Toward Better Rewards | Running the Game

"“The behavior a game rewards is the behavior a game encourages” is life lesson for so many things

The relationship between the mule, the carrot, and the stick is more complex than we may be led to believe. Don't forget to actually feed them some carrots sometimes, and be attentive if they prefer apples instead

"And in that ancient ruin you find some evil dude, trying to summon Orcus, and suddenly you have to save the world; mostly because that's where you keep all your loot." Absolute gold right there.

I've been doing this in my 5e game for a few years now in the form of "optional missions" that the party or their followers can undertake. At first it hurt when they would go through the missions they've acquired and say "meh, this reward isn't worth it," but I really got to show what they prioritize in their rewards and WHAT EXACTLY they are willing to move heaven and earth for. Do they want new abilities? Resources for their strongholds? Items? XP? I never really knew why I was doing it other than I thought it was cool and it "felt right," but hearing Matt put my nonsense brain in to words is very cathartic.

"Literally just let your players write your sidequests for you" -Matthew Colville, 2022

I had a party one that had picked up some npcs and were escorting them home. I casually mentioned that my character would spend downtown teaching one of them some self defense and survival stuff, just because it was something I thought my character would do. I didn’t think much about it until the gm messaged me between sessions and asked if I would be interested in them turning that npc into a retainer for me. Having that mechanical connection instantly changed what had originally been meant as character fluff into one of my biggest motivators in the campaign. I spent a lot of time roleplaying their relationship and thinking of what he would teach next. That campaign is one of my favorites.

I've been running games for my friends for 28 years, and every time I watch one of your videos Matt, I feel like I'm being taken to school again by a pro. You're a legend to the community, stay awesome my friend.

A quick tip to add on top of Matt clever idea. Whether you're going into session zero or session 100, take 5 minutes to give a few sticky notes or index cards to each of your players. Have them each write down two to three short-term goals and long-term goals that their character personally has. Then have them also write down the things that they, the player, are interested in doing or would like to see more of in the campaign. Then you can attribute rewards to their self-made goals and hand them back out throughout the campaign to make sure that the players are working towards the things their characters are motivated to accomplish. You can also make goals and rewards that reinforce or encourage the behaviors that the players wrote they're interested in.

Matt, you’ve helped me guide my players through hundreds of hours of incredible adventures. I’m currently in the process of writing a novel that takes place in my DnD setting. You’ve been my greatest inspiration. Thank you, truly. For everything you do.

You know what? That "Get XP from finding gold" thing from early D&D sounds a lot like the way they added XP drops to ores in Minecraft. It served as an extra design incentive to indicate that the XP-granting task was a fundamental, pivotal part of the game. I remember before Minecraft gave XP for mining, and I didn't feel as motivated to mine as I do today. So I can see this design principle in action, even in the modern day! Very cool stuff. 🙂

After playing WItcher 3, I started creating notice boards for each town my players enter. This has been the best natural way to introduce my players to optional quests and introduce them to the town's main actors.

It occurs to me that this might fill a 5e gap in the underutilized "diety" Relationship. A request and boon format makes sense if your deities are involved from time to time and not omniscient.

"End of the beginning of the 21st century" hit me harder than I was expecting

I spent a long time prepping a megadungeon once and I made a point to make sure each player had their own unique Goal, something IN the dungeon that was related to their backstory. It worked really well! Alas that campaign fell apart after like two sessions because I could not for the life of me translate the dungeon's 2D maps into 3D space for my players. But up UNTIL that point, the players really liked the quest cards.

I love the idea of other rewards like the DMG suggests: using charms, boons, feats and lands/property/titles etc - even lore or magic items...

"and suddenly you're trying to save the world, if only because that's where you keep all your loot." KILLED me 🤣 it's such a perfect and hilarious explanation of the differences between the 3.5 campaigns I grew up playing and the 5e campaigns I play now.

After a game where the players kept asking, “why are we doing this?” I have subconsciously been doing this in my current game. I have Titles with abilities once players reach a narrative goal. And telling them what they get, but I think having cards is just a simple, “why didn’t I think of that?!” Implementation to my game. Thank you Mr. Matt!

And these videos are our DM rewards 🥳

What reward do I get when I complete the goal "exact retribution on Caiphran the Intertron"?

I've gone back (even though I'm only in my 20's) to 2nd edition for the grittier tone it has. Then I started a game with two other guys as just a tutorial to figure out the game, completely sandbox with random tables for almost everything and told them "Have fun." I didn't expect them be so excited to play it constantly because they could set their own goals, fight monsters, and get hoards of treasure. Now they're level eight and leading a tribe of kobolds that conquered an orc tribe while exploring a sunken city and trying to get established as an actual power in the region. Crazy what random tables and player motivation can turn in to. And it all started in Hommlet.