Topic: How do you handle...

This post contains spoilers for DeathFrostDoom!

I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to roleplaying and much more of a noob when it comes to DMing (although my 2 groups seem like they are enjoying it. yay)

* How do you roleplay game mechanics? Ive been wondering about this and I think I figured out a way to do it, but I would love to get your input.
Imagine the cursed items on top of the skull altar in DeathFrostDoom. Game mechanics are as clear as water: Take the item without blessing it first and you are cursed and from there on have to roll 2 D20s and take the worse result.

I suppose no one just announces the new mechanic (or do they?). How do you do it? I figured the next time the person is in a fight I could say something like "You feel like some unseen force is stifling you..." and then just tell the player that from now on he has to use 2 d20. In this case he would probably never know why or what cursed him and that might be an issue for the player.
Or maybe once he takes the item I could say somethin similar "Taking the item you feel that the weight of your [weapon] grows heavier... etc."

Whats your method? Really curious...

* EXP. The rulebook is pretty clear about it. Since one of my players asked after a long session without combat and no treasures (just roleplaying stuff) whether they'd get any xp.... Do you guys houserule this somehow? Do you award a minor amount of exp after a long session if no xp was gained another way?

Thanks for your input!

Re: How do you handle...

You could always start by the GM rolling a d20 at the same time and secretly taking the worst of the two. Once they start figuring out that they're missing, they may start to wonder what's going on. Then you can add in the "feeling heavy" flavor. Once they put 2 and 2 together, you can let them roll both d20s.

Personally, I chuck all XP calculation systems and just grant XP based on overall session play. Figure out how quickly you want the group to advance (e.g., roughly 3 sessions per level) and give out experience accordingly.

Re: How do you handle...

My group, for pretty much any game we play, mostly ignores the existence of XP. When we hit some kind of milestone or turning point in our story, or if the general consensus is that we should level up, we level up.

Re: How do you handle...

The way the 2 of you hand out XP is interesting. Would love to get some more answers on this if anyone cares, but I think I might adopt that technique.

For those of you curious about an answer for my other question, I also posted it over on stackexchange and got some really good answers. I suggest you check it out yourself:

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/ … -character

Re: How do you handle...

For better or worse, my group is very meta-gamy.  After a combat encounter, I award XP for monsters killed.  When they return to town, I award XP for treasures plundered.  There can be multiple sessions in a row where they don't earn any XP (and they don't seem to mind).

That one response via your link where he spells out three different options is really good.  1 is what I generally do, but once in a while 2 is appropriate.  I think it depends on the type of curse or effect that's happening.

Re: How do you handle...

I usually DO announce the new mechanic unless there's some reason beyond "guess what the GM is thinking" to keep it a secret. As far as XP goes, I give out XP for defeating monsters and recovering treasure. If the players don't engage in those activities, they get no XP.

That might sound harsh, but I'm upfront about it from the very beginning and have gotten no complaints. If the players aren't "adventuring" then they aren't "adventurers". Giving out XP for NOT adventuring would result in most NPCs being super high-level characters rather than level 0 nobodies. Gaining XP (and, axiomatically, Gaining Levels) requires risk before reward. Roleplaying is fun, but shouldn't in and of itself grant XP unless it involves some sort of risk. Real risk. Not risk to one's ego or reputation or whatever other intangible-thing-that-doesn't-matter your players might argue for in order to get some free XP for playing it safe and not adventuring.

Just my two cents.

Re: How do you handle...

Our group is quite metagamey (and I hate too much book keeping) so I usually give the players some time to be paranoid about everything before announcing the effects. (For example, when I ran Death Frost Doom I let them leave the room before narrating "As you leave, you feel the Skull Altar's cold eyes upon you. It knows what you took. From now on throw 2d20 and choose worse.) That way my players know they bungled up somehow, but they still need to figure out what exactly went wrong.
For non-permanent effects and magic items I let them experiment, so the things would stay interesting. Only after using the item a lot (or having someone such as Vespero identify it), I'll tell my group how the item works.

My NPC merchants might also act OOC for a moment to say that they are giving a 10% discount to list price after a bout of haggling and in my table there's no OOC chatter - everything's heard by NPCs and cohorts.
Strangely this has lead to more roleplaying and IC chatter than my more immersive/narrative Dark Heresy game, where everyone only metagames.

I usually rewards XP for roleplaying, progression and things achieved, but in my LotFP game I've stuck to Treasure is Experience rules. We're trying to go for Cugel the Clever style campaign, meaning that there's no heroes, just greedy amoral adventurers.
I've experienced that denying them roleplaying XP and giving pitiful rewards from monsters actually drives my players to look for more places to plunder and take more risks while doing their best to avoid conflict.

After a few treasure poor sessions, a war torn Holy Roman Empire is beginning to look like an attractive destination.
However, I sometimes I throw them a bone, for example after relatively treasure free Dunnsmouth, I let my players make donations to the church and trade money for XP. After reading the journal from Thulian Echoes, I gave my players half the XP what the original adventure group would have gained.

This works for us and for the type of game we wanna play. I'm trying to learn not to coddle my players too much, but if our group didn't like the current model, I would probably change it.

Re: How do you handle...

I'm late here, but when it comes to the curses, unless there's an overriding storyline reason for the people to be cursed without noticing it, I just tell them when they are cursed, and let them handle the mechanics (I'm lazy.)

If there is a reason for them not to know about the curse, and it's one like the one you mentioned there, I would just roll a d20 a bunch of times and write them down while the party discusses something, and keep track of which roll they are on, ticking them away as they burn through them. I admit that despite being lazy I am often scribbling notes and rolling dice in front of them, evne if I'm not doing anything because it's fun to watch them squirm.

For EXP, I tend not to monitor it too closely, I have a mix of metagamers and role players. I let the metagamers tally up the exp and everything for me. Rather than outlining what monsters the party will face and when on a linear progression, I tend to just look at what makes sense to be in the area. Maybe the party can crush whatever is supposed to be there, maybe they can barely take anything... well honestly that's not my problem. If the party can't fight what's there, they need to find a way to get where they are going without fighting, or by getting the help of some people who help even the odds. If they can crush what's there, maybe they can make things a little more interesting for themselves by working as bodyguards to make some money.

I tend to view my job when running things as giving them a world to run around in and stories that happen whether they are there or not so they might pick them up in the middle, not to control what they do.