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

[Umbran]

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?"

Adults have responsibilities, and things more important to them than your game. The game is an entertainment. There are higher priority things out there.

I am not going to penalize a player because his kid got sick, or our usual game is scheduled on his wife's birthday, or he has to work late to get a project done on time.

 

[Lanefan]

Oh man, some wildly different play styles here.

No kidding, eh?

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."

Fair point, but still misses the main issue: xp should be a reward for what the character does, not the player. And as the character is likely to keep on truckin' with the party* even if it doesn't have a player attached for the night then it should still accrue the xp it would have coming to it.

* - unless some sort of metagame system is in place where an absent player's PC fades into the background for that session, but 99.5% of the time that's an even worse solution as it makes no sense in the story. (the other 0.5% are the cases where the party are on a one-session mission and that PC could reasonably be left behind)

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 main issue I have with this is that it completely disincentivizes characters from taking any individual risks and to some extent incentivizes individual risk aversion (as in, "you guys handle this, I'll stay back here").

Everyone staying the same level is not in any way a goal. If a character dies* early in an adventure and isn't revived until the end, and then everyone levels up, now you've arrived at the PC earning xp while dead!

* - or gets feebleminded and can't contribute, or whatever.

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.

No argument here; other than these things are a reward, as in one of several, rather than the only reward. Others are getting to hang out with friends; and watching your character (and other characters) advance and develop be this by acquired treasure, or level-ups, or both.

One way to take some focus off of level-up is to massively slow down the advancement rate from what 5e suggests.

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

Fair enough; I wouldn't be interested in DMing players for whom the only thing that matters is levelling up.

 

[Warpiglet]

Adults have responsibilities, and things more important to them than your game. The game is an entertainment. There are higher priority things out there.

I am not going to penalize a player because his kid got sick, or our usual game is scheduled on his wife's birthday, or he has to work late to get a project done on time.

Right. Missing out IS the penalty. That's my point. And adding or taking away a little experience doesn't change the situation.

The game IS the carrot. Missing it is the stick.

On the other hand I have seen people put movies, drinks or other entertainment before a scheduled game. They don't want it enough. And that's ok. Do it too often and Maybe a regular game is not at all what you need to involve yourself with

 

[Anoth]

I’m old school. If they show up they have a chance to not die.

 

[Tony Vargas]

* - unless some sort of metagame system is in place where an absent player's PC fades into the background for that session, but 99.5% of the time that's an even worse solution as it makes no sense in the story.

I've been in groups where that was a standard table convention, and it's surprisingly unobtrusive, in practice, because, well, the absent player isn't there.

 

[Lanefan]

I've been in groups where that was a standard table convention, and it's surprisingly unobtrusive, in practice, because, well, the absent player isn't there.

The player isn't, but the character? (hint: characters don't need players in order to function!)

If I'm Falstaff the Thief, I'd be asking why Harry the Fighter - who was just marching in front of me - suddenly disappeared for the last three rooms and two combats, then just as suddenly reappeared...

 

[Oofta]

I’m old school. If they show up they have a chance to not die.

In order for your players to avoid dying they have to show up? What do you do, send out a hit man to their hunt them down if they don't show? That is one way to up attendance!

 

[Anoth]

In order for your players to avoid dying they have to show up? What do you do, send out a hit man to their hunt them down if they don't show? That is one way to up attendance!

I really hate those players that don’t commit to the game. Lol !!!

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

If I'm Falstaff the Thief, I'd be asking why Harry the Fighter - who was just marching in front of me - suddenly disappeared for the last three rooms and two combats, then just as suddenly reappeared...

It's been the standard convention in my group. It has problems, but far less than you'd expect. In fights, it's usually not a problem: we just assume the camera was on the heroes and PCs in the gray zone were fighting their own ennemies at the same time. It's only problematic when (a) the absent PC is the only one in the group to possess a specific ability (if we can afford 3 days to get back to town to get this item identified, why can't we just camp and have Will the Wizard cast Identify?) (b) when the story implicates the absent PC specifically.

The first problem can be glossed over, the second irks me a little as a GM...

 

[OB1]

I reward attendance and participation with an exciting story about brave adventurers facing deadly perils where the dice are rolled to resolve uncertainty between what players want to do and their ability to accomplish it in the fiction, leading to unpredictable outcomes that take the story in directions that no one had planned for.