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

[iserith]

It is more like the 2nd option. I definitely do not pre-plan points for level up. Also, in general they can only level up during downtime of a month or more (though there are exceptions) to train and practice. However, I also don't reward leveling regardless of adventure or mission - it is body of work based. They might level up after an "adventure" or several "missions" but not any random mission or adventure.

That is why I realized I was using the wrong term and will probably use accomplishment-based leveling in future discussion of similar topics.

It's story-based advancement (DMG, p. 261). A lot of people refer to this as "milestone" but that's not accurate in the context of D&D 5e. You may also be doing a loose form of session-based advancement if you are really basing it off how many sessions have been played since last level-up. But it sounds like you're basing it on goals achieved ("body of work"), even if it's not as explicit as I would personally prefer. The more explicit one is with what earns XP/levels, the more the players tend to focus on those things to the benefit of the play experience (provided you're tying XP/levels to things that are fun and help create an exciting, memorable story).

 

[BrokenTwin]

I prefer to have everyone stay at the same level as each other regardless of participation, but people who actually attend reap the rewards earned in the session, like loot and contacts. If the party decides to share the wealth with the missing players that's their prerogative, but I do make it known that doing so is optional.
It helps that I run a system (SotDL) where loot is helpful, but it's not D&D 3.x magic-item-treadmill levels of mandatory.

I've been tooling around the idea of running a open sandbox, new characters start at level one style game, but that hasn't happened yet.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I don't run milestone so you get XP since your PC is playing. If the player is not there we assume he wandered off to drop a deuce. That way you don't get killed along with the rest when they do something stupid and get half the party killed. Including the designated "door checker", aka the PC of the absent player. In the game I'm running there is not a vast power difference between levels and a few levels difference between various PC makes little difference in the game.

 

[plisnithus8]

We had to address what to do when players were missing. As the DM, I didn't want to have to find a side quest in the middle of a dungeon or have the missing player's PC ghost around or act without the player's input. So we decided to use a magic rock. If you aren't at the table, your PC goes into the rock. That way other PCs can carry it around and your PC reappears when you show back up at the table. The players don't have any control of how the poke ball is used. It's worked pretty well. The players named the rock the Pokeball.

But sometimes we'd show up to play and people would cancel at the last moment. So I got to the point I decided to keep adding players to my group. The group now has 11 total (me included) so what we do is have a second DM and a related campaign which are different planes -- Avernus & Waterdeep). When there are enough players for 2 groups, we split up by rolling initiative and letting players pick which campaign to play in that session (or sometimes we DMs just place them in a group for narrative reasons or draw randomly). The PCs just pop out of the poke ball (which exists simultaneously in both settings) to the appropriate setting. The other DM and I sit at adjacent tables in the store we play in and coordinate storylines, leveling up, etc.
If we don't have enough players for 2 groups, we just pick one campaign and all play. If one of us DMs can't make it, we have a back-up DM in place.

We use benchmark leveling, and everyone levels up, even if the player hasn't been in a while; we decided being punitive wasn't worth it.

 

[Umbran]

I guess I have players who prioritize coming to the game and others who don't. I understand family, work, health obligations (obviously), but some show up late, cancel last minute, or just "forget," etc. When I brought up whether they still want to play, I get excuses, promises to change, but nothing changes.
So I suppose canning the player is the way to go?

A long time ago, back in grad school, I was in a game that ran on Sunday afternoons, starting at 1 PM. There was a player who could not, would not, show up on time. They were engaged, enthusiastic, a fine player, but... always late.

One of the other players always baked something fresh for game-brunch. Coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, or the like, from scratch - and she was a really good baker. She, the baker, laid down the rule - if you are on time, you get fed. If you are late, you may not partake of the baked goods, and you must sit and watch everyone else eat tasty food.

The rule needed to be enforced exactly once. Even well-warned, that first game the late player was again late. And was not allowed to partake of the chocolate chip coffee cake for that game.

