How many CPs do you give for a single session?

[Vanion]

I've been playing the SW D6 game for a long time and I have still yet to find a good balanced amount and method of handing out CPs.

We only play once a week for aa many hours as we are able. As a GM AND a player, I tend to lean towards fast character advancement. I know that in the past I have been overly generous with CPs. As a GM, I like to be able to throw bigger challenges at the group... and make their general life harder. Only a handful of weeks ago, I was giving an average of 12 or 13 Cps each session. Now that the group is bigger and some of our standards have gotten more strict, I've come up with a kind of "rating system". Four catagories: roleplaying, teamwork, goals, and atmosphere... CPs in each catagory range from 1 to 3 (minimum 4/ max 12)... 1 CP being "needs work/problem area", 2 CPs being "average", and 3 CPs being "outstanding".

One of my players was really upset at my new scale system because I gave him a 1 for roleplaing which he disagreed on greatly.

Any comments or advice would be welcome. I even made a little poll.
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"Life is not measured in years, but by deeds"

[Gry Sarth]

CPs vary depending on the nature of the adventure. If it's just a quick, small mission, that doesn't really have much relevance or demands much of the players, than I'd give at most 8 CPs for a very good player, 4 to a poor one. If it's an epic end-of-campaign adventure, where the players have to really outdo themselves, think fast, roll good and all that, then I'd give as much as 20 CPs for a good player. A normal adventure will be around 10 CPs. What differentiates the amount each player gets is really commitment to the game, good roleplaying and good ideas. Success really isn't a factor. In fact, once a player completely botched a mission, bringing the whole campaign to a grinding stop, but I awarded him a lot of CPs because his course of action was totally in-character and very gutsy. Usually I won't hand to each player a CP amount that is distant from each other by more than 2-3 CPs, as I feel more than that tends to generate a bit of grief. Unless someone plays really awfully, completely disinterested in the game, I won't punish a player too much CP-wise.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[garhkal]

I agree with Gry. When i gm at home games, i try to follow a 5cp average for a 4 hr gaming session. 8 or so for 6 hrs, and 10-12 for a 10+ hr session. In the sparks realm, we have a set average of 7 for a module (including any situational bonuses)...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Volar the Healer]

I have two methods:

1) used for adventures primarily involving combat
1-4 difficulty of mission: easy, moderate, hard, suicide
1-3 team play: how well the individual supported the team
1-3 roleplaying: how well the actor(PC) brought the character to life
1=poor 2=average 3=good
This gives a total of 3-10 per adventure.

2) used for adventures primarily involving role play
1 per hour
On a good day, this gives 8 per session.

I consider "supporting the team" to be important. I don't like PCs working against the team. This always makes it less fun for another PC. Friendly rivalry such as name calling is OK, stealing other PC's stuff is not. Some of my games are very militaristic; In the 'Rebel Strike Team' and 'Empire invades the Earth' campaigns, it's mostly combat! The PCs must learn to function as a team or they will lose.

In both instances I award bonuses for outstanding roleplay - I stress roleplay - this is a role playing game, not a video game; players doing something cool like bringing pizza, players showing off cool artwork that supports their characters, or anything else that makes the game fun (did I mention roleplaying?). Bonus points are awarded during the game with a lot of fanfare - they are my primary way of encouraging players to do something fun.

As for a whiner who didn't get as many CPs as the guy next to him - I never say he did poorly. I always give him examples of what I'm looking for. At the end of the game session I try to point out something each PC did well - this encourages all of the PCs with ideas. I ask him to picture himself making a movie - when the little kid in the front row says "That was cool! I wanna be like him!" the whiner will get more CPs. This works most of the time.

But there is a limit to what the Director can do. Some people just aren't gamers. Maybe Doom is the best they can do.
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace

[Jedi Skyler]

I guess it depends on how you run the system. I had a GM who disliked the pip system, so all attributes and skills were simply straight D numbers, no + anything. When we got CPs, we only got max three or four a game, but four was for totally outstanding play all night, great rolling, awesome ingenuity, that kind of thing. And we would get them after several sessions, not after each one, to reflect more time spent training the skills up. It was nice not having to deal with pips, but kinda shorted us in the long run because it left us lacking in how to generate characters from scratch for gaming with other GMs who used the pips.

