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

[Nebulous]

One thing I've almost completely phased out is the random encounter though. Sometimes, having dangerous bandits show up on the road serves the purpose of communicating to the group something about the nature of the region, but a lot of times random encounters are just filler that takes time away from advancing the narrative or compelling exploration. I get that DnD invented random encounters but a this point they feel far too "video gamey" in an outdated way, to me.

I am torn on random encounters. Sometimes I do use them, usually when PCs are wandering the countryside and I want them to know that anything can happen at anything and they aren't safe. If they know it is ME picking encounters, whenever I choose, then it takes away from the random sense of dread that "anything can happen."

On the other hand, I often also have encounters already prepared, and I wait for the "random roll" to occur so I can spring it. When the heroes were exploring Thundertree recently, and twice a day an encounter could happen, I told them Venomfang WOULD attack them on a 17+.

Also, random encounters help address the problem of PCs dumping all their resources first thing, resting 24 hours and being completely refreshed for the next day. A true random encounter can catch them with their pants down.

I think there needs to be a fine line between too few random encounters and too many. I'd like to tinker with a mechanic where A) Hit Dice get sapped, or B) Exhaustion added, without actually taking the time to do a fight. Maybe a rule for that already exists I'm not aware of.

 

[vpuigdoller]

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.

In my last Tomb of Annihilation campaign I had a level 4 Rogue player who had skipped multiple game days that somehow managed to get to the tomb with the rest, he died but he still had fun and he kept showing up so take it with a grain of salt.

PS: That group TPK in the wine room. The Rogue died by getting eternally lost by going down a certain tunnel and not figuring he arrived elsewhere (to avoid spoilers).

 

[ChaosOS]

How does this uneven treasury allocation work in practice? Are you-as-DM forcing how they distribute treasure within the party?

Usually IME they find what they find, and after that the method and handling of treasury division is completely up to the players, preferably in-character. (almost always it ends up as equal shares for all, based on how much of the adventure the character (not player!) was around for)

Treasure during the session usually. I try to run a bit more episodically to allow characters to appear/disappear. I'll just write they found some important sidequest like they're Thor in Age of Ultron. So the people who do show get to find the chest of treasures and split between them. Yes, it means I'm tending to deflate the amount of treasure amassed in the final hoard and as the direct quest reward, but I'm fine with that. Quest completion treasure goes into the party-wide pool they use for group items (the classic bag of holding)

 

[generic]

I use basic XP with a twist. I award XP based on an unreasonably complicated rubric in my current campaign.

I also came up with a system that allows for nice, moderate progression rate, but that's for another thread.

 

[NaturalZero]

I am torn on random encounters. Sometimes I do use them, usually when PCs are wandering the countryside and I want them to know that anything can happen at anything and they aren't safe. If they know it is ME picking encounters, whenever I choose, then it takes away from the random sense of dread that "anything can happen."

On the other hand, I often also have encounters already prepared, and I wait for the "random roll" to occur so I can spring it. When the heroes were exploring Thundertree recently, and twice a day an encounter could happen, I told them Venomfang WOULD attack them on a 17+.

When I first started to DM, I wanted to build everything possible. Every major NPC in the big city, every possible business, etc. Along with this, i felt that i should include random encounters since they were presented in the rules.

As I became more experienced, i realized that a lot of this old school stuff was more work than it had to be and didn't really add to the experience of the players or the story. I found that over time I evolved into a DM style I call the "moving railroad." Essentially, there are a number scenes, encounters, combats, etc, that I plan and would like to include, but I don't necessarily have a set time or place in the world for them to occur and they might never be used at all. This effectively replaces the role of random encounters as I plop in the goblin raid, or the thieves guild committing a burglary, or the royal guard beating up villagers, wherever and whenever it's useful to the plot or makes the session more engaging.

All of this was the result of both running and playing in countless encounters that felt pointless; random things that ended up killing hours of time that could have been spent advancing the plot.

I think there needs to be a fine line between too few random encounters and too many. I'd like to tinker with a mechanic where A) Hit Dice get sapped, or B) Exhaustion added, without actually taking the time to do a fight. Maybe a rule for that already exists I'm not aware of.

