D&D 5E How Do You Reward Attendance and Participation?

[Blue]

Ah, the fun in playing the game. That's not how I (or my players) learned to play games. The coach always said, the only time the game is fun is when it's over and you've won.

I don't care about level imbalance. Everyone starts at level 1, and everyone gets out what they put in, so the levels never line up. Some people are just better than others in the game.

Players often conflate character success (defeating foes, achieving character goals) with player success (having fun, making a great story you love to repeat, enjoying yourself). Many find that what they want out fo a game matures, others love the thrill of well executed tactics.

Character success can feel great. So can the drama of everything turning pear shaped and frantically trying to save a situation.

But the idea that you shouldn't have fun until you've won seems like you're intentionally taking a player fail (lack of fun) to chase a character win that may or may succeed so may not bring that fun back. That's a net negative.

 

[Blue]

I completely divorce advancement from actions and results. We level by sessions.

Since everyone is now going to advance, the only goal is play.

Works great. They do what is important to their charscters. The night " payment" for actions is play, development with NPCs.

Advancement as a pacing mechanism, play as a reward.

 

[Warpiglet]

The game is it, baby!

We were going to play this weekend and one pal could not make it.

Dm says "what about playing one man down?" Suddenly pal's plans change and he is free to play.

If you are really into it, you will play. Think about falling in love. Do you have to have some outside incentive to make out with your "special friend?"

Does he/she need to think about how to trick you into being there? And if so, do they really want to be there with you?

Find people that love the game. The game will get played.

 

[Blue]

Well, I use Milestone XP but those who don't show up do not get any. The ones who do not want to lag behind do show up and those who were going to drop anyways drop. Its been working for me but I am 100% sure this will not work for anyone and can bring up a lot of drama in some groups.

Can you let me know what you mean by not get it, since by my experience milestones didn't always happen every session.

If three sessions pass and in the third a milestone is given for what has been accomplished during those three, does Alice who as the first two get it? Does Bob who was only at the one it was handed out get it? Are the getting full or prorated if they are getting it?

 

[Waterbizkit]

Other people have said, more or less, what I would already with a lot more words. So I'll pare it down to bone:

If the difference between someone showing up or not showing up is the xp for their character, I'm not interested in whether or not they show up. I'm too old to try and incentivize a bunch of adults to turn up for a social event.

Players level up at whatever pace I feel is needed to move things along. It's usually regularly enough that they won't feel starved but spaced out so as not to be predictable.

I've also felt that by not attaching xp to anything in particular my players are more likely to engage with as much of the material as I put in front of them. If rushing the perceived "main storyline" won't get them levels any faster, it feels like players will pursue side quests and exploratory gameplay more readily.

But that's just my experience.

Talk with your players as a group. Actually come to a consensus that everyone is happy with and you may just find the way forward.

 

[vpuigdoller]

Can you let me know what you mean by not get it, since by my experience milestones didn't always happen every session.

If three sessions pass and in the third a milestone is given for what has been accomplished during those three, does Alice who as the first two get it? Does Bob who was only at the one it was handed out get it? Are the getting full or prorated if they are getting it?

Well at the current campaign has a very fast lvl progression one lvl per session. We play five hour sessions twice a month. So if you skipped a session you don't get that lvl.

On the ToA game I mentioned earlier I divided the milestones in minor goals and you needed x goals to get the lvl. So if you kept skipping games like that one rogue you started falling behind. I usually divided it in four goals per milestone and required the players four goal points per lvl. So if a milestone lasted 2 sessions that players who never missed got 4 points while the others depends on how many goals they achieved the days they did attend. That helped me a lot with the book keeping.

Addendum: They have to see the goal be completed beginning to end in order to get award. Otherwise you get nothing as stated before.

 

[Horwath]

Ah, the fun in playing the game. That's not how I (or my players) learned to play games. The coach always said, the only time the game is fun is when it's over and you've won.

I don't care about level imbalance. Everyone starts at level 1, and everyone gets out what they put in, so the levels never line up. Some people are just better than others in the game.

but you play against the game, not against another team. So there is just a reward of completing the challenge, there no other team to beat. You cant say, we trained harder and because of that we won.

Unless you really are doing PvP in your games, but then that is another subject.

 

[Maestrino]

Oh man, some wildly different play styles here.

To me, if you only award XP to the players present, you're actually dis-incentivizing the players who missed a session from returning. It's a mindset of "well, sorry I got pneumonia. Now my character is behind everyone else and I'll never catch up. Might as well just bail on the group entirely."

Milestone XP. Party levels when it's appropriate in your campaign. Everyone stays the same level. Balancing encounters is easier, loading the campaign with level-appropriate loot is easier.

The reward for showing up and playing is getting to BE THERE when the barbarian decides to grapple the big bad and dive off a cliff, leading to certain death for the BBEG and half-damage for the really angry barbarian. Or being there when the heist goes wrong and suddenly everyone's scrambling trying to escape the vaults without being recognized.

As a player, if the only reward in the game is "here's your XP" I'm absolutely not interested in that game.

 

[iserith]

Oh man, some wildly different play styles here.

To me, if you only award XP to the players present, you're actually dis-incentivizing the players who missed a session from returning. It's a mindset of "well, sorry I got pneumonia. Now my character is behind everyone else and I'll never catch up. Might as well just bail on the group entirely."

That's fine. I got a lot of players happy to take that person's seat.

Not to mention that person in your example is just wrong when it comes to D&D 5e character advancement. All of my campaigns in D&D 5e have had characters of differing levels, as many as seven levels difference, and the game works just fine. Lower level characters catch up very fast and can still contribute meaningfully.

 

[Lanefan]

but you play against the game, not against another team.

The game is the other team.

This becomes most obvious when the party's foes are in fact another all-NPC adventuring party.