 1000?" And the answer is "it depends on what you want".

[Donny Brook]

Short session or limited role play = 1 each

Normal session = 2 each (sometimes +1 for someone who did something special)

Long session or particularly good roleplay or problem solving = 3 each

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by KarlKost

I like giving 5 or even more, but that's because I like my players to climb in power quickly, for games over the top, and also because I like to play "from zero to hero" games.


..................


So the answer is: it depends on what you want. Remember that the amount of points is entirely arbitrary, based on what kind of game you want. This question is the same as "should my starting PCs have 100 points or 1000?" And the answer is "it depends on what you want".

Exactly.


I tend to have slower climbs, when an "arc" finishes I'm liable to give out five points. I had a recent game where each arc gave 10 points, and each arc was about 4 sessions long... but that was a high gain in power for my games. In some games I say "this is a one-shot, there will be no character growth."



Its also worth noting that not everyone's session is equivalent. I run two-hour sessions on week-nights. Some people run eight hour marathon sessions on weekends.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by johndallman

"Awarding Bonus Character Points", p. B498-99, has some pretty good guidelines.

Personally, I can usually reply on my players to roleplay well, and to make progress towards objectives, so I usually give 3 points per session, with occasional general bonuses for achieving exceptional results.

Yeah, I like 3 to 5 and mostly limit spending them to time spent training, researching, or other nonadventuring activities. Also incremental upgrades in most genres rather than massive boosts (all at once) in a skill or power except for four color campaigns.

It also depends on time invested (in and out of game) 2-3 for a typical 3 to 4 session is fine, probably 5 for an 8+ hour session.
I want growth but how fast varies based on the campaign. Character growth is a key thing to keeping players actively involved IMO.

[Pursuivant]

You can also award extra points based on metrics other than roleplaying, such as problem solving, comedy, staying true to genre tropes, being a mensch at the gaming table, etc.

Some GMs hold off awarding XP until the end of an adventure, others hand them out at the end of each play session.

Some GMs might spontaneously give players a small reward based on in play action. e.g., gaining an NPC as a minor Contact due to good Reaction Rolls or gaining a point in a particular skill as a result of spending several weeks of game time in a particular situation.

The final consideration is how "cinematic" you want the campaign to be and how fast do you want the characters to gain power. If you want PCs to get god-like fast, then it's not too crazy to hand out 2 or 3 times the usual XP awards. If you want PCs to remain reasonably static in power levels, be stingy with the XP.

The big deal is making sure that everyone understands when and how much XP get awarded and why.

I'd only award 0 points if little actual adventuring gets done during a play session, if a player consciously and repeatedly acts like a jerk, or deliberately and seriously breaks character to gain some advantage in play - like a player playing a PC with Cowardice refusing to play that disadvantage when it's inconvenient. If the GM wants to be merciful, they can save the docked points for a later session.

[whswhs]

I customarily give 3. I may give one more, either for accomplishment of something noteworthy, or for especially good roleplaying.

[RGTraynor]

A slow, routine or maintenance session: 1 point.

A relatively lively session with decent action/RP: 2 points.

An outstanding session, or the finale of a successful plot arc: 3 points.

The grand climax of a multi-year plot arc: 5 pts or so.

The player does something really clever, or has me breaking down in peals of laughter (something that's good for me): +1 point.

The player sits there like a lump, and/or does egregiously stupid or jackass actions: -1 point, and no more than 1 pt for the session. (I've given out a handful of zeros over the years to players so uncommunicative to provoke me to think "Why did you bother showing up?")

Beyond all that, I've given "extra credit" points for doing writeups of things I need for a gameworld that 44 years in, I'm nowhere near finishing. Cuisine of the elven empire, epic religious tales, a twenty-page full scale writeup of one of my religions, these are examples.

And I also, very rarely, toss out extra points for things that really make me happy. Everyone got +10 pts when the Springfield Indians -- the minor league hockey team for which I was then a season-ticket holder -- won the league championship. (Heck, the deciding game was on a play day. We had a session, then I took the whole group to the game.)

But all that being said, there's no such thing as "average" or "normal" across the whole spectrum of GURPSdom. There's just what's average or normal at individual tables.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I customarily give 3. I may give one more, either for accomplishment of something noteworthy, or for especially good roleplaying.

I usually give out three, also. Character growth is slow, but still meaningful.
Everybody can get something for their characters, but nobody gets everything they want.

For short sessions, or one in which everybody sat around and goofed off (which is fine, we're all friends), I'll give out two points.

For hard-charging sessions with good role-playimg and significant plot advancement, I'll give out four -- but that doesn't happen, very often.