Ending a Play Session

At the end of each play session, the GM should do the following:

Discuss the adventure with the players. What went right and what went wrong – and why? If the session was part of a continuing campaign, the GM should be careful not to give away any secrets!

Award character points for good play (see below).

File away the play material. NPC records, GM Control Sheet, etc. will all be useful later – be sure to keep track of them! You can often "recycle" NPCs in later adventures.

Plan the next session with the players. This is especially important in a continuing campaign. Decide where the game will take up next week, how much game time will have passed, and anything else that the players need to know before the next session starts.

Awarding Bonus Character Points

At the end of each play session, the GM should award bonus character points for good play. "Good play" is anything that advances the heroes' mission or shows good roleplaying – preferably both. But roleplaying trumps mission success! If a player did something totally outside his character's personality (for instance, if a total coward performed a brave act), this should not be worth any points, even if it saved the day for the rest of the group!

The GM is free to award any number of points...but in general, he should give each player between zero and five points, averaging two or three points, per session. The low end is for bad roleplaying or mission failure, while the high end is for good roleplaying or mission success.

Remember that a character gets no points for a session in which his Dependent is killed, seriously wounded, or kidnapped and not recovered! The GM might also wish to give an award – perhaps equal to that for a successful play session – upon the conclusion of a lengthy adventure, story arc, or major plot thread. This is in addition to any points for the session during which the plot was resolved!

The GM should award bonus points separately (and probably secretly) to each player. The player should record his points on his character sheet if he intends to play that character again; the GM might also want to keep his own record. The player can use these points to develop and improve his character – see Character Development.

These are only guidelines. The GM can award as many or as few points as he wishes. Some games call for faster character advancement than others!

Avoiding Character Inflation

As GM, you should try to balance the number of points you give out. Characters should improve fast enough to keep things interesting, but not so fast that they outrun their foes and unbalance your campaign. Also, if the original characters are now extremely powerful, new players – and their characters – are liable to feel useless unless you specifically bring them into the action.

Some of this depends on the background; superheroic types are expected to improve quickly (and their enemies improve, too), while ordinary cops or soldiers gain skills or promotions at a slower pace. In the final analysis, it's up to the GM to determine what is right for his own campaign and his own players.

Controlling Character Development

Given the chance, some players will spend points without regard for their characters' origins and stated goals. Of course, when a player asks to use bonus points to buy a wholly inappropriate ability, you can always say "no." But there are other options:

Discuss all improvements. Don't just let players buy whatever they want – ask them to explain why, especially if they wish to increase attributes! Attempts to make inappropriate improvements most often occur when the player discovers an unintended weakness in his character design and believes the new ability will compensate for it. If the desired ability doesn't fit the character concept, try to discover the perceived weakness and suggest more appropriate alternatives that address it directly.

Keep awards small enough that players must think about their purchases. If players must save points for many sessions to afford larger purchases (e.g., attribute levels and advantages), there is, in effect, a "waiting period." Many players will reconsider their "need" for character-distorting abilities during this time, and instead use their points to raise skills that will be useful during the current adventure. This leads to well-rounded veterans whose skills reflect their actual activities.

Don't make it too easy to learn new skills. If you let the PCs learn new skills whenever they have enough points, their skill lists will eventually grow indistinguishable from one another. If every PC can tackle every task, the players might conclude that their characters no longer have any need for companions. This can break up the party – and possibly the gaming group. It is realistic to learn some skills quickly under pressure, but you should feel free to rule that others (especially magic spells and secret martial-arts skills) are hard to learn except as part of a dedicated career.

Give awards other than points. Give out the occasional award in the form of specific abilities instead of discretionary points. Social advantages – Patrons, Rank, Reputation, Status, Wealth, etc. – make the best awards, as they often make sense as "rewards" in the game world. Another realistic possibility is direct improvement of a well-exercised ability. Few players will complain if you give them a skill level worth four points in a well-used skill instead of two discretionary points!