It doesn't work well for an open-world explory type game.
But yes, hanging a carrot out in front of them works too.
Not true, at least for me.
I make sure to remind the returning players and to inform new ones, that in my open-world explorations (which is basicly a default mode for my games) time doesn’t stay in place and important staff will happen in it, regardless of PC involvement.
It requires having a the world to feel live, admitably. But this is not that hard to acheive*, IMO. Maybe my Storyteller systems background helps me here, idk. But I am pretty comfortable to have players play passively for a while and ignoring part of the story completely. More so - I strive to have enough stuff going on so that they have the luxury of making a choice which part of the story they want to prioritize and when see the results of their decision.
Here is my take on this issue:
Or How come I never have the OP issue in my games
Disclamer: IMO, YMMV.
I aim to have more Acting Parties when just the Adventuring Party. Lets call the former Figures to avoid the confusion. Preferrably more Figures that the PCs and BBEG and his goons. Figures are individuals, groups and organizations that have their own Goals. Figures plan and act towards their Goals. This makes the world move even if PCs just sit there in the tavern or take a 24 hours rest after each encounter. How - depends on the story and on the choices of the PCs. I try to make sure that the players are aware of the choice when they make it and they can feel the results of their choices and actions later.
First thing to make the world feel alive is to make the players see clearly the Cause and the Effect.
Example 1.
You focused on this quest, took calculated risks and made a few good calls - You intercepted vital intelligence/magic item/enemy reinforcements and now have the edge against the BBEG that you would have missed otherwise.
OR
You dragged and dragged and could not focus on doing any one single thing - Those other guys you’ve seen at the tavern three months ago have already looted the dungeon, time to look for a new adventure.
Example 2.
You choosed to ignore the Priests plea for help and rushed to the BBEG base - You have time to do reconnaissance or rush in before he can assemble his full strength.
OR
You decided to stay and help. Priest Blesses you and arms you with weapons and consumables that are very helpfull, but you are short on time and the BBEG is also fully prepared now.
In this case the players may not be sure which course of action was better, but they see clear results and they feel that their intitial choice mattered.
Unless! they decided to stay and help and you do not convey to them the very important piece of information that if they have had rushed - things would have been significantly different.
These are very simple examples. First one is very simple and extreme, the second one is very short term.
With them I try to illustrate one simple idea - players should understand and feel that their choices matter.
Now I will try to show how this works (for me) on a larger scale and what is all this Figures and Goals staff is about.
TL,DR example ahead:
[sblock]My last campaign resolved on the island of Windstone, which has an outpost and a naval resupply base for the players Kingdom of origin. PCs arrive lvl1 with a task to help the head of the outpost, who is a retired adventurer, with his growing troubles.
There are several storylines to be explored or ignored:
- Goblins were sighted for the first time in a decade - how did they get to the island and why are they wearing uniform armor?
- Another party had went to the lakes in the East and disappeared. Lizardfolk live there, but they are not hostile, as far as it is known.
- A minor earthquake has hit the island recently. The Beasts on the island are acting strange and aggressive since.
- West part of the island is held by Undead, and the PCs see an unplundered castle as they sail towards the outpost Day 0.
- Human and goblin and other humanoid corpses are found with hearts torn out - something malignant is growing.
Those are the hooks that players learn on the first day. They are free to decide where they go and what they find more pressing. There are no right or wrong choices - it is an open world. If they choose to dig deeper into the history of the island and look for more hooks, they can learn that there should be an Ancient Keep somewhere on the island. Keep description doesn’t match the Castle they’ve seen enroute.
What is going on:
- Hobgoblin Empire is growing on the far continent. Their Legion has established an own oupost on the far side of an island. They are evil, yet lawful, they have their own agenda, but are not an immediate threat to the PCs or their Kingdom. Their leadership is thinking strategicaly and they can be negotiated with.
- A Hag has awoken. She is behind the Earthquake, Beasts aggression, she spawns monstrosities. She wants the island for herself and seeks to subdue or destroy all other Figures on the island. She plays the long game and will try to deceive the PCs to act in the ways that benefit her. She will try to crush them if they uncover her game or twart her plans too often.
- Missing hearts are caused by Peryton infestation. Their growing headcount will become a problem soon.
- An Evil Dragon has made her lair in the Lizardfolk lakes. The dragon hoards, kills those who don’t worship her and grows in size and power. She keeps a low profile at the start of the campaign, but will become bolder with time. She is a likely ally for the Hag and is hard to deal with for the PCs.
- Lizardfolk themselves are misled noble savages - they are not evil, they controlled by the Dragon and a few corrupt leaders. They are hostile when encountered, but can be freed and allied.
- Giant King is trapped in a magic mirror in an Ancient Keep. He will ally the Hag if he gets out.
- The other Adventuring Party are the “evil twins” trope to the PCs. They survived their raid to the lakes. They are a wild card, but will almost unevitably end up on the other side of the barricades with PCs.
