Dungeon and Dragons 4th Edition is all about cool, cinematic action. For me as a GM, I can’t always come up with the cool description, partially because it is hard to do it over and over again, and I am managing a ton of stuff. That is where the players come in.
A technique I have developed is to have a stack of red poker chips on the table. If a player provides a cool description, adds something interesting to the setting, or generally enhances the game, I toss the player a chip. It is a reward for enhancing the game.
The reason for this is two fold. The first, it takes some of the description off of me and makes my job easier. Secondly, it allows the player some control over the results of their acti0n, and I even allow players to even narrate their failures. The primary thought process on narrating failures is nothing has every frustrated me more than to have a GM narrate a failure that makes my character seem foolish, stupid, or ineffective. My character may fail, but the character has a certain style to it. When my master swordsman hits himself in the groin with the hilt of his blade, it ruins the style of my character. That should only happen if I want it too. Players get to narrate how their character performs based on the roll, which allows them to communicate their character’s personality and style to the other players. In turn, the game is more exciting and action packed for the players.
These chips are a technique to reinforce behavior; hence the nickname “Skinner Points” proudly bestowed by one of the players. The players should be aware they are awarded for things you want them to do. These points are rewards to players for maintaining the theme and style of the game. For my current game, the color of the chip was even specifically chosen to maintain theme. I am currently running a very gruesome, sword and sorcery style D&D game. There is nothing nice about what happens when swords are pulled. The world is brutal, and the players are thugs and thieves. I provide chips for players who provide very “Conan-esque” descriptions. When blood flows, the red chips flow even more freely. I encourage this theme through player rewards.
So, now that players have all these wonderful red chips; what can they do with them? The players are able to turn those chips into experience points. Each chip is worth 10 XP at the end of the session. The more participatory players are at adding description and making the game better. They earn more chips, and their character advances faster.
This is still being playtested, and 10 XP is a good value at Heroic tier in D&D 4th Ed. If a player earns five or ten of these in a session, it adds up quickly. The experience point value may need to be adjusted proportionally as characters advance in level to take into account the increased advancement cost. The characters in my game are still 1st level, and 10 XP is a nice bonus. I expect when they get to around 5th – 10th level, I will increase the XP bonus to 25. Around 10th level, I could see the bonus increasing to 50 XP. We will see when the players advance to higher levels if this is necessary.