So one of my 2 groups is ending at the end of the year and another one may be starting around then. I've talked with a couple of the players about it and they want a game with more variance of xp amounts based on RP and successfully resolving encounters.

I haven't run a game like that yet so here's my current thoughts on the matter. Your feedback is most welcome.

10xp as a baseline per session

5xp for each successfully resolved encounter

5xp awarded to those who play particularly well towards their motivations

5xp to players who utilize the conflict/morality, obligation or duty rules to enhance and inform their RP that session

Looking at a potential of 40xp/session if the players hit all the requirements and resolve 4 encounters/session. Decisions on who should get bonus xp should be discussed by the group at the end of session, with GM having final say of course.

I want to have a higher xp gain depending on how seldom we play and the players like the idea of having a game where you can individually be awarded xp for RP reasons.

Those are good criteria, but if you are looking for more reasons, as you did say you wanted a higher xp gain based on frequency of play, I'd suggest a few other potential avenues of reward.

1. Bonus XP for doing funny/awesome things that amuse you and/or the table in general. Playing to their motivations and morality is all well and good, but sometimes the stuff players come up with is either funny as heck, or awesome as heck. Given the high action, swashbuckling nature of the Star Wars setting, I fully encourage my players to channel their inner Errol Flynn when possible. And I reward them for it with XP. Because sometimes players can brighten up what might be an average scene, into something amazing, with their input.

2. Since you mentioned there are long gaps between your sessions, you might incorporate an out-of-game system for bonus XP. If there is any clerical work that has to be done for the upcoming session, outsource the non-spoilery stuff to your players. This lightens the work load on you, and gives them something to keep them busy between sessions.

You can also use this to have them do little evaluation writeups on their characters. How the events so far have effected their view on events, perhaps altering their worldviews, or other types of character development. They can write it up in a short essay, to give you an idea on how they are evolving, but more importantly, it gives the players a chance to really crystallize their character's growth, and make it more tangible, instead of abstract. And you can give them some XP for that (5-10 at most in my opinion).

But all the little things would add up.

Disclaimer: None of these tips, except maybe the "do awesome/funny stuff to amuse me the GM" are my ideas. Most of these are suggestions from various episodes of the O 66 that I've remembered. But they work pretty well from what I've heard.

How long do your sessions typically run? The suggested rate by Jay Little and other Devs for the game is 5 XP per hour of actual play. So if you are playing for an 8 hour session that would be 40 xp. Or 20 xp for a 4 hour session. Which you could add these on top of.

1 hour ago, Daeglan said:

How long do your sessions typically run? The suggested rate by Jay Little and other Devs for the game is 5 XP per hour of actual play. So if you are playing for an 8 hour session that would be 40 xp. Or 20 xp for a 4 hour session. Which you could add these on top of.

Generally my sessions are 4-5 hours long but this will be a different group so we'll see how long of a session they can handle. Great suggestions, folks!

More ideas for extra XP:

Someone volunteers to track initiative for the session? There's some bonus xp.

The GM for one group I'm in has tossed an extra point or two out to the first person to come up with the name of a space station he forgot to name.

A past GM back in the WEG days always used to build a small Easter egg into each session he ran - a small unannounced side-goal, or something like that - and awarded bonus XP to the player(s) who found it.

person who writes up a session summary gets xp.

personal pc journal of session xp

I gave XP for good/creative roleplaying in secret. The rest of the PCs don't need to know who is doing what to earn XP.

I do a base award of 1d10 xp that each player rolls for himself.

Then I have a page of small awards based on Role-Playing situations. Most are 1 point but its for things like playing up a weakness or fear, in character dialogue, 2 points for a notable job playing a motivation. I also give 2 points for rolling a Despair that hurts them, and 1 for any other big failure.

This makes their xp dependent upon doing things that are Role-Play values.

1 hour ago, ASCI Blue said:

I gave XP for good/creative roleplaying in secret. The rest of the PCs don't need to know who is doing what to earn XP.

