As a result I have steered away from having a story to tell with Thracia, Instead I have tried to build each area with a history and have a story or history to be discovered in the game.
It has ended up working quite differently in play to how I expected, and that experience got me thinking about what I want to do when I sit down at a table to play. A Lot of the time I just want to play and I don’t really mind what happens in the session as long as I have a good time.
At the moment I offer a variety of XP rewards to players who do things to move the campaign along.
- 100 XP for discovering a location on the map. (to promote exploration)
- 50 xp for updating the Table map (to encourage communication between the players)
- 100 x level for a session write up (as above)
- 50 x level for a character bio. (Because I will turn it into something in the setting)
- Carousing,
- XP monster value for delivering live monsters to the arena
- 100 x level for completing a quest or plot hook (these tend to be player defined)
- 5 xp for a fortune coming true (I stole my fortune telling rules from Vornheim)
- level x 100 xp Achieving a Personal Goal. (to define a personal goal you have to email the list with your goal. For example “I Want to Kill the Goblin King”, or “I want to find the 8th Sword of Ares.”
- Defining parts of Cannakale. (reward varies) (define something about the town, preferably something that leads to adventure.)
What other ways can you encourage players to take an active role in the campaign?
Also there is a new Playtest Packet available for Dnd NEXT
I was discussing incentives in tabletops with one of the Dragons last night. We both agreed that our incentive is to see how far we can take things. Not how far we can break them, but what are the confines of the universe that we are interacting with. I'm the first to admit I'm an explorer-socialiser type player (according to the Bartle definitions), meaning that I'm more satisfied when I can find something new, interesting, different, or find a unique/innovative way of solving a problem. XP is totally a *bonus* onto that.
ReplyDeleteOne of the nice things about the Vampire series (we're currently playing Dark Ages) is that the personality types allow for rewards such as a regain of willpower. If the RP is good, the GM *may* reward around that too in the way we're playing at the moment (I'm loving this system). This means that whilst everyone else is outside in a forest looking for wood, the innovator who is stood in the barn, grabs and axe and smashes in the walls -- and gets rewarded for it. Players who play up to their downsides get rewarded, and this is making a real difference to the play. Sometimes the reward is xp. Sometimes it's willpower, humanity or just better RP.
I think myself and the chap I was talking to last night may be a bit odd, however. Neither one of us are achievement based gamers. As I said, levelling up is nice, however, we'd both rather see what works (and suffer whatever consequences for it working/not working) than get xp.