Another week, another question from my tumblelog that I think is best served by hearing multiple voices sound off on the subject. I could sound off on this alone, but I know some of you have approaches that I haven’t thought of, so let’s hear them. This time, it’s a question of GM style and tactics, applicable to a wide variety of games:
How do you reward character development or revealing character history in a game?
By saying yes. And then by building on it.
You know, Paul, this is one of those areas where I feel like the shibboleth for those who know how to do it runs the risk of excluding those who want to learn how to do it. So this is a great place to start the discussion: How does one build on character history in actual play? What does that look like?
So my friend Roy is playing an ex-Army combat surgeon in our Delta Green hack. He mentions at some point that he had a very close relationship with his grandfather (who was also in the military), and he occasionally talks about things his grandfather told him. So a few sessions later, they get a file from the Office of Naval Intelligence about a Delta Green attack on a Deep One base. Who wrote the file? Roy’s grandfather.
Later on, I asked, “Is he the one who recruited you into the conspiracy?” Roy said yes, and there we were.
How do I reward character development or revealing character history in a game?
Screen time. Pavlovian conditioning encourages the other players to do the same.
I actually submitted the question originally with a bit more of a mechanical bent. I am trying to fiddle around with rewards to encourage these two aspects in play, but the inspiration is lacking.
I suppose the corollary question is, who is best positioned to encourage this development? GM commentary, the player in question or the other players?
For me there are two ways this can be done. The in-game way and the mechanics way. If the game I am running supports the GM in awarding experience for things like roleplaying or lets me add experience categories without breaking balance, I’ll do so. A minor experience award is simple and helps the player feel like their contribution was noticed.
Doing it in-game builds up the story a lot more though. If a player brings up a piece of their backstory or history I mark it down in my GM notes with a big star next to it. I’ll usually try to write an adventure around, or incorporating, that element. If I’ve got a magic sword that will be in an upcoming adventure but I have a way to link it to a character, say their ancestor once held it and it is supposed to pass down bloodlines, I will. Other players might feel a little jilted, so I’ll try to keep the story/mechanical rewards spread out a bit and I’ll disclose that bringing up character hooks and history that I can use will get it incorporated. I tend to run very player-driven and rarely have anything but the beginning of a story mapped out before I start running a game.
One of the most effective ways of rewarding an awesome bit of character development, or the introduction of a great bit of backstory, is to simply tell the player that you approve, whether you’re the GM or just another player. “That’s awesome,” you say, making eye contact and nodding.
Don’t distract from the game with it. Don’t bring things to a stop for congratulations. Just make sure the player knows that he or she just added something to the game that you think made it better. That’s a narcotic, right there.
Getting straight to the question, and avoiding previous comments, here are my thoughts.
“How do you reward character development or revealing character history in a game?”
There are two parts to the answer.
First, I acknowledge how awesome I think that the addition made the game session briefly like Jeff recommended. Don’t let it stall the session, but acknowledge the cool addition. This is followed by having that character development affect future story lines. The Sub-Plot chapter in DC Heroes heavily affected the way I DM and in that game Sub-Plots are used to encourage players to create stories that will affect play. I try to do this whenever possible. If one of my players wants to play an Elder God named Noa Shuggot who, it happens, was the Atlantean God of Justice before he was driven mad, then that will become a part of future Necessary Evil adventures.
The second thing I do, depends on the game system that we are using at the time. As such, the mechanical rewards the player receives can be either permanent or a scene based bonus. If we are using DC Heroes, the player can use Hero Points to “shape the environment” and I might allow that player to instantly acquire a benefit within the scene based on the character development. If we are playing Savage Worlds, the development is worthy of bennies in session and possibly the acquisition of a previously unpurchased “background edge” at the next advancement.
In an RPG where roleplaying itself is rewarded, I’ll grant bonus xps for the addition. Backstory is equal to previously “unknown” experiences of the character.
The key in these situations is to maximize the story benefits, while not incentivizing “gaming” the system. You don’t want to give such grand mechanical bonuses that players are always looking for a new — and sometimes inconsistent — backstory to give them an ability. You also want to make sure to reward it enough to encourage players to do it. These in game moments are some of the most rewarding moments in a game.
When Noa Shuggot’s cultist sidekick Steven Caruso discovered that Noa had once been the God of Justice, it set up meetings with John Balladstone (the occultist supreme in my Necessary Evil campaign) where the players set up the next five adventures. When these adventures were over, I allowed the player to have a “radiation accident” where he restructured the character — with the same number of power points — to reflect the new “origin.”