[Grimace]

Boy, I guess I'm a hardcase when it comes to giving out CPs. My usual is around 4-5, with good roleplayers or inventive ideas and problem solving getting 6. A gamer who sat there and only responded to the situations as they came up usually got 3, sometimes 4. Really, really good roleplaying, or something that made me go "Wow!" might get 7, but that's rare.

And this is during 6+ hour game sessions.

One thing I've never had a problem with in my games is people jacking skills up to the umpteenth dice, and then doubling it with a Force Point. In my games, someone is doing good if they're rolling 8D, and are doing excellent if they're rolling 10D.

[netjedi]

I try and make a loose script to each of my sessions or adventures. I usually write an amount at the end of the adventrue for the # of CP I will issue in general. I then add some bonus points for different things they accomplish as well. as the game or session progresses I issue out CP for excellent RPing, and if warranted an additional 1 or 2 at the end also. The current Campaign I am running I have a total of 11 adventures scripted out and they range from 3 - 10 CP for the rewards to start. the longer the scripting (meaning there is more to do) the more the reward.
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"Dig it. Who's the man? I'm the man. I'm a bad man. How bad? Real bad. I'm a 12.0 on the 10.0 scale of badness." The Evil Midnight Bomber

Wanted Poster

[garhkal]

Well, in sparks many of the players like to keep 8 or so, cp in reserve, so that lessens up what they have to spend on improving stats..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jedi Skyler]

As long as the difficulty of the situations/enemies in the following adventure matches the kind of stats the players will have, they'll keep coming back. It's no fun when you keep getting itty bitty numbers of CPs but the enemies seem to be getting exponentially better, or more numerous, or what have you...

[Boomer]

I tend to work in multiples of 5. 5 just for showing up, and if they do badly or we only play for an hour or two that may be all they get.
10 for doing average, I hand out a lot of 10s.
15 for succeeding and doing better than just haning on for the ride.
20... most people never see a 20. I don't remember ever handing out 20. But I have a 20 ready to go for anyone who displays incredible tactical prowess, acting ability, whatever. Just plain freaking awesome for a 20.

so, average has been 12 and a half.
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My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[Jedi Skyler]

I wanna hear about it if you ever DO hand out a 20; I wanna know what they did to get it!

[Trusty]

Wild die times 5 is how many I give out...though they can still only up one pip per skill between adventures...

If they roll a 1, they get ZERO points.

But handing them out any less than that the characters would all:

1. Not survive a single adventure.
2. Fail every sngle roll difficulity I require to be realistic.
3. Always suck in general.

I want my PCs good. The better they are, the harder I can hit them. They've realized that they have to be dumping points in non-combative skills now though...so it is still balanced. I mean, it takes a lot for someone with 2D+2 knowledge to get to 6D in Culture or Planetary Systems, or Business, or Accounting, or Tactics, Value, or Streetwise, etc... They need those skills in our game...Not just piloting, shoot, dodge, gunnery type skills...

Though, if most gamers saw the amount of paperwork involved in our games..they'd freak out. Each character has about twenty different sheets themselves to keep up with concerning money, assets, ships, vehicles, guns, droids, and equipment. Though I am impressed with how little it drags our game down...it really doesn't and t really does inhance it as well.
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Growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional!

[Jedi Skyler]

Sounds like you've got a group who really enjoys getting into those aspects of their characters. They are well-developed, and any of the players can tell you at a moment's notice anything you ask them concerning their characters.

That kind of paper load will turn off a lot of people, cuz all they're interested in is the blaster, dodge, piloting, etc. I'm glad you have a well-rounded group to go along with your style!

[Trusty]

[Jedi Skyler]

That really does sound like a very fun game! You have all the details fleshed out for the players so even with the tree's worth of paper each of them has, it's still all good. And I agree that for the RPG, you should have the freedom to either follow "canon" or make it up as you go. That's why it's a GAME! So you can do whatever you want in this generic universe.