Toward Better Rewards | Running the Game
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- Опубліковано 5 січ 2022
- Want to encourage your players to have more fun in your world? Tell them what amazing stuff exists in a clear and simple manner.
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"“The behavior a game rewards is the behavior a game encourages” is life lesson for so many things
parenting 101 :)
cptlsm 101
it's also a fun way of using a dnd discussion to bore the hell out of your friends talking about historical materialism lol
This is parenting 101. 102 is about what constitutes a healthy reward. Lol
Social media fits
I spent a long time prepping a megadungeon once and I made a point to make sure each player had their own unique Goal, something IN the dungeon that was related to their backstory.
It worked really well! Alas that campaign fell apart after like two sessions because I could not for the life of me translate the dungeon's 2D maps into 3D space for my players.
But up UNTIL that point, the players really liked the quest cards.
isn’t that why a lot of old school maps have a “side profile” map that shows the depth and texture of the dungeon?
and I guess also why when people draw maps they put a lot of design in each room instead of making a really big dungeon
@@ElvenSonic Yeah - a sectional dungeon view might have helped here. Downside is a lot of range & area effects are inherently best managed in plan. Depending on how crafty you'd want to get, I suddenly had the image of just building a 3D paper-craft map for reference (mount map plans onto foamcore, punch holes & use threaded rods/nuts/bolts). Which, the downside to any player-facing map is how to manage 'fog of war'
This is why i find it so crucial in developing a storyhook in a player's backstory. I work with my player's to develop an interesting hook into the main plotline in each of their backstories before we start playing. This gives each player a reason to engage with the world/story in different ways as they are all curious about different things. And I then know what type of npcs/rumors will really get them fired up to go fix stuff if they ever seem to zone out at the table.
In the Explore's Guide to Wildmount there's a great character reward system outlined there.
Running a campaign right now that started as a Mega Dungeon. Got through level 7, and some things happened to where basically the players managed to get an army and complete the mega dungeon at level 7 and now they have moved on to forge a new Kingdom in a land post-apocalyptic empire now ruled by warlords. Our last session was our first test of the Warfare rules and they loved it. Even my wife who ABSOLUTELY HATES tactical games-it took a while to warm up to DnD-liked it a lot after the fight ended. Had an 8 unit vs 8 unit battle that with prep, teaching the rules, and playing the whole fight took less than 3 hours. It was great!
"And in that ancient ruin you find some evil dude, trying to summon Orcus, and suddenly you have to save the world; mostly because that's where you keep all your loot." Absolute gold right there.
Interviewer : Can you destroy the Earth?
The Tick : EGAD! I hope not! That's where I keep all my stuff!
Gold right where? Can I have it?
What did the galaxy ever do for you? Why would you want to save it?"
"Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!"
Reminds me of DBZA
"CELL'S GOING TO DESTROY THE WORLD"
Krillin: "BUT I LIVE HERE"
@@PaladinAzriel Literally the best response anyone could ever have to this type of question.
I've been doing this in my 5e game for a few years now in the form of "optional missions" that the party or their followers can undertake. At first it hurt when they would go through the missions they've acquired and say "meh, this reward isn't worth it," but I really got to show what they prioritize in their rewards and WHAT EXACTLY they are willing to move heaven and earth for. Do they want new abilities? Resources for their strongholds? Items? XP?
I never really knew why I was doing it other than I thought it was cool and it "felt right," but hearing Matt put my nonsense brain in to words is very cathartic.
can we have spoilers on what they would move heaven and earth for?
Please tell us what they’re moving the earth for please please please
Surely OP will deliver... 💀
@@trucid2 I never said I would? Plus, every table is different. I've done this for a few groups and each group has required multiple sessions to pinpoint.
@@eaglesviper90 lol, I was just making a throwaway funny.
The relationship between the mule, the carrot, and the stick is more complex than we may be led to believe.
