RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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I am working on a home brew game with a great deal of home rules. One of the things I want to experiment with is not rewarding experience points, but leveling up the party at different major beats in the story.
I still want to reward the party with something, and though wealth will be rewarded I don't want gold to be the only thing handed out. What I am looking for are ideas on consumable rewards.
So far, the idea of action points and plot twist cards has come to my attention. How have these been used in your games? Did you find they worked well? When would you give them out? What other rewards would you give to your players?
Action and/or Hero Points serve as good rewards. I haven't ever used the Plot Twist cards so I can't comment there. A reward system that I've used before is Renown/Notority/Honor Points - The players gain or lose points for being seen by the populace in an area doing certain grand deeds, be they heinous crimes or remarkably charitable acts. These points affect their repuation with factions such as Thieves or Assassins Guilds, the local watch, certain nobility, a Mage College, and so on which might grant minor boons (anything from circumstantial bonuses to social skills when interacting with them to calling in favors, services, or borrowing magical implements - with the implication that particularly difficult requests may cause their point value to drop a bit). Inversely their totals for these points might negatively affect their standings with certian groups or individuals. This also works well for a game which mixes a freeform sandbox with an event based story arc by giving the players lots of options which have a point values each and after the players accumluate so many of each type of point a scripted event occurs. Other than that minor supernatural boons granted by outsiders or archmagi/hierophants in exchange for aid work well, as do handing out bonus traits when character regularly exemplify them through roleplay or traits gained from accomplishing certain tasks.
We have a system that seems to fit some groups.
You could institute a system for Bonus XP. This [i]XP[/b] is not the same as normal XP. This works well in groups where you have shared XP (or everyone has the same XP so as to be the same level at different parts of the Campaign).
Bonus XP can be turned in for pretty much anything:
- Bonus Feat
- Bonus Skill points
- Bonus Trait
- Gold (a sliding scale that increases as you level)
- etc...
Pretty much anything that you're willing to give as GM. How you award Bonus XP is best left up to how the group works and the individual play styles.
For example: If you have the Weapon Monkey in the group actually roleplays, award him Bonus XP
Have you seen the Pathfinder Chronicles: Factions Guide?
Some great expendable resources detailed in that book, that will both give your players new options, and new motivations to strive toward. My necromancer has been capturing weird undead for several game sessions now, and pawning them off on the Faction for increased PA. ^.^ That Drekavik was an awesome score... So was the Daughter of Ergathoa...
Have you seen the Pathfinder Chronicles: Factions Guide?
Some great expendable resources detailed in that book, that will both give your players new options, and new motivations to strive toward. My necromancer has been capturing weird undead for several game sessions now, and pawning them off on the Faction for increased PA. ^.^ That Drekavik was an awesome score... So was the Daughter of Ergathoa...
I use faction points also, and boons. Boons are 1 time use special items. The defacto boon I give is a 're-roll' last roll before results announced and take 2nd roll.
Also i've given out +X to skill while in certain area. EG you do something for a botanist and they teach you lots of things about the surrounding area, you get +3 to all survival checks to gather food while in this region and +3 on knowledge check for plants.
Also you can grant free passage on ships/caravans, discount in stores, NPCs follower, the possibilities are endless :)
You could give them Reputation points. Unearthed Arcana had a system that looked like it could work. Don't forget that wealth doesn't need to be cash. It can come in other forms, like property.
One thing you might consider is handing out cool specialized abilities. With a set level progression via story it can feel like your character isnt making any real progress session to session. So you could hand out cool abilities when the players do something important but where they dont expect to level. They dont neccessarily have to be more power, but could be something useful.
For instance in a d20 modern game I played in the dm did this. I was a strong physical fighting type, and so he gave me the ability to disable locks and other devices with unarmed attack rolls. Not exactly gamebreaking to be able to kick open a locked door a little more easily then normal, but it was really cool and I enjoyed the ability quite a bit. If you take some care and tailor them to the characters it could be alot of fun.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Thanks, these are all great ideas. I am sure I can find something here to fit into my game.
I already have custom powers and personalized loot in this game, but those are more part of leveling up or story driven. Because of that I didn't really think of them as rewards. However, I like the idea of giving out points, like the "bonus xp" or the "faction points" to give the players some additional abilities or uses with the powers and gear.
I also like the idea using those points to buy feats, skills, and possibly other things. It really fits well with what I am planning.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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We have a system that seems to fit some groups.
You could institute a system for Bonus XP. This [i]XP[/b] is not the same as normal XP. This works well in groups where you have shared XP (or everyone has the same XP so as to be the same level at different parts of the Campaign).
Bonus XP can be turned in for pretty much anything:
- Bonus Feat
- Bonus Skill points
- Bonus Trait
- Gold (a sliding scale that increases as you level)
- etc...
Pretty much anything that you're willing to give as GM. How you award Bonus XP is best left up to how the group works and the individual play styles.
For example: If you have the Weapon Monkey in the group actually roleplays, award him Bonus XP
How would you price the different things you are willing to give out for the XP? Like, for example, how much would a Bonus Feat cost? What about skill points?
I am liking this idea more and more, but I am worried about the balance of the system. I can see this being abused if the limits are not strict enough, or not being too rarely used if the limits are too strict.
