I’m having a lot of trouble understanding mechanically as a player how to trigger the XP for “You expressed your beliefs, drives, heritage, or background.”.
We just started a new game with new characters and despite doing (what I felt was) a good job of playing my character I couldn’t justify ever giving myself any XP for these things.
Without a burning wheel like statement on a belief of drive I feel like the only way to achieve it as a player is to actually break the immersion and metasplain that “Yeah, Cass goes to the gambling den to find info on the target and she appraches it in a few fun comradery kind of way because her drive is to feel included and have a sense of belonging in groups” versus just actually playing the character and then having to seemingly back peddle and explain stuff like that at the end of session.
Heritage and background have their own problems for my understanding to. My Heritage is a racial thing, so I just have to bring up iruvian tattoos or secret skovlan millitary hanshake? Is the only way to make up cultural stereotypes and inject my own lore every time I have the chance? Background kind of has the same problem of, if its immediately shoe horned in that like “I lay in a prone position on the rooftop like we were taught in the military”.
Is that how it’s intended to be done? Are there more organic ways to inject these things into the game? Are there any tips for the kinds of Drives/Beliefs that are more apparent and actionable?
From a GMs perspective:
I’ve taken do doing it so that after the session, I ask my players “Did you express your beliefs, drives, heritage, or background?” And just let them answer. Trust your players to be honest and if the party agrees the thing mentioned deserves XP, then it does. If the party thinks it deserves 2xp, it does. For me I dont have a problem handing it out most sessions. I do have times my players are honest and say, “No I didnt really do anything significant this session.”
As a player:
I would say that if you feel you have played true to your character, then you should get XP for that. If you did really well, or have a very specific example of something that meant a lot to your character, you deserve 2xp. Its not as concrete as Burning Wheel, but few things are.
As a side note:
It might be worth discussing with your fellow players and GM adding concrete beliefs and drives. Perhaps they can take the form of “Beliefs, instincts, and goals.” If everyone is on board, have everyone write them down. A couple per category at most. I personally have considered doing that very thing just because I think its awesome to have something written down I can strive for. Whether thats through RP or accomplishing a set task.
I rambled and im sorry. Hope this helps. 🙂
You’ve got the idea! It’s basically a reward for playing your character as they are presented to the fictional agenda and thus adding to the setting as you do so.
Sounds like you got it just fine. Sometimes there aren’t opportunities, and that is ok – but often my players trigger this without even realizing it.
How to “express” and earn XP at my table: talk about those details or RP using them. By “talking” I mean when the player talks about reasons for actions, and actual dialogue between characters about the same. “using them” is your actions relying on things you talked about before (contacts, for example). So, in all my first sessions (I ran about five now), the players are usually unsure – but I reward 2 XP on that first trigger because of course we talked about their heritage and background choices, and from play we end up discovering something about each character’s goals – so it’s almost a “gimme.”
Second session, players usually ended up missing out on them because they were no longer introducing themselves. The group I took through 15 sessions managed to consistently earn 1-2 XP from that trigger each session though; to do this, they just talked to us as people about their characters, or just used another action to convey it.
Downtime is the prime time my players end up getting that XP.
Blades characters are supposed to created with a fair bit of mileage already, so whenever their backstory or history comes up you can award XP here. My groups leech has a drive to find out who murdered his brother and get revenge, the whisper is driven to find a way to bring her dead lover back to life. The cutter is ex military, so when he uses those contacts or training or whatever he gets XP. Don’t feel the need to explain why you’re background or beliefs matter as you do it, but at the end of the session you can talk about why your character did certain things, or where your background was relevant etc. If the DM is a fan of the players, he should be pretty liberal with interpretations here.
Mark Griffin good point, I have also given XP for using contacts and training scenes too.
I have resolved to be fairly lenient when it comes to awarding these points, because advancement has come very slowly for my group. And they’re very good at fessing up and saying “I can’t justify asking for the [Background, Heritage, etc] point this session” when it didn’t really come up.
It’s also a good idea as a GM to keep a list of each PCs Backgrounds, Heritage, and Vices, and keep on the lookout for opportunities to throw stuff out there that hits those.
My experience is heritage and background give you start, but to make them concrete, you’ve got to define them a little more, which is totally cool to do in game. Why is Cass looking for acceptance? Can you give a flashback or a brief story about what drives her to do this? After that, every time you do it, everyone at the table will be like “ah yeah, that is Cass trying to fit in” and should be piling the XP on you.
For background, I strongly recommend not tying your actions to stereotypes. She’s Irruvian, sure, but what is her history in Irruvia? Was she kicked out and wants to regain her citizenship? Was she treated poorly and wants revenge? Is she homesick and buys baubles that remind her of her childhood? Once we know more about her life, all her actions have more meaning.