Don't forget to actually feed them some carrots sometimes, and be attentive if they prefer apples instead
Indeed. And as I was taught when training dogs; the recipient decides if something is rewarding. That means that some dogs like food to an excessive degree and will do anything for it, while others don't care. Some will do anything to play catch. The same applies to our players; some will find it rewarding to hear the story of an NPC they rescued, others will find it rewarding to get a new Magic Item, others will find it rewarding to see that they can push the story a certain way.
Yes, a reward that's only ever a twinkle in the distance is meaningless. The players have to actually be able to get it (I believe Colville touched on this in one of his "types of players" videos where he said the DM should put items in the world for a powergamer to find AND then let them find them). Should be obvious, but some people run D&D as if letting the PCs get rewards reflects poorly on them 🤷♂️
Also, don't walk behind them because they will kick you. And brush them 3 times a week. Am I stretching the metaphor to much, you think?
Is a good point. My players do nothing because I'm just handfeeding them carrots.
@@TNH91 It's for this reason that a Session 0 is a valuable tool. Establish what kind of game they want to play, and what motivates them. Tailor the campaign to this where possible. If the players want loot, maybe create a pulp adventure that gives XP for acquiring treasure. If they want a heroic fantasy, give them opportunities to be heroic, and reward them for this.
It's also a good idea for the DM to try to sell the party on why different styles of play might be fun. The players don't _have_ to like it, so you can't force them. At the same time, they might not know what they want, or not know that a certain kind of campaign might be really enjoyable. Communicating expectations is important, in the game as well as in Real Life.
The advantage of players, unlike dogs or horses, is the former can speak your language. You don't _need_ to engage in trial and error to figure out what they want. You can just ask them.
"Literally just let your players write your sidequests for you" -Matthew Colville, 2022
"Hey, don't argue with me! The expert told me this was a good idea!"
I want to find the six-fingered man who killed my father.
Yes, like, yes, to a degree. It's cooperative storytelling, cooperate.
My players wanted to become a mafia boss, a emperor, a leader of a cult and a royalty of hell. First I laughed and one week later I presented them with plan to do that
Incidentally, i just finished running a 3 session "sidequest" because the PC wizard was looking really hard for some magical academy nearby. There were none, so i made up some ruins instead.
I've been running games for my friends for 28 years, and every time I watch one of your videos Matt, I feel like I'm being taken to school again by a pro. You're a legend to the community, stay awesome my friend.
Can't agree more. I've been running games for a bit less, 23 years... and man, he says stuff that is so obvious in hindsight...
🙌🏻
A quick tip to add on top of Matt clever idea. Whether you're going into session zero or session 100, take 5 minutes to give a few sticky notes or index cards to each of your players. Have them each write down two to three short-term goals and long-term goals that their character personally has. Then have them also write down the things that they, the player, are interested in doing or would like to see more of in the campaign. Then you can attribute rewards to their self-made goals and hand them back out throughout the campaign to make sure that the players are working towards the things their characters are motivated to accomplish. You can also make goals and rewards that reinforce or encourage the behaviors that the players wrote they're interested in.
Thanks so much for this idea!
Yes! I've only run a one-shot and a duet so far, but one of my favorite things about the duet is working the player's backstory and goals into the adventure. That's not just any wizard now, it's a wizard who worked with someone from your backstory and look, there's another story hook in his tower related to your goal.
Matt, you’ve helped me guide my players through hundreds of hours of incredible adventures. I’m currently in the process of writing a novel that takes place in my DnD setting. You’ve been my greatest inspiration. Thank you, truly. For everything you do.
Good luck with the novel
Yeah man, hope you have fun writing it
I’d love to read your novel!
May you find the will to finish the novel!
Kick some ass friend
I had a party one that had picked up some npcs and were escorting them home. I casually mentioned that my character would spend downtown teaching one of them some self defense and survival stuff, just because it was something I thought my character would do. I didn’t think much about it until the gm messaged me between sessions and asked if I would be interested in them turning that npc into a retainer for me. Having that mechanical connection instantly changed what had originally been meant as character fluff into one of my biggest motivators in the campaign. I spent a lot of time roleplaying their relationship and thinking of what he would teach next. That campaign is one of my favorites.
