Quest Reward Points

[eriktheguy]

I am trying a new simple mechanic at my table. I call it quest reward points. When a player completes a minor quest, I give them a small glass bead (quest reward point). Whoever holds the bead has until the end of the adventure to use it (or it will be redeemed for XP as normal). They can redeem it during any encounter to do something awesome (they are encouraged to make it fit their character). Automatically inflict a critical hit on their sneak attack, or maybe jump off of a building onto a horses back (knocking off the other rider). The character with the lowest diplomacy skill might convince an evil baron to shelter the party safely in his manor for a night. They can do anything awesome that you might expect to see in a movie or videogame, something that would normally be beyond their character's grasp.

The easiest thing about this system is the book keeping. If they use the point I determine how to resolve their action on the spot. If they do not I collect the quest beads at the end of the adventure and dole out the experience as normal.

The DMG suggest 1 major quest for the party and 1 minor quest for each character. I like this system because it helps personalize each minor quest to the individual characters.

One of the drawbacks is that you have to design minor quests for each character, which means more preparation time. The benefit is that the players will love completing quests to get the juicy reward point. People love to hold something physical as a mark of their success, especially something valuable. Also the amazing feats really help the players to feel like heroes.

 

[weem]

Sounds cool, I would be curious to hear how the first points are used by your players

It feels a little mmo-like to give players their onw minor quests, but I do it anyway - usualyl a 3x5 card with a brief description - and I liked to have more than one sometimes for a player - usually things relating to their background or class, etc.

 

[Quickleaf]

Sounds cool. The quest beads will be more valuable than action points, it seems like.

I think I use minor quests less often, perhaps 2 per game session, because otherwise we'd never finish the main adventure.

 

[eriktheguy]

Sounds cool. The quest beads will be more valuable than action points, it seems like.

I think I use minor quests less often, perhaps 2 per game session, because otherwise we'd never finish the main adventure.

Yes and yes. They are better than action points (or any other daily ability). In a sense they can even be game breaking, since I don't really limit when they can be used. I don't mind the characters ing up the balance a bit if they earned it and are willing to sacrifice XP to do something cool.

Minor quests can be tedious, but it is easy to throw them in with the adventure to the point where they are done almost automatically. For example, in a quest to raid a kobold base you might just randomly give out quests to characters that don't have any. The ranger must see 50 kobolds exterminated, the rogue needs to kill the strongest enemy in one combat, the wizard needs to kill 12 enemies in one combat...
These quests don't have role playing elements, so use them sparingly. If two characters get 'relevant' side quests (as you mentioned above) and the rest get these silly ones, they can still enjoy getting beads and role playing, and you can rotate next time so that new characters get the story related quests and others get the arbitrary ones. (Remember that DMG suggests 5 minor quests/level, so maybe 2/session is enough)

 

[Rel]

I do something similar in that I give out bonus Action Points for completing quests. This goes hand in hand with my "power stunt" rule that lets a PC spend a Healing Surge + Action Point to "do something cool that fits your character concept".

One thing I decided was that I would give out the quest Action Points to the entire party regardless of who had the quest. This is to reflect the teamwork nature of the game where the whole group cooperates to accomplish even individual goals.

 

[eriktheguy]

I do something similar in that I give out bonus Action Points for completing quests. This goes hand in hand with my "power stunt" rule that lets a PC spend a Healing Surge + Action Point to "do something cool that fits your character concept".

One thing I decided was that I would give out the quest Action Points to the entire party regardless of who had the quest. This is to reflect the teamwork nature of the game where the whole group cooperates to accomplish even individual goals.

This is the sort of effect I am going for. Giving the team such a bonus as you do probably works even better, but in line with the 'do something coll that fits your character concept' idea, most of the PC's character concepts don't involve 'getting along' in my campaign, hence the individual rewards.
I think that 'fits your character concept' seems like an important requirement so I will be including it in my rule (if you don't mind ). Since the PCs get less of these beads than they do action points or healing surges, I will probably give them more leeway however.

 

[Rel]

I think that 'fits your character concept' seems like an important requirement so I will be including it in my rule (if you don't mind ). Since the PCs get less of these beads than they do action points or healing surges, I will probably give them more leeway however.

Fee free. The example I use sometimes is that, if you are playing the Dwarf Cleric of Moradin, you could say, "I want to call upon the god of the mountain to drop the cavern down on that cluster of Orcs in the corner over there." No problem! Pay the Action Point + Healing Surge and you can do an area attack for 2d6 damage plus knocked Prone (save ends).

Or something like that.