That player was never late again - they always showed up on time, ready to play, engaged and enthusiastic as ever.

Which goes to show - if you want people to show up on time, find their intrinsic motivators, and use them.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I use XP. Absent players lose out.

However, I have a system that worked well
normal XP for the highest level PCs
normal XP +10% for PCs one level below the highest
normal XP +20% for PCs two levels below the highest
etc.

Nobody falls too far behind.

I'm blessed with a group that does not need incentives to show up. There are times when real life just gets in the way. The players like this system - maybe it will work for you.

I used this exact system throughout the Curse of the Crimson Throne which lasted five years and took the players' characters from 1st to 18th level.

It worked fine, but to be honest we didn't need it much as most of the time we were all pretty equal in experience points.

 

[Larnievc]

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 give out xp but they all have the same total. People who can’t make it still get xp.

I give out combat and story awards.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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?

These seem like table problems, not milestone problems. I don't mean that as an attack but I've been running milestone (i.e. DM sez when) since I first heard it suggested (3E sometime?) and I've literally never seen any of these issues, including the "players don't go off-mission", because if anything, my players go off-mission MORE on milestone than they did pre-milestone, because they're no longer concern that messing around doing what they think is cool will hold them back from getting XP!

I used to give out tons of XP for RP and stunts and stuff, and that, in my experience made players who weren't good at doing what it took to get that XP feel apathy or less involved. Especially in 3E, where the XP tables became one XP table, so if you were a level or two behind, that was clearly down to less XP, not down to being a Mage or whatever. Now I see everyone involved, because everyone is excited to be playing an RPG.

It may also be that you're running milestone very literally - i.e. achieve a major goal, get a level. I don't run it like that. I run it as "You all level up when it seems reasonable that you would". The other 5E DMs I play with IRL all run it the same way (to the point where I hadn't considered you might not until now). Not "because you defeated the duke", but because it seems like, after so many sessions and events, you should level up (though that may well coincide with defeating the duke). That your players are mission-obsessed suggests to me that you might be running it in a very literal way, so they can see a goal and know that means a level-up. Which is probably not ideal. For me it's more about hours at the table than actual progress on missions that leads to leveling with milestones (though both factor in).

Also re: character rewards, if leveling is the only thing your players care about well, that's your problem right there.

Magic items aren't a given in 5E. They aren't needed. They aren't part of the calculation (really). You don't have to have a Cloak of Resistance +2 at level X or you break the math (unlike 3.XE, where that was explicitly the case). So you can reward people with them for stuff - especially for going off-mission, if that's the issue. Indeed, thinking about my main 5E campaign, virtually all the best magic items the PCs have, have indeed come from going "off-mission".

Inspiration points or Hero points replace the small XP rewards of the past very well, but have the benefit of not making players feel excluded in the same way. Give them out freely and explore alternatives to the default Inspiration system.

In-setting titles and respect can mean a lot to players, even ones you wouldn't expect, too. So can fat stacks of cash. Even if the players have no idea what to do with it.

 

[SirGrotius]

Tons of great ideas in this thread! I've had some good experience (pun intended!) implementing the following:

1. Personal stories and goals for each character (e.g., a character should be working toward something important to him/her, e.g., a laboratory for arcane experiments)
2. Quest and encounter specific XP awards - the two complement each other
3. Magic items and other goodies, e.g., characters love stuff, I also occasionally create small props, such as colored glass, weathered notes, etc. that are part of the story

At the end of the day it's a balance of engagement and leveling. Everyone needs a hook, and people also like growth.

 

[Lanefan]

I use milestone leveling but gold rewards are contingent on attendance & relative productivity of a session. While my west marches game has shown 5e is pretty resilient to characters of different levels (a huge upside of bounded accuracy), there's still an inherent equality from having everyone the same level. By contrast, with gold rewards, people are already advancing at different points based on the price of the things they want to buy - two characters could have a net work of 10k gp, but if one wanted an 8k gp thing and the other a 12k one would have advanced but the other not yet.

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)