Nice! It's wonderful when things click together into place like that!
"and suddenly you're trying to save the world, if only because that's where you keep all your loot." KILLED me 🤣 it's such a perfect and hilarious explanation of the differences between the 3.5 campaigns I grew up playing and the 5e campaigns I play now.
After playing WItcher 3, I started creating notice boards for each town my players enter. This has been the best natural way to introduce my players to optional quests and introduce them to the town's main actors.
Ye Olde rumour tables are always a great way to seed quests and give hints about the dangers ahead
Genius!
@@jamesstern9578 What are those? My mind automatically jumped to the destroyed table that used to have a map on it, in a pub, that Matt mentioned in another video.
@@angelalewis3645especially in old school games, rumor tables were random tables that had rumored the party might hear, like a rollable table. Roll a 5, get rumor #5 from your rumor table
@@angelalewis3645 A rumor table (table as in a chart, not the furniture) is a GM tool that they can roll on to see what snippets of information that players can learn about when trying to gather information or when they enter town or whenever seems appropriate while in civilization. They're generally most useful in sandbox games because they can be used to point players in the direction of any nearby adventures, but they can also be quite helpful in more narrative styles of games by using them for foreshadowing future, giving out hints, or revealing side quests. That said, the entries on a rumor table don't even need to be of concrete use to the party. They could just as easily be red herrings, callbacks to previous events in the campaign or just something you thought would be funny.
You know what? That "Get XP from finding gold" thing from early D&D sounds a lot like the way they added XP drops to ores in Minecraft. It served as an extra design incentive to indicate that the XP-granting task was a fundamental, pivotal part of the game. I remember before Minecraft gave XP for mining, and I didn't feel as motivated to mine as I do today. So I can see this design principle in action, even in the modern day! Very cool stuff. 🙂
"Get XP for finding gold" is inferior to "Get XP for expending gold offscreen during downtime."
Getting XP for finding gold led to Gygax having to invent training costs as a gold sink. He should have just made XP itself the gold sink. I've been doing this for years and it works great.
@@ymdw45 can you expand more on your approach? I don’t fully follow.
@@KazisCollection I've got one player right now who's an Artificer with a medical bent (healer feat, interested in prosthetics, etc.). When he gets 5000 gp as his share of the loot from a heist, he can keep that gold and use it on adventuring supplies like Healing Potions or armor, or he can hire research assistants or do spell research--or he can convert some or all of it into up to 5000 XP by sending it "offscreen" during downtime to a research lab we've decided he has, researching prosthetics for orphans. For in-game purposes the gold just disappears from play (may not have any onscreen effect) and he gets an equal amount of XP.
PCs usually have some built-in goal to spend gp on, or can easily find one during play. The cranky fisherman who just wants revenge on those who took his boat, way back, is thinking about helping fund defense construction for a fishing village he's made emotional connections with. I'm not actually sure or have forgotten what he did with his gp-to-XP conversions before that.
1 gp ==> 1 XP, and we make up a suitable story. It's that simple.
@@ymdw45 I love this idea, solves three issues at once:
-What to do with your gold
-Motivating players towards downtime activities
-Motivating players to actually want gold
although the Gold for XP sounds like the perfect thing to bring back for an all rouge party doing heists
"End of the beginning of the 21st century" hit me harder than I was expecting
IKR? Me too.
Same
I of course immediately thought some stupid semantic quibble, "No, it's the beginning of the end of the end of the beginning of the 21st centruy. The middle doesn't start for another 11 years, that's how thirds works. We are 2/3rds of the way through the first 1/3rd."
