In-game achievements/badges

[Clefton Twain]

So last night I finally got my group together to do some D&D Next playtesting. Fun was had by all.

Because our group does not always take everything seriously, we got into some silly shenanigans. During that time, I threw out a couple of badges. I announced "Achievement Unlocked!" and gave 10 XP to the player who got the particular badge. I gave out two, and neither achievement was serious.

But that got me to thinking...perhaps to make the game interesting or bring players out of their shell (get them to do heroic things etc) that maybe I could include a couple of serious achievements during each session.

I figure I can announce the names of the achievements and give a small description, hinting at what the player would need to do to get the achievement. Each achievement would be worth 100-250 XP (scaling up as the characters level). I figure it might add a little flare to the game as well as some humor at times.

For the record, I borrowed the "Pit Boss" achievement from Portal 2 for last night's session. The other achievement, I won't go into detail, but it involved a cat's rear end.

--CT

 

[billd91]

Paizo experimented with some achievement feats with their Legacy of Fire adventure path. These were fairly long-term achievements rather than the quick and easy ones so they would be a challenge to track over time in a pen and paper world (one advantage the computer has over people - record keeping is a breeze).

 

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

I tend to shy away from meta-game awards like this, but there is definitely a draw for accomplishing certain silly things. If you're doing some deep, political noir game, I say doing whatever you can to increase the fun is worth it. Since the dawn of shooters that have RPG elements (a la Call of Duty) achievements are becoming more mainstream.

I would just warn that they can feel somewhat "gamist," and everything that falls along with that (some groups might love it, others hate it.)

The XP system already mimics this in a way, as everything that you do that progresses the game toward the goal, killing the bad guy, finding the treasure, rescuing the royal family, negotiating the end of a war, all of those things are already "achievements" in story and can be rewarded with XP.

Having specific Achievements might just add a little more granularity to the game. In my own system, OMEN, we have a fame system that basically describes how famous your character is, to which group/industry, and why. When they accomplish certain tasks that have high visibility, they gain some Fame.

You should try making a list of achievements, give everyone a sheet with a bunch of tally boxes to mark how close they are to accomplishing the achievement, and test it out. I'd be interested in seeing how it goes.

 

[jedavis]

I kind of did a class unlock this way. I'm running ACKS, and recently participated in the kickstarter for their first supplement, which had extra classes. I didn't just want to open it up to players, because that way lies madness, so instead I watched for signs that might earn players access to the various classes therein. So far we've only had one, but I have ideas for a few more:

In Armok's Name - Commit suicide as a dwarf. Unlocks access to the Dwarven Fury class (unarmored dwarven berserkers).

Pacifist - Go three dungeon expeditions without ever performing an aggressive action (attacking, offensive spells). Unlocks the Priestess class (unarmored cleric with mage to-hit and better spellcasting).

Gearhead - Build or destroy five constructs. Unlocks the Dwarven Machinist class.

And so forth. I'm OK with these as not being too metagamey, because these are the sort of actions which might attract a character of the associated class to the party. Naturally, I don't tell the players that it's an achievement system (since strictly speaking it isn't), but I do like the idea of associating rewards with peculiar playstyles.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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[dammitbiscuit]

Why do folks quote and mention when they report someone?

 

[Nytmare]

Why do folks quote and mention when they report someone?

It stops a ton of people from reporting the same post, but then unfortunately clutters the playing field after the post is removed. I think that the mods sometimes notice the "warning" post and remove it too, but not always.

As for achievements and badges, I would find that to be a little much for my play style, in both a metagame and (to a lesser degree) a gamist sense. For the most part these are things that should be acknowledged because of their in-game repercussions (Congratulations you killed 200 kruthik), and I would feel that having the system in place is either jarring people out of the immersion I'm working to construct around them, or influencing their decisions from outside the realm of character motivation.

I think that achievements in general came about as way to include high scores in games (or even sub games) that didn't necessarily have scores to look at or compare. If that's going to be in my game, I want that to evolve naturally between the players or their characters because of what's going on inside the game. I don't want to add to the list of things that they are reacting to, and making decisions because of, that are extraneous to the game.

 

[dammitbiscuit]

I like setting achievements in front of players at the start of the game to give them hints as to things they can get up to.

For example, there's an achievement to tug on General Kilwynn's beard. That tells the players that someone named General Kilwynn exists, he has a beard, and tugging on it is not something he's likely to put up with. Looking into that gives them something to look for as they play.

Or an achievement to succeed on 10 non-trivial rolls in a row. Players always notice (and complain about) streaks of failures, but when they're looking for (and inevitably find) a streak of 10 successes, it causes them to notice and pay attention to when the Dice Gods are being kind.

In short, achievements encourage your players to look for, notice, or pay attention to things. Use that well to direct their focus. Trivial amounts of EXP can be awarded to make it especially compelling.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

what we do...

For years our 3 Headed Monster of a DM (there are three of us, who each run separate campaigns, we take turns, so everyone gets to play) - anyway, we award spontaneous XP rewards (generally nothing Oh My God) - for partiularly unique, heroic or hilarious actions, feats or deeds.

Most recently our earnest party of intrepid adventurers had dipped their Hammership, the Lost Reward into the atmosphere of the Water planet Geryon to cycle their oxygen envelope, and to land on the surface to hunt (fish) and replenish their water supply, when a perfectly aimed Arcane Plasma Bolt fired up from the surface took out their entire helm room, pilot and helm included. As the ship began to tumble from the sky, our trusty Paladin, clutching the railing bowed his head in earnest prayer (GOD CALL!), and Bahamut heard him! Two translucent platinum wings sprouted from the sides of the crippled ship and allowed them to glide safely down to the surface. Only when the vessel was safe did the player who was playing the Paladin release his death grip on the edge of the table (irl) and stop his passionate littany to the father of good dragons. He was 8th level at the time (about a third of the way to the next level). I awarded him 9th.

Oh and SPELLJAMMING F T W!!!!!!

 

[Nytmare]

For example, there's an achievement to tug on General Kilwynn's beard. That tells the players that someone named General Kilwynn exists, he has a beard, and tugging on it is not something he's likely to put up with. Looking into that gives them something to look for as they play.

Or an achievement to succeed on 10 non-trivial rolls in a row. Players always notice (and complain about) streaks of failures, but when they're looking for (and inevitably find) a streak of 10 successes, it causes them to notice and pay attention to when the Dice Gods are being kind.

To me, both of those sound like invitations for goofy, narrative breaking disaster. Granted it does depend on the players, but it would be encouraging people to play in a way that I would not want my game to go.

The characters don't know of any reason why General Kilwynn exists except that they're all racing to yank on every beard they come across on the off chance that it's his.

Players try to chain together as many attempts as they can using their worst skills, for no other reason than that they want to be the first one to fail worst.