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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8413731" data-attributes="member: 86653">In discussing how challenging the game is or should be and player behavior, [USER=7032137]@Mordhau[/USER] shared a couple of links.<a href="https://www.thegamer.com/players-optimize-fun-out-of-games/" target="_blank">Players optimize the fun out of games</a>.[MEDIA=youtube]7L8vAGGitr8[/MEDIA]Reading the article and watching the video brought several things together in a weird kind of "aha!" and "well duh!" moment.The TL;DR version of both is: players will always default to taking the easiest route possible to yield the best possible results, even if that destroys the intent or fun of the game. If the designers want to encourage certain types of play, it's far better to use a carrot rather than a stick.Now, one problem is the article and video are talking about video game designers and the obvious corollary would be D&D's designers, the folks at WotC. But this is an RPG run by a DM with a lot of control over what is encouraged and discouraged in play at the table. DMs basically are designers of the games they run so I think this applies as much to the DM if not more so.A perennial problem with this kind of explicit system of encouragement is someone will inevitably come along and complain that rewarding certain behavior is a not-so-subtle punishment for players who choose not to play in certain ways. I think that complaint is ridiculous enough on its face to be easily dismissed out of hand.But I also think there's room for some stick. Mostly in the form of banned things like subclasses, feats, races, etc. Some things are just going to break the kind of game the DM wants to run and should be excluded rather than rewarding players who don't pick those things. Like if the DM wants to run an all-human game. Giving human characters an XP boost isn't really sufficient to maintain the cohesion of the game the DM wants to run.So the point of this thread is to get some more D&D eyes on these articles and to talk about ways DMs can carrot their players into the kinds of behaviors they want to see. The idea is to emphasize rewards over punishments.One such reward is the old saw of "give XP for gold instead of killing monsters" as a means to encourage exploration and discourage murderhobos is  an obvious example. Other types of rewards could be better loot, easier kills, more "intangible rewards" such as boons, titles, land, or anything really.So some examples of XP rewards would be: XP for not charging in if you want to promote slower, more cautious play.XP for charging in if you want to promote faster, more aggressive play.XP for at least trying to parley with monsters to promote not treating every encounter like a fight.XP for gold spent instead of gold acquired can encourage a more sword & sorcery feel and/or encourage players to not hoard their wealth.In my West Marches game, characters get XP for exploring but none for killing monsters.So what about other DMs? What are your favorite carrots to offer players to encourage the type of play you want to see?ETA: No, this isn't just about using XP as a reward and giving extra XP to encourage certain behaviors. Any rewards. Any carrots.</blockquote>

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