You could give them Reputation points. Unearthed Arcana had a system that looked like it could work. Don't forget that wealth doesn't need to be cash. It can come in other forms, like property.
Does it need to be that quantified? When my players' party helped a clan of dwarves, rewards included rings whose intrinsic value was low, but indicates to other dwarves that they've been of major service, so should be treated with greater honour than normal for non-dwarves. Now they're investigating an abandoned dwarf stronghold, I can, for instance, put in secret doors with mechanisms using the rings as keys. The party also has a clay tablet given to them by a goblin adept, to use if they ever need to contact him. I wouldn't begin to know how to quantify these sorts of effects in a point system, though, nor do I think it necessary.
You could give them Reputation points. Unearthed Arcana had a system that looked like it could work. Don't forget that wealth doesn't need to be cash. It can come in other forms, like property.Does it need to be that quantified? When my players' party helped a clan of dwarves, rewards included rings whose intrinsic value was low, but indicates to other dwarves that they've been of major service, so should be treated with greater honour than normal for non-dwarves. Now they're investigating an abandoned dwarf stronghold, I can, for instance, put in secret doors with mechanisms using the rings as keys. The party also has a clay tablet given to them by a goblin adept, to use if they ever need to contact him. I wouldn't begin to know how to quantify these sorts of effects in a point system, though, nor do I think it necessary.
It doesn't have to be that quantified. It was just an idea thrown out there that he could run with. I don't use that system. I just play it by ear.
Still hoping Harmor comes back and answers the question above.
I "sell" bonus feats to my players through specialized training. They may buy one bonus feat every four levels at a cost of (# of bonus feats)^2*4,000 gp each.
So basically:
1st feat = 4,000 gp
2nd feat = 16,000 gp
3rd feat = 36,000 gp
4th feat = 64,000 gp
5th feat = 100,000 gp
Now I limit the feats available to take with this to what I feel is a 'basic' list -- you can get any weapon proficiency feat, the armor feats, endurance, skill focus, iron will/great fortitude/lightning reflexes, toughness, run, dodge, mobility... you get the idea.
Now depending on how you award your bonus xp you could use the same basic formula there.
Skill points are much the same except I generally sell training in batches that grant you a specific number of points for a specific skill.
Getting that first point generally costs 1,000 gp for skills that can be used untrained and 2,500 gp for skills that are trained, and then each rank pass that simply increases the cost a like amount (so ranks*1,000 gp or ranks*2,500 gp depending on skill).
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I also allow quests and what not for special in game benefits such as: Special magical items (individualized stuff), rank and title, land grants, favors from 'powerful' people, odd story related stuff (such as maybe getting a miracle powerful enough to bring a town back from the dead) -- these depend almost as much on the player to develop though -- I don't mind handing out the rewards but the player had best put in most the work in figuring out what the reward is, its maintenance, and his use of it.
As GM I always reserve the power of "no" on any of this, and I make sure I edit and discuss with the player exactly what he thinks he is getting, what I will allow him to get, being sure that the reward follows the theme/story/character involved, and what he's going to need to do in order to get to what he wants.
Honestly the more often you can leave development work of things like PC property in the players hands the better it is for you as a GM -- you still have oversight but it makes the players more excited, and develops their interest since they have invested time and effort into developing it -- it makes the campaign everyone's instead of just the GM's campaign that they are playing in.
This is what we use for Bonus XP:
- Bonus Feat: 200
- Bonus Skill points: 50/rank
- Bonus Trait: 100
- Gold (a sliding scale that increases as you level)
Generally its awarded at the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. You can only spend your Bonus XP at the time your level and with the permission of the GM on what you buy.
The way we do it is that these extra bonuses are to "flavor" up our characters. Buy Profession (Sailor) because you've been on a ship for a month. Get Iron Will if you're a fighter after failing your Will Save constantly...things like that. Generally its not to used to min-max or munchkin your character.
How you award Bonus XP is up to you. Our GM gives out Bonus XP for things we were paying attention to, like "What was the name of the Paladin's Cohort you met at the Castle?" (+50). "Can you tell me why its important to kill the Witch before the next new moon?" (+50). "What offerings are you supposed to bring the king?" (+50).
He has also awarded Bonus XP for amazing feats of bravery. (E.g. fighter needed an 18 or higher to successfully jump off a cliff onto the back of a flying creature with the Cleric in its claws. He make it, rolls a 19, and the creature couldn't support all their weight and started going towards the ground.)
Basically, if you've contributed to the group in some way you can max out 200 pretty easily. The party poopers aren't awarded anything.
Now this works for our group...your mileage may vary.
I keep a box of Fudge Rounds, Twinkies, Tootsie Pops, etc next to my chair and give them out whenever someone does something particularly cool or creative.
I keep a box of Fudge Rounds, Twinkies, Tootsie Pops, etc next to my chair and give them out whenever someone does something particularly cool or creative.
I would like to recommend this for offical and fully sanctioned inclusion as the completely offical rules of pathfinder in the next book that is produce -- no matter what subject that book is supposed to cover -- and inclusion in all future books paizo produces just so nobody can miss the sheer awesomeness of this rule.