@@demonzabrak why thirds though? Usually the beginning of the century is 00-19. 20 is when the 20s start. The end of the beginning says nothing about what part of the whole the beginning is. If you assume the beginning the middle and the end are all of equal length, than it would indeed be a third. But that is a pretty big assumption, which usually isn't true.
@@jaspermooren5883 why would I use thirds when dividing something into three sections? Really?
It occurs to me that this might fill a 5e gap in the underutilized "diety" Relationship. A request and boon format makes sense if your deities are involved from time to time and not omniscient.
Pick up Mythic Odyssey of Theros, there are 15 examples of how to use the Piety mechanic and hooks for the gods. The Piety stat is used to allow spell casting or just neat abilities.
@@DM_Chromie why?
I love the idea of other rewards like the DMG suggests: using charms, boons, feats and lands/property/titles etc - even lore or magic items...
players love boons
naked buffs no one ever says no to that especially if you make it story relevant as well
After a game where the players kept asking, “why are we doing this?” I have subconsciously been doing this in my current game. I have Titles with abilities once players reach a narrative goal. And telling them what they get, but I think having cards is just a simple, “why didn’t I think of that?!” Implementation to my game. Thank you Mr. Matt!
"why are we doing this" is something I've often asked myself at tables, and I thought it was an issue with party composition (lawful good paladins mixing with chaotic rogues and evil wizards who want fundamentally different things etc) and I think it still can be, but watching this and realising the system Also wasn't giving us enough of a reason to do things together aside from "because its your quest" has been eye opening o.o
@@rinofthemill Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. The paladin isn't gonna turn a blind eye to crime and injustice for nothing, but a sufficiently compelling cause could convince him to look the other way. Perhaps he thinks that be able to do more good as a part of a team, so it's worth making sacrifices to maintain that team. Maybe the world needs saving RIGHT NOW, so he doesn't have time to quibble over a stolen purse or two. Or maybe, this mission will give him the level of favor he needs in order to request an important miracle from his god.
Just like in the Engaging Your Players video, this all comes down to giving your characters sufficient motivation to work together. No matter how much you hate lowlife scum like the rogue PC, maybe saving the world is adequate reason for you to endure his company. For now.
In my game, subclasses are tied to backstory and character arc progression. This is a much simpler version of explaining that concept to my players. So yeah, "Why didn't I think of that?" absolutely fits.
@@Drekromancer another possible motivation for the pally is "If I am *not* traveling with this group of chaotic maniacs, what will they get up to?" I had a game where my paladin basically was rehabilitating a mad scientist, a face-changing criminal, a barbarian murder hobo, and a child who'd had all sorts of necromantic rites performed on her all while trying to keep the politics of a subcontinent from imploding and hunting a mindflayer. It was also a case study in player motivated shennanegins, as the rogue had his own things going on, the artificer wanted to build a mechanical city of the future, the barbarian kept getting in fights, and necro-kid had a pet zombie we had to gently explain couldn't haul her around the town.
And these videos are our DM rewards 🥳
What reward do I get when I complete the goal "exact retribution on Caiphran the Intertron"?
you become llevelysan
* Matt places a card in front of Dael *
Quest: Find the two missing fingers
Reward: The collective knowledge of the True Elves
Llevelys suddenly goes “eff these humans, I’ve got more important things to do!”
I have been under a rock for a bit, and was delighted to see you as a player in Dusk!
Goal: Exact retribution etc.
Reward: permanent +1 damage on all weapon attacks
Companion of the Crystal Storm: you gain the use of the Remainer to inflict unto the enemies of Ailean, yea, of all elvenkind, the wrath of the Crystal Storm. As an encounter power (standard action), Target :enemies in area (burst 2 in range 10) Attack: wisdom vs Fortitude. Hit: 2d8+Wisdom modifier damage and the zone becomes difficult terrain. Covenant of Wrath: Creatures that are hit by this power are also immobilized (save ends)
The key to what Matt says, like with basically everything in life, is communication.
If folks don't know that things a) exist and b) are possible, they won't pursue them!
