Cool post with a lot of good ideas! I really like Ostof’s 3×3 sheet.

However, I do require – and by require, I mean “in order to play in this game” – a character concept and background with no fewer than a dozen points, and I expect this before character creation begins. I will sit down with the player and work through concept design with them, asking them questions that get them thinking about Who their character is. Before that sit-down session takes place I’ve given them a worksheet to read through that has open-ended character questions like “How does your character feel about the Law and how rigidly it should be adhered to?” for them to think about before we meet to talk.

I ask that they submit a modified 3x3x3 sheet, where-in they tell me 3 things they want to see their character develope, 3 things the other characters don’t know about thier character, 3 things their own character doesn’t know about themselves, and a couple others. I use this to help guide my session and story design, and will have them revise thier answers every couple years if needed (new directions, new thoughts and ideas, etc.)

All the “homework” is pre-game, up-front, and is done with full GM involvement. Once the game is running, there is little I ask for them to do between sessions. I offer XP bonuses (once per month limit) for anyone who wants to write up a bit of their character’s history – a significant event in thier lives, a turning point, an insight into something they do or believe – for the group to read, and to date I’ve had ALL my players take advantage of this. It’s completely optional, but it’s been very rewarding, and I”ve been able to integrate the revelations and details of thier writings into subsequent plotlines and world aspects.

I have one player that takes Game Notes for me and rattles off a summary at the beginning of the next session, but again, that’s something they offered to do and not something that was required. It helps to focus the group and mentally prepare for the session that night.

My reasoning was/is that if they’re helping me write the story then they get points for being a storyteller. Nuff said.

Since I started assigned Xp rewards like this for the ‘extra-curricular’ parts of the game I’ve gotten a lot more interaction & excitement from my players away from the game table.

In other words, it just tends to take away from the head space of the gaming table. That’s not to say we haven’t discussed certain rules or things like that we need clarification on via email or whatever between games, but by keeping the gaming space sacred it just tends to yield more focused, energetic playing sessions with our group.

I tried assigning 3x3x3 in my last Serenity game, and that got half my players to kick in, in exchange for Plot Points. (Describe 3 friends, 3 contacts and 3 enemies of your PC.)

I like to use email groups on yahoo to allow such stuff, but it’s rare so far.

I’ve used two reward systems – one is XP, the other is a Deck of Many Cool Things. It’s mostly comprised of cards that give you a +2 bonus on a roll, but I’ve put in some uncommons (Succeed on one skill check, cash in a favor with a church for healing), and a rare (One automatic “20″ when you need it). Draws from the Deck got more player input than XP in my most recent campaign.

Also, the more difficult the assignment, the more experience you get. I have a difficulty range (pathetic-weak-average-challenging-difficult) that modifies the amount of xp you are getting (25%/50%/100%/125%/150% respectively). Average is equal to a standard monster of your level, for instance 100xp at level 1.

In 4th edition for example, the weak duty of finding a picture of your character and e-mailing it to your DM would at level 1 give 50xp, whereas giving it at level 2 would give 62xp. Giving experience this way keeps the ratio of reward equal across all tiers of play. Hence a level 15 fighter has no more reason to do extra credit than a level 29 fighter.

And the extra work does add up, two of my players are almost an entire level ahead because they tend to do all the extra credit work. Sure, it took a year long campaign (I gave extra credit the same way in 3.5) but the reward for those players willing to make the time can be substantial.

There will almost always be a disparity between the players at any given table. Some will spend more time out of game on their character than they do in-game. Some will only think about the game while they’re at the table. Most will fall somewhere in the middle. I wouldn’t make any rewards or punishments too significant, so as not to punish those (like myself) who don’t have the time they’d like to devote to gaming.

If I’m a player, I expect the GM might ask us to do things between sessions, but I also expect the GM to realize other things in life come first, so it might not get done. Also, depending on what the GM wants, I also make it clear they might need to work with me. I don’t do detailed character backgrounds at character creation for instance. It’s too much info to come up with at once, particularly when I don’t have a feel for the campaign setting yet. So, if the GM wants details before the game starts, it will involve a lot of talking with me, to help me get a feel for the setting and what I actually think the character will be like. I usually learn about my characters through playing them, not by defining them ahead of time. One friend of mine actually roleplayed through a few mini-scenarios with me before a game, so I could get a better grasp of what my character would act like. This was actually a great help in getting the details she wanted from me before the game started.

I’m in the habit of having strategy e-mails between sessions, since I take a more sandbox approach and I want to know what the players have in mind. This facilitates player to player discussion about what happened in the session before and what might happen next. It gives me focus as a GM because I know what I need to place an emphasis on in my preparations.

This is also the time for rules discussions. Did a ruling bother them in the last session? Was there a rule that wasn’t too clear? Did the errata clarify a point in the rules that we may have been incorrect on?

Finally, I like to recap the session and announce any leveling information. If leveling occurs, I don’t mind the players doing their leveling from home. If they need to ask me about anything, they can send me an e-mail. At the very least, hopefully everyone will have an idea of their talent/feat choices when we meet at the next session. This will make leveling take much less time if it happens at the start of a session.

In short, I don’t demand homework from my players, but I encourage some kind of discussion participation/input of thought, so that the game will be as good as it can be. Games are only as good as the GM and players want them to be. It is a collaborative effort in my opinion, even if the GM does most of the preperations between sessions.

Prior to encountering Amber Diceless I never really had the idea of demanding written character backgrounds or adventure recaps. That system codified the idea, though, by giving you extra character points during character generation for promising to produce specific things between sessions. I didn’t like the way it worked out in play– campaign logs and character diaries can be fun to write, but once they’re homework [and for no reward-- the payment was all up front], the weeks that you’re uninspired are painful. And trying to catch up once you’re behind… ugh.

In other games, I’ve had the players rotate taking notes during the session. While the end product was nice, there was a huge variation in what was recorded, and everyone felt note taking detracted from their roleplaying. XP bribes didn’t work either; it’s hard to pay as much as the hassle deserves, particularly if you want the group to remain somewhat close in power over time.

I recently playtested a game (I’m not at liberty to reveal the name) wherein one player per session could take it on themselves to recap the previous game session in return for a small but meaningful in-game reward.

I think one of the most interesting forms of this comes from Amber Diceless, which gives extra points for the auction/point-buy character creation system in return for volunteering for long-term investments in the game, like keeping character diaries or session notes, and if the player who volunteered in order to get the extra points starts slacking off, then the rules have a “bad stuff” system to bring the character back into balance. I’ve never tried it out in practice, but my gut tells me that it’s a good way to reward the player who was going to do it anyway, and anyone who doesn’t realistically think they are going to benefit simply won’t take the extra points.