4e has skill challenges that did exactly that. I specifically recall the rules for overland travel in Dark Sun that would play out like a series of obstacles and challenges that the party could contend with using skill checks. If they failed the checks, their progress wasn't necessarily stopped but they lost healing surges, which were the direct ancestor of 5e's take on hit dice.

 

[Nebulous]

4e has skill challenges that did exactly that. I specifically recall the rules for overland travel in Dark Sun that would play out like a series of obstacles and challenges that the party could contend with using skill checks. If they failed the checks, their progress wasn't necessarily stopped but they lost healing surges, which were the direct ancestor of 5e's take on hit dice.

Ah, true, it did. I didn't like 4e much but I did use skill challenges time to time. I should dust off my memory of those. I recall using an alternate version I read about here on this site.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

I run an AL-style (but not official AL) game for high school students. Attendance is spotty, although mostly due to commitments I see as important. I’ve kept everyone within one level of each other, and we’ve used XP. But I’m not entirely happy with XP in this setting. When the season 8 AL rules came out, I was intrigued by the checkpoint system for leveling, and have considered using it if we ever wrap up this campaign and start another. (I wouldn’t use any of the rest of the season 8 rules, though.)

It occurs to me that those checkpoint rules might help you address their unwillingness to pursue “side quests,” as you could grant checkpoints for those side quests.

First, though, I think it would be good to get your group together and talk it out. Why aren’t they pursuing side quests? What kinds of issues are interfering with attendance? What kind of game do they want?d

 

[Dausuul]

How do you make the game more than just a "greatest hits" of an adventure when using milestone? Or should I go with XP awards and not give XP to those who miss?

I don't. My PCs generally do not do sidequests, and I am entirely cool with that. I find that an adventure which stays focused on the main plot allows for much more complexity and depth in that main plot.

 

[akr71]

For me and my players, the goal of the game is to get together and have fun. Leveling up is part of that fun - for the players, you are stronger & get new abilities - for the DM, the players are stronger so the players can be challenged by tougher encounters.

I have been using a combo of Story and Milestone based leveling for a while. We are all adults with busy lives and families and punishing a player for not being able to make the game is not our idea of fun.

As for 'rushing through content' to get to the next milestone... I dunno, maybe move some clues or necessary items around so that it makes it hard to skip content for fear of missing something essential. To be honest that style of play is so foreign to me, I'm at a loss for advice.

 

[Blue]

My fiancée and I had nearly a three hour conversation about what I should do to improve my next campaign, whenever it comes around.

I have been using milestone XP for several years now, which (I feel) has at least partially contributed to apathy from several players. (Why bother making an effort to come if you get all the character rewards anyway?) Also, it's made players want to rush through content, avoid side quests and exploration, roleplaying encounters, and wandering monsters.

How do you make the game more than just a "greatest hits" of an adventure when using milestone? Or should I go with XP awards and not give XP to those who miss?

The concern is that I'm getting ready to run an AP, and I don't want characters to have to level grind to get to the appropriate level for the game.

I want to go off on a tangent. I was playing in a non-D&D fantasy game, and there was a tough encounter coming up and the party spent considerable resources avoiding it. Less than half of what they would have spent in a battle, but that rules system did give monster-based XP. So they could have went after it for loot, or if they were trying to clear out things that could hurt people in the area, but they were on a particular mission and there wasn't a metagame effect of going for every combat, a system-reward soft enforcement of murderhobo behavior.

I was thrilled.

So doing things like avoiding or engaging wandering monsters should be up to the characters - give them that agency. If they want to kill a marauding creature before it encounters traveler - do so. Or for glory, bragging rights, or loot. But not because the game system only rewards them for doing so.

Rushing through content and side quests sounds like there aren't sufficient rewards there. Be it in-game, or if you don't give XP for any of those. If you want the player to do them, incentivize them. Let them know that some can have good treasure - better than the main quest. Others will trigger XP. Not which ones are which, but just that they you aren't penalizing them with lack of reward for exploring side content. Again, soft control.

For my group, missing out on playing their hobby is already a big downer, I don't have any need to doubel penalize them by also making the game less fun for them.