This is SUCH a simple solution and I LOVE IT. They're basically just quests in video games, that tells each player what their options are, and give them an idea of what they could get out of it. I love this
This video, like two or three dozen other videos by you, has opened my eyes to my own stupidity, and opened many doors to future adventure. I think you’re wrong in saying that “this won’t change the game like the Action Oriented Monsters video did”. I’m gonna make use of this constantly, and immediately. Truly, a river.
“I identified the problem, that’s what took the time.” You have correctly identified the key task to so much of life, work, and happiness. The first phrase I use at work is often, “Okay, what problem do you think we’re trying to solve?”
I've gone back (even though I'm only in my 20's) to 2nd edition for the grittier tone it has. Then I started a game with two other guys as just a tutorial to figure out the game, completely sandbox with random tables for almost everything and told them "Have fun." I didn't expect them be so excited to play it constantly because they could set their own goals, fight monsters, and get hoards of treasure. Now they're level eight and leading a tribe of kobolds that conquered an orc tribe while exploring a sunken city and trying to get established as an actual power in the region. Crazy what random tables and player motivation can turn in to. And it all started in Hommlet.
Matt… this is amazing. It’s like “Gamey” in that it’s literally like a Skyrim quest “Do this.” But like, they don’t HAVE to do it. And HOW they do it is up to them. Fantastic
Skyrim is where my mind immediately went to as well! Once I thought of my time playing that game, I totally understood how this reward system could be integrated.
A corpse outside a cave with some note or letter about the treasure hidden within (that happens to be a motivational reward for a player/PC) seems like a great hook for a random encounter too. And if they don't want to do it immediately, they take the note and can always come back, plot allowing.
Like Matt said, though, 318 notes for sidequests like Skyrim may be a few too many. 😂
What's interesting to me isn't actually the Goal-Oriented Rewards (though I wanted it to be and still think it's interesting) but what I (personally for my games) am taking from this is "Put your rewards where you want engagement". That's such a simple concept that I think really helps you "fix" a campaign you've run before that didn't work quite the way you thought, as well as helping you think critically on where you want the focus in games you're working on now. Thanks for the new Video Matt!
This is definitely the principle behind the system, and it’s pure gold!
The problem is that you need to communicate that to your players somehow as well. Especially if you want the engagement in different places in different campaigns with the SAME players.
@@murdeoc Communication is key in everything so I don't disagree but just by rewarding players that do engage (in whatever area you need) might encourage others to do so. That said I did think earlier that this might be another nice category to add to a campaign pitch. "Rewards and where to find them".
My long time DM offered (and encouraged) us players to write short, mid and long term goals for each of us. Short term goals could be done almost each session, mid term goals took like a month in game, and long time goals were like milestones for the character, like whole campaign long. Short term goals gave inspiration dice you could expend at your will or grant to a party member, and the other goals gave abilities, magic items, and stuff like that. It was great.
I had never before thought of the relationship between intrinsic character features and extrinsic magic items as a major influence on playstyle. In hindsight, it is so intuitive, though. If a character can do sufficiently heroic feats without exploring and finding them in the game world, that player has less incentive to explore and interact with the game world.
It occurs to me that the Adventure Zone Balance has gold as a significant motivator because the characters are able to go to Fantasy Costco and buy cool loot. Of course they're going to save the world... but it all makes it a bit more tangible, so that the stakes don't have to be so so high all the time (which would get tiresome).
I think the basic thing that 5e encourages is "reaching Milestones", whatever the campaign or your DM defines those as. It recommends using Milestone XP over monster XP, and once players know that they are encourage to do 'whatever progresses the story'. I do think this leads to less 'Downtime', as you mentioned in your video.
that is, however, also the problem. "reaching a milestone" sometimes happens automatically. it leads to DMs telling a story--however long that story may take, given player involvement or involvement--and players really just watch.
It's miserable when that happens.
