I really like Josh's solution. Make it simple, make sure judges get equivalent rewards, and make it much less of an impact if you play with the "wrong" character (most of the time it's not a big deal but occasionally, there are rewards that are much better for a different character (which are then impossible to get on said character)).

Hi all

Just following up on a question I asked earlier on Judge rewards

When, as a judge do you get a replay cert. The campaign Guide does not state when replay certs are passed out at all. I have been assuming as a judge you only ever get a volunteer cert, and you only get that if you have not played or ruin the adventure before.

In regards to rewards.
Some of the CPs I have noticed have a line stating you only get access to these items if playing the mod for the first time.

If a blanket statement is passed that replays get the CP but only favors/reputation; XP and cash. No items or relics, then separate CPs would not need to be made.

I'm pretty sure you only get a CP or VCP if you play/run something for the first time and a replay CP all other times (so RCP if you play or GM a mod that you have played or GM'd before).

In general, RCPs only give xp and cash (no fame, no items, no story awards, etc).

Personally, I like Josh's suggestion of just having a single CP that you get regardless on if you are GMing, playing, re-playing, re-GMing, or whatever. The only thing that would need any sort of statement would be how many players to use for "share of xxx" cash amounts (and a limit of 1 1-item-per-table for GMs (which I consider self-evident but would be good to spell out)).

I'm fine with keeping it simple and having a single cert or at least try and keep things simple.

As I noted in my last post, for the vast majority of mods, there isn't a RP cert per se. It's just CP or VCP. If you play a mod your character gets the benefits and/or the ramifications of their actions through a cert. As the CP cert is very clear for its use, VCP becomes the default.

No one official, but I believe this is how it operates at the moment.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

After I started playing regularly in the current Legends of Arcanis campaign, I thought about the likely reactions to the volunteer (GM) reward system. Living Arcanis had no such system and relied upon the intrinsic joy of GMing (with some extrinsic rewards for GMing a lot at larger cons), but I do like the idea of rewarding GMs. A player new to RPGs who tried playing Arcanis with me earlier this month immediately realized how much time it takes to prep a mod well.

The current reward system encourages GMs to run a given module once or twice and then move on to GM another. A GM who runs a module five or six times can benefit 5-6 PCs, but how many of us actually play that many characters regularly? In contrast, a GM who runs five or six modules once each benefits one character a lot, and that's more likely considered beneficial to a player. From the campaign society standpoint, however, we will wind up with better-run adventures if each GM runs one module multiple times and gets especially familiar with it than if every GM runs every module once. Thus, the personal and campaign goals are misaligned with this reward system. Some players who with the old (no reward) system might have happily run one or two mods a lot might now think that they'd rather reap PC rewards by running lots of mods. Taken to extreme, I suspect it's hard to find GMs for old Crusade mods because few GMs will benefit from volunteer chronicles (since all their PCs will either have the chronicle sheet already or started with the 1.5 cert which prevents applying most Crusade chronicles).

On the other hand, any alternate or new system needs to be considered carefully in what behavior it promotes and results it will yield. For example, giving a GM 100 XP flat for each module run might seem reasonably low, but when half a dozen people have Tier 5.10 PCs compared with non-GMs having Tier 3.5 max, that will reveal a troubled system. Once balance in the current reward system is that it keeps GMs from advancing their PCs past the level of non-GMs' PCs.