- The Undead of the West Castle are enemies of the Hag as she orchestrated their fall in the past. They are not friends with anyone else either. They will be passive, only acting to defend themselves, until the very late.
- The Kingdomers at the outposts are PCs allies but they will not take dealings with any evil creatures lightly.
[/sblock]
All Figures have their own Goals, and they only know parts of what is going on. They act towards their Goals according with the Information they have, using the Resources they have. Resources vary according to the game type. In a poltical game they are influence, wealth and information itself. In a combat oriented game resources are more about menpower, personal might and magic.
Goals of Figures should collide and create conflict (so anyone who has goals that don’t collide is not a figure - you can safely ignore them for your game). Conflict is a process that should develop even with zero PC intervention. This is the key to a working open world. If the Prince wants his daughter saved and the PCs decide to do something else - she should either die (not from the old age) or be saved by someone else. What shouldn’t happen is that time shouldn’t freeze when the PCs are looking the other way. It goes without saying that a process that PCs can not effect in any meaningful way is bad and should be tweaked or discarded entirely.
TL,DR example continued:
[sblock]
Regardless of PC interaction, Processes will develop on the Island:
If left unchecked, Perytons will multiply and expand their hunting range further and further until no place under the sky on the Island is safe from whem. PCs will get the message sooner rather than later as they travel, as enough Perytons are always a threat to a party of their level. Tracking them to their breeding ground not only solves the problem, but can also shed some light on the cause of the problem (Hag), gives a good chance to locate the Ancient Keep which is nearby and can help to improve the relations with the Legion if those are not fubar already.
If they don’t interfere with the Ancient Keep (they will get the information about it sooner or later - if they get it early, they can act early) it will get plundered either by Legion/Evil Twins/Dragon on their own or under Hag “guidance”, depending on how those other figures are doing elsewhere.
Obviously, bigger Figures with more numerous and complex Goals can become envolved in several Processes.
The Hag starts with close to zero Resources, but has many ways to grow more:
Her Lair is slowly growing and corrupting the landscape around it, it will get progressively harder to find and will spawn more defenders/Hag troops over time. If Hag is forced to abandon it early on, it will handicap her significantly.
She has started the Peryton problem, she doesn’t control them directly, but they suit her needs. The more slaughter they cause, the weaker all the other living Figures get.
Her monsters will come to blows with the Lizardfolk, and there will be a window of opportunity to play two BBEGs against one another, but if missed, the Hag will wrap the Dragon around her finger. There will be a second opportunity when, as some of the Lizardfolk will resent such an alliance. If both are missed (and none of the two are dealt with by other means) - the good guys will be seriously handicapped in the endgame.
She is looking for the Ancient Keep to free her ally. It will not take her much time unless she is busy with something else, like protecting her lair, but even once she finds it - her monstrosities are bad at navigating trap-filled dungeons. She will seek to enlist the Legion/PCs/Evil Twins to loot the dungeon and surprise! Free the Giant.
etc.
[/sblock]
I hope I’ve made my point clear. The number of Processes can be as high as you are comfortable with, but they all should be relevant - i.e. effect PCs in some way and they should be individualy easy to track. In whatever way that fits the process and you personnaly. (Ex. - You can meticulously track the number of Perytons on the island and their threat range from their mountain, or you can just reduce the time periods between their attack on PCs till they decide to do something about it.)
TLDR Summary:
The Carrot and Stick method works only if players see the cause-effect connection.
IMO it works better when used in game, not metagame (i.e. not XP boosts/rest points etc).
To reward PCs for exploring the world the world should be in motion regardless of their actions.
Motion is created by conflicts that arise from competing Goals of Figures (PCs, NPCs and groups).
Conflicts development is a processes that has results - intermidiary and/or final.
Such results shoud have significant and clear effect on the PCs.
Beneficiary results are Carrot, hindering results are Stick.
This results in more interesting choices between various options in your games. This causes the “to rest or not to rest” choice becoming an actual choice and not a no-brainer. Also this can and should go beoyund the rests “problem” - you are the DM - it is your right and duty to incentivise everyting that make the game better and the other way around. Even when the players are not 100% sure which was the best course of action, they should feel that their decisions actually mattered to how the story unfolded.
I hope this helps.
PS Side benefit of this is that amount of “missed” DM-prepared material is minimized. If they don’t face threat X now, it will grow stronger and will come back to bite them in the back again and they might not be able to ignore it anymore.
From the tldr example - if they don’t explore the Ancient Keep when it is still intact (and level-appropriate) they will likely have to assault/infiltrate it with the Giant King active, summoning his elemental minions to wreack havoc and locking a few key magic items/allies inside.
PPS* Why I think this is easier to do in an open world as opposed to a dungeon crawl. In a dungeon crawl, the number of Figures is severly limited. As is time to develop various processes and show the cause-effect part. Roaming monsters denying rests are just to easy to circumvent with a few low-level spells.
PPPS As usual - my apologies for my imperfect language. I am not the native speaker.