That's not so say it can't work, just that it's a system that doesn't really care what the characters are doing. sometimes the story reaches the next chapter, even if EVERYTHING was done wrong--milestones don't account for that. sometimes the characters simply can't find the next step, the next clue--sometimes they just don't care! and that's another time milestones fail. if the players go 3-4 sessions, and they can't see the next reward? if they have no idea how far until the next "mile" is completed?
Well, maybe it's been my failure, but in general, I find that rewards work much better when based on individual accomplishment, and are not placed at arbitrary benchmarks.
Sorry for the rant.
I hadn’t considered that it reduces downtime but I had noticed my games have very little downtime.
@@kylelind6239 The less downtime point is really interesting, and the non evolving story as players fail to stop events or do something wrong is one of the reasons i dont like the idea of running a lot of modules. the plan i have atm is to create a list of behaviours that i want to encourage in my game and tie different rewards to them. following the narrative will reward milestone levels and some ok magic items, spending downtime can maybe give some kind of rest bonus, delving into lore and going to libraries can give other rewards, and exploring side dungeons can give much better magic items and a lot of gold. as for the use of gold, general purpose magic item shops and other rewarding gold sinks could help with that. i haven't fleshed the ideas out too much tho. im making a list of behaviours and rewards atm. what are your thoughts?
Milestone progression feels too much like videogames to me for some reason.
@@petegiant as opposed to gaining xp for killing monsters? :P
Dragon of Icespire Peak (from the Essential Kit) has all sorts of quests that seem--on the surface--relatively independent, based simply on the fact that there is a dragon somewhere nearby. But the module specifically says "after 2 of these, or 1 of these quests, the players level up." it'd be really easy to tell players that goal and I think that would actually help stimulate some of those quest completions. Great idea!
New GM here! I have that module and intend to run it (eventually). It hadn't occurred to me to tell my player(s) that they'll level up after x quests. Is that sort of "metagaming" okay?
Our DM did in fact tell us how many quests were needed to advance in level and yes, it worked!
@@3nertia It's absolutely Okay. As Matt is pointing out, who cares why your characters know the result. In fact, I think that (to get in teh mind of an adventurer) they would have *some* sense that they need to fight monsters or save townspeople to level up. I mean, to an adventurer, what is leveling up anyway?
I do this with quests. Exploring points of interest, meeting new and important NPCs, pushing forward the main plot of the campaign... they all give the players exp. Personal quests that the players develop themselves that mean something to the story and narrative... give them special abilities.
This video is gold and it makes me very happy that I have been doing something independent from Colville but doing something Colville recommends. The games I've used this method in are rich and deep with shockingly motivated players that explore every nook and cranny of a world I've worked very hard to develop. And it's as simple as he makes it sound... attach exp, magic items, and rewards to things you want to see accomplished in your game, and the players will help you write the rest.
In the past year, my year and a half Pathfinder 1e campaign finished. In that campaign, I used a system of XP that was entirely focused around the PCs' backgrounds and motivations and I think that system worked phenomenally for the game I wanted to run. The players also enjoyed the prospect of their story being intergrated with the main plot because of it; each player was basically given moments over the campaign to be in the spotlight, and because the other PCs would be rewarded for taking part and assisting in that character's personal story, it made them engaged.
I'm very glad I learned the lesson that Matt is giving here going into that campaign because it is regarded as my best one yet. I'm also glad that Matt made this video to give this tip for DMs in the hopes that it can improve player engagement.
7th Sea 2E does exactly this! Leveling up is done genuinely through Stories: a PC determines a story they wish to pursue such as "Find my Brother's Killer" or "Win a Duelist Tournament", where the longer and more complicated the story, the greater the reward at the end. Finding your Brother's Killer could result in an increase to the equivalent of say either Insight or Wisdom, while Winning a Tournament might bestow the equivalent of a Feat, and so on. The cool part about this is that it is the PLAYERS that set their rewards here, but again, this is very specific to 7S2E's mechanics and how advancement works there, but I could see something like that working in 5E, like wanting a specific magic item and agreeing with the GM that it will require a delve into a particularly foreboding dungeon that just so happens to connect to another player's backstory.
