Am I the only one who does this? At the end of the session I have all the players vote for which player they felt did the best job of playing their character (you can't vote for yourself).  I (the GM) get 2 votes; and the majority rules.  The winner of the "best roleplay" award gets a small bonus to XP for the session (just how much depends on the game, but for example in LotFP its 100xp/level).

I've heard some people suggest that this is a bad idea, but not in my group; I've been doing this for at least 15 years, in all kinds of different gaming groups, starting when I was in North America and now for the last 10 years down here in Uruguay, and I've never heard a player voice any problem with this.  I don't know that it specifically encourages good roleplay or not; but I like to think it discourages apathetic play, and that it brings the players together as a group by having them compliment what they liked about other players' performance.

RPGPundit

Generally I'll do as follows at the end of each session:

Hand out standard XP (depending on game, for kills, treasure, etc...)
Let the players lobby for additional small awards.
Players vote on an "MVP" to get a mid-sized award.
If the group is large enough players vote on a "workhorse" for another mid-sized reward.

It's worked for many a year so far.

I never do individual rewards for roleplay. My reason is that the only one that really can tell if a player is roleplaying their character properly is the player himself.

I have seen many gm's muck up individual rewards.

So in your case, It is likely you are very perceptive, intelligent, and fair.

Many gm's are not able to manage that.

I wouldn't like it at our table, the same person would win it every time... vs. the guy who just quietly rolls his dice and pretty much plays as himself, no matter what it says on his sheet. Playing in-character is its own reward if that's what you enjoy, otherwise why make anyone feel they're not doing it right?

Tossing out a few extra points to any of the players who did something cool/memorable during the session doesn't bug me though. No need for votes.

Quote from: Simlasa;628233I wouldn't like it at our table, the same person would win it every time... vs. the guy who just quietly rolls his dice and pretty much plays as himself, no matter what it says on his sheet. Playing in-character is its own reward if that's what you enjoy, otherwise why make anyone feel they're not doing it right?

I haven't found that the same people win consistently. Most groups I've played with are are rather egalitarian and fair actually.

If anything the problem comes from players being too practical and always voting for the person that needs the XP the most (to level, to catch up, etc...)

Of course mine isn't a strictly role-playing award but rather a general MVP award.

Quote from: Piestrio;628235Of course mine isn't a strictly role-playing award but rather a general MVP award.

Yeah, that would be fine with me. We all shine at some point, now and then.

My experience has been that a voted singular award for "best role-player" tends to mildly encourage being showy and/or melodramatic, which can lead to spotlight hogging.  

It's not terrible, but I don't find that it improves the game for me.  

Maybe there are some variations in how it is handled that can improve that - I'm not sure.

While I don't think it's a bad thing, it's not something I choose to use. I prefer for game-mechanical factors to reward a PC with "experience" - whether that's acquiring loot, slaying opponents, completing challenges, or in the case of BRP-based campaigns, the successful use of skill in stressful/life-threatening situations. The standard, I guess.

I think that great roleplaying is a reward in-itself by raising the entertainment level for everyone involved. Memories of "that one session" and stories that derive from a campaign are invaluable, and are a reward for everyone. People play to whatever comfort-level they enjoy, and I wouldn't want to penalize someone whose personality is more reserved or doesn't want to engage at an extrovert's intensity.

If I'm GMing, and a player impresses me with their strong roleplaying I'll snag an extra beer for them from the fridge.

I do this at convention games, especially if I have SWAG to give away. Best role players get first pick from the SWAG pile. For my 0D&D games, I give away Wizard's Guides, Judges Guild supplements I have duplicate copies of, 11"x17" blank maps, and so forth.

A lot of the d20 companies provided SWAG for games I would run. The best though, comes from the SJG Men-In-Black when I run GURPS games. Recent SWAG from the last couple of years includes Magic CCG decks,and Konami Yu-Gi-oh decks, unpainted minis, and game posters, and dice.

Last year, at the Notre Dame Games day, I let the players have a painted mini pick out of my personal 0D&D collection. (Seems a bit much, but I have almost 1,500 painted metal minis for fantasy games.)

We stopped having differentiate XP years ago. The last time we used anything like this it was probably in the 90s. We always found that there was a small group of usual suspects who would get the bonus and in a long haul it could make a significant difference.

These days most systems we play either have a unified XP track or no XP track (games like GURPS) so having everyone progress at the same rate is easy. And we aren't playing to out-do each other, just to have fun. Some guys at the table have their fun through heavy RP, others through tactical stuff and others still just spending time with their buddies.

If I was GMing a game with different XP tracks for different classes then I would keep XP levels the same for everyone and allow levelling to happen normally. But that isn't realistically like to happen any time soon.

Quote from: Bill;628206I never do individual rewards for roleplay. My reason is that the only one that really can tell if a player is roleplaying their character properly is the player himself.

I have seen many gm's muck up individual rewards.

So in your case, It is likely you are very perceptive, intelligent, and fair.

Many gm's are not able to manage that.

Yup, that must be it.

RPGPundit

Quote from: jhkim;628274My experience has been that a voted singular award for "best role-player" tends to mildly encourage being showy and/or melodramatic, which can lead to spotlight hogging.  

See from what I've seen this doesn't happen; I suspect probably because showboating and being a scene hog is a good way to get your fellow players not to vote for you.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Simlasa;628233I wouldn't like it at our table, the same person would win it every time... vs. the guy who just quietly rolls his dice and pretty much plays as himself, no matter what it says on his sheet. Playing in-character is its own reward if that's what you enjoy, otherwise why make anyone feel they're not doing it right?

You don't think it might encourage those players to step up and hone their craft?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;628718You don't think it might encourage those players to step up and hone their craft?

Some folks do not practice or enjoy that 'craft' and I'm fine with that. They don't give me crap when I don't optimize my character stats I won't put them to a vote over how they played a game.

Interestingly, systems like Fate handle this kind of thing naturally IMO. Aspects are used to describe your character, and when they constrain your play you get rewarded immediately with a Fate point that can then be spent for a boost of some kind.

This promotes playing in character in a more organic way for me, and rewards playing to the description you have picked for your character without any need for (potentially divisive) voting, and with less long term impact.