See I prefer to let my players know what they did RP wise earned them more XP. At my table, I find it helps to encourage further roleplaying in such a manner.

That's a valid point, however, at times my group was kind of...whiny and pouty and this would have been deemed 'unfair' or 'biased' which I aim at the people involved. If I had a wider spread of experience (mine were well seasoned players) I likely would have done a group thing to show the newb players what they can do to improve.

Reminds me, really must finish that lego model of our ship my GM promised me xp for!

If someone comes up with a creative way to get around a situation that I hadn't thought of, that player gets a little extra xp, as well.

2 hours ago, Nytwyng said:

If someone comes up with a creative way to get around a situation that I hadn't thought of, that player gets a little extra xp, as well.

Yeah, one of my players did this. I had them in a zero G free fall ship, falling into the atmosphere of a planet on a crash course. They were trying to get to the escape pods, but the challenge was the environment was not conducive to escape. They were in the dark (no power), floating due to zero G, and tumbling, which caused the hallway they had to go through, to be a hazard course of objects that were bouncing around like laundry in a dryer. I had it set up to be an athletics or coordination check to try and get through, but my player said "Can I push off down the hallway, ignite my saber, and do some twirling attacks to try and carve up the bigger objects to get them out of our way?" Me: ".......hel l yeah you can do that! Awesome! Ok screw the athletics check, make an attack roll and we'll see how you do." Because I could see it in my head, and it was just too bad a$$ not to let that work. He got GM cookies for that one

Sick plan, imo you should have gone with athletics due to the zero-g nature, but still slick idea. I've taken the stance of if a player can justify a roll, I'll let them make it. I've allowed coordination as well as athletics in combat checks if they want to allow the victim to live.

On ‎9‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 8:31 AM, KungFuFerret said:

Yeah, one of my players did this. I had them in a zero G free fall ship, falling into the atmosphere of a planet on a crash course. They were trying to get to the escape pods, but the challenge was the environment was not conducive to escape. They were in the dark (no power), floating due to zero G, and tumbling, which caused the hallway they had to go through, to be a hazard course of objects that were bouncing around like laundry in a dryer. I had it set up to be an athletics or coordination check to try and get through, but my player said "Can I push off down the hallway, ignite my saber, and do some twirling attacks to try and carve up the bigger objects to get them out of our way?" Me: ".......hel l yeah you can do that! Awesome! Ok screw the athletics check, make an attack roll and we'll see how you do." Because I could see it in my head, and it was just too bad a$$ not to let that work. He got GM cookies for that one

Okay so here is the current version of the session xp tracker:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/icg779r4r7pc3y0/Session XP Chart.xlsx?dl=0

How to use it: download, open in excel and replace the generic names with character names, print in landscape and write an "X" into each appropriate box for the character for each session. Categories are for resolved encounters (whether through violence or other means; running away doesn't count as resolved), hours played, exceptional use of character Motivation in roleplay, exceptional use of Duty/Obligation/Morality in roleplay, X Factor for just something memorable, whether it was funny, clever, surprising, etc...

Math is: (encounters resolved + hours played + motivation + duty/obligation/morality + x factor) * 5 = session xp.

So if you resolved 4 encounters in a 3 hour session and RP'd your greed motivation well, it would be (4 + 3 + 1) * 5 = 40 xp.

5 hours ago, ASCI Blue said:

Sick plan, imo you should have gone with athletics due to the zero-g nature, but still slick idea. I've taken the stance of if a player can justify a roll, I'll let them make it. I've allowed coordination as well as athletics in combat checks if they want to allow the victim to live.

Well it was originally a skill check. I can't remember if it was athletics or coordination, but that was what I presented the scene as. It was the player who then asked if they could attack the debris. So I turned it into an attack check per his suggestion.

Make no mistake, I see the logic in your choice and it makes sense. A very creative thought by your player.