Absolutely fantastic system imo, and definitely worth checking out for use in other systems.
7th sea was the first thing i thought of when he described this!
The DnD Essentials kit sets a precedent in 5e for this sort of concept with it's quest board and accompanying quest cards. It worked great for my first game as a DM last year.
I came here to say this! I thought that the cards were very effective. The cards listed a gold reward, and players would often happen upon magic items along the way. I'm curious how the game would have changed if I added a separate note about what magic item is associated with the task. I'll try it during our next session and report back!
I've been on both ends--one game I was in had too many goals for players, so we felt like were being pulled everywhere and on too tight of time constraints. There were events that would happen if we didn't meet the goals in time. It resulted in the party splitting just so we could tackle approaching deadlines and urgent events--to the chagrin of the DM, who actually had planned a way to tie things together, but that's not something we knew about. (It worked out in the end, wound up being a chance to make a side story with alt characters for a breath of fresh air.) When goals were met though, it felt great. We got unique abilities or items or contacts that we were able to use later in the game that made a huge impact.
In the CoS games I've run, I've leveled the players when finding the McGuffins as one goal, but I've also crafted unique curses that can happen to each player. They know that these things exist, but what they are and how they do happen is a mystery that depends on their characters' vices, backstory, and actions. A common trigger I've used is they can avoid death the first time, or if they totally brutalize an opponent. It results in the curse manifesting, giving them both new abilities and drawbacks. They then learn of ways to control or deal with the curses that are tied to an explicit location in the world (the Amber Temple). Winds up being a goal that has two different outcomes they can choose from, either to remove the curse or to conquer it; in my first time running, two players were able to break their curses, while two fully embraced them. In all 4 cases, the decisions had a big impact on the game.
I love that, totally gonna steal that curse system if I ever want to run CoS!
For me, I will usually tell players that when there's a problem, if they don't resolve it someone else will try to and in many cases will do it in ways that may not be preferable. However, I also tell them that they can't simply split up and try to solve problems because as a party, the group will stand and divided they will fall. (I play SOTDL, so it's a dark fantasy setting so every fight has a high risk, high reward.) I will also highlight specific tasks they could follow and what's likely to happen if they let a threat go unaddressed. For example in my last game there was a werewolf threat, an orcish uprising and the manor they were just given had a dungeon in it that was seemingly producing undead down below.
For the campaign, they were told they'd at most be able to either solve two problems and let one get too big for comfort, or they'd be spending a lot of time pruning every one of the three issues, stopping them from growing but never fully resolving them without a great deal of risk.
Because of this, they solved the werewolf issue, then the undead. The second campaign has started and the orcs are in full swing.
This time however, the problems are now a religious upheaval, and the orcish uprising alongside roving bands of beastmen.
The point is that until the end of days, there will always be problems to solve. Their reward for solving problems is loot, money and stability. The smart adventurers retire before they die solving their newest problem. Else, the brightest candle burns half as long.
I need more info about the second example.
WHY did you feel the need to curse the player charecters for """bruutalizing""" an opponent? What does that word even mean in this context? The palyers tortured an enemy? The enemy didnt get a hit in during combat?
Because I had a gut reaction, but willing to surpress it and give you the benefit of the doubt
Dude why are you everywhere I go on this site?
@@dbensdrawinvids8390 you probably have a lot of similar tastes that I do
thanks Algorithm
“I’m not sure it can be made into a real system without building it into the game from the ground up…” (19:36)
I’ve been following MCDM’s RPG development and heard James Introcaso talk on his Twitch stream about his work on the Burn Bryte RPG for Roll20. Burn Bryte has a mechanic called “Story Paths” which does exactly what Matt describes in this video… provides players with a framework of curated goals and rewards. I wonder if we’ll see anything similar built into the MCDM RPG? Great thoughts Matt & James! Thanks for the inspiration and critical thought around how to make our fun more fun!
