He rewards everything that a player contributes with XP for their characters. Players submit a bio, they get 1XP. Submit a training montage, 1XP. Several of them are on his website. Nice idea to get people involved in actually looking beyond the character sheet and getting into their characters. As far as I'm concerned emotional investment is never a bad thing.

I could certainly imagine doing this for bios (especially when Feng Shui doesn't really enourage more depth than thinking up a melodramatic hook). 1XP for submitting a bio, 2 for a good one with some usable plot hooks, and 3 for an outstanding (not necesssarily just long) one. And doing the same with bonus XP for properly written montages after XP expenditure.

Anyone else tried this out? I do think there is the potential for abuse, but most GMs are discerning enough to know the difference.

Kiero

However, I certainly reward characters if their players do cool stuff -within- the game to broaden the PC's background. If the PC manages to work his hook into the game in an unexpected way, or if she actually comes up with a secondary (believeable) melodramatic hook that adds to the moment or the session, that's worth something, sure.

I think it'd be a good way to entice newbie gamers into the habit of fleshing out PCs, tho. Sounds reasonable.