What is worth xp? What deserves a Reward?

[Velox]

The typical reward, the kind of reward I most often hand out, is experience points. If someone does something praise worthy or achieves something, they get an XP bonus.

What do you give out XP for? What is XP worthy? Beyond that, what do you reward in general? What kind of behavior do we, as DMs, want to encourage?


Here are some of my
Examples:

Winning a Battle (Courage! Glory!)

Accomplishing a Goal (Minor/Personal and Major/Story)

These acts I'll reward with a carefully planned amount of xp. I want to make the relative scale of accomplishment noticeable (i.e. defeating a powerful and evil enemy vrs. bringing in a petty criminal), and to also make the players advance at the rate I desire.


Also:

Good utilization of a prop (player wearing monocle for a nobleman character)

Clever Plan (Using the spell Truestrike to aid in making surgical cuts)

Impressive Role playing (good monologue, constant accent)

Making a Sacrifice (acting in character, even though it will negatively effect you)

Running from a Fight you're not supposed to win (Prudence! Wisdom!)

Making us all Laugh

Doing a Good Deed (lets feed the orphans!)

Buying food (Thanks for the pizza!)

Advancing the Plot/Seeking out Interaction (without DM prompting; I'm talking eager-beavers here)

Genuinely Surprising the DM

Also, if I notice any of these qualities in a character:
Bravery
Purity
Prudence
Wisdom
Intelligence
Grace
Finesse
Compassion

Each one of these acts will be worth 100 xp in my game, and several will certainly occur during a session. This will result in faster advancement, but we don't play as often; I'm happy with it.

So what about you?

[Polycarp]

What is most important to me is that the character was played well.  For instance, you have this list:

Bravery
Purity
Prudence
Wisdom
Intelligence
Grace
Finesse
Compassion

Each one of these acts will be worth 100 xp in my game

especially[/i] if - it's bad for them in the long run.  The party might do better if you come up with a brilliant plan, but I'm more impressed with the not-so-bright character that opposes the plan even if his player knows it's a good idea, because that's what his character would do.  Nothing makes me happier as a DM than when a player does what the character would do instead of what the player would do; it's hard to get there, especially with people new to role-playing, but that's ultimately what I would reward with story XP.

[LordVreeg]

We use (as many may be tired of hearing) a skill based system.  SO experience is gained in each skill as it is used. [note] "...next time I'm going to check the basket hilts of any magical rapiers I find....after I find some way to get my fingers sewn back on, or learn to fight left-handed...."[/note]
You get experience in a skill when you use it.  You get some even if you fail, although not as much...


However, clever and unusual skill use always gets the nod for bonus XP, and the system is set up to encourage this.  So a player getrs a bonus of 25 exp for using a skill in an imaginative way, such as recently when one of my PC's enveigled a merchant to step outside his shop to bargain, then tried to work a pubic speaking bonus onto his haggling skills, trying to draw a crowd to be sympathetic to his deal.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

It depends on what system you're using, as LV indicated above.

Are we talking D&D? Even then, I'd say it can depend a bit on the type of campaign you're trying to run.

A game of TRoS or Burning Wheel will be way different in terms of "XP" than D&D. A game of WoD or Shadowrun is also different.

[Kindling]

In my Iron Heroes game I use an "overcoming a challenge" XP system which I'm fairly sure I stole from somewhere online.

Basically characters level every 1000 experience points, and every time they overcome a challenge - combat or otherwise - they gain a certain amount of XP based on how hard it was.

50XP for an easy challenge
100XP for an average one
150XP for a difficult challenge
200XP for a very difficult challenge
300XP for something I thought they would never be able to achieve.

It may not be realistic or anything, but it's nice and simple and lets me concentrate on telling the story rather than working out the exact amount of XP for encounters of certain CRs or whatever.

[snakefing]

I'm also trying to think of other ways to formalize rewards besides gains in skills and abilities.

Some areas to think about:

Reputation: A character with a large number of reputation points (RP) would be more widely recognized. The character might be more well-liked or feared. Perhaps a system by which certain social or reputational feats and abilities can be purchased with RP? Reputation could be enhanced by public actions or songs and poetry. Maybe you can buy reputation by donating sums of money for public works?

Influence: A character with influence has access to additional resources beyond just his or her personal wealth and abilities. This might be used to rouse up some rabble, to gain the temporary use of a base of operations, a force of men at arms at her disposal. Maybe a way that IP can be traded for specific benefits? This might be very campaign specific, though. Influence is gained mostly by doing favors for prominent people or institutions.

Contacts and allies: Good roleplaying might be rewarded by designating a certain NPC as a contact or ally for the character. This would turn a given NPC from a one-time encounter to a potentially recurring figure.

Much of this is really around rewarding the player by making his or her character more interesting to play rather than more powerful.

[beejazz]

I'm also trying to think of other ways to formalize rewards besides gains in skills and abilities.

Some areas to think about:

Reputation: A character with a large number of reputation points (RP) would be more widely recognized. The character might be more well-liked or feared. Perhaps a system by which certain social or reputational feats and abilities can be purchased with RP? Reputation could be enhanced by public actions or songs and poetry. Maybe you can buy reputation by donating sums of money for public works?

Influence: A character with influence has access to additional resources beyond just his or her personal wealth and abilities. This might be used to rouse up some rabble, to gain the temporary use of a base of operations, a force of men at arms at her disposal. Maybe a way that IP can be traded for specific benefits? This might be very campaign specific, though. Influence is gained mostly by doing favors for prominent people or institutions.[/quote]Contacts and allies: Good roleplaying might be rewarded by designating a certain NPC as a contact or ally for the character. This would turn a given NPC from a one-time encounter to a potentially recurring figure.[/quote]
I've always thought of making friends and enemies of NPCs as a driving force in my game, but I've not yet seen a really good mechanical implementation for this.