I'm at 13:26 with my jaw hanging open. It's simple, and it's freaking brilliant! My players are pretty good at coming up with their own characters goals, and I want them to keep it up! I'm doing it this week. Thanks!
Reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite cartoons, The Tick:
Interviewer : Can you destroy the Earth?
The Tick : EGAD! I hope not! That's where I keep all my stuff!
When I ran my campaign, I really thought about XP and Rewards and how that would effect gameplay. Especially since I was diving into Roll20 and getting people that I didn't know into my group. So the first thing I led with was "the more you do, the more you get". I explained that downtime could be used to learn new abilities, languages, feats, ect. I told my players that they could learn anything in the official books as long as their PC found someone to teach them or put in the effort to learn. So they could customize their PC. You want a custom magic item, fine but you have to find the rare materials and the goal might be to not kill a thing in order to get said materials. They ended up getting cool armor and weapons because they decided to not kill the mutant baby kracken that was just scared and lost. They named him Kevin Coastner (yep, that happened) and helped him get back to the water plane. They also noticed that aquatic creatures didn't bother them so much after that. I love rewarding roleplaying because I want people to not always do the optimal thing and embrace that nat 1. Like the tabaxi that totally failed their athletics roll and the player was like "you know those cat videos where the cat does the super wiggle, pauses, and then jumps but literally only goes 2 inches. well he did that" right into the sewer runoff. It was great and funny and I gave extra XP for that. There was one PC that everyone liked and was about 2 levels behind because they came in at the same level as the person with the lowest level. Many of the people we brought in had left so when I told him that he had leveled and what level he was, a group discussion started. Everyone agreed that since they roleplayed so good that they deserved to go up 2 levels to be with the rest of the group. I also reward out of the box race choices. You want to play a pony centaur, then you get to determine a few things about them especially if the dice and your stats back it up. That pony had goat hooves with the way he scaled walls and the tightroped. His personality was definitely more horse than human and it was great. As a DM, I feel like I need to communicate with my players to see what they want to get out of the game. Some want drama and intrigue, some want to be the anime protagonist, and some want to be a swashbuckler. The trick is giving them what they want while tying them back to the main storyline. I break it up and look at each person and piece individually instead of as this big ready made stew. I also let the players guide the game to what they want especially if they're respectful and let the spotlight float around the table. We're all here to have fun with each other at the end of the day.
Sounds like you’re doing it right!
This hits a big close to home for me.
I tried this: Let my players do anything. I created a little sandbox world for them to run around in, gave them opportunities to roleplay, and interact with the world. All of them had videogame backgrounds, so what ended up happening was that they were so interested in gaming the systems I had set up, that they never actually bothered to create characters. There were some good moments, sure, but I was not having fun. Anything I put in front of them was seen as a challenge to exploit somehow and find a way to abuse and get loot out of. Every person was someone to rob and get money from, or potential fodder to kill.
At the end of the day I called it quits when a player complained about being a dungeon, after they themselves got it in their head to go in there.
I don't meant to be a downer, if anything I am super happy it is working for you. You seem like an awesome DM, and you have awesome players, So keep trucking on and doing what you do best. Here's to hoping that I find my group to do this kinda stuff with soon.
Amazing. I think you not only solved the issue with 5e motivation and why some campaigns I play feel dull, while others I am engaged with my players, but also solved the issue of "why 5e recently insists so much into backstories and character drama?" and "why Critical role campaigns are so personal and successful?" In the lack of loot, gold (which is pointless unless we build keeps), and experience; developing their character, solving their personal issues and "saving X place, because that's where Y lives2 are the main motivators. This happened at the beginning of my campaign, players were pretty much in the mood of "why should we care for this?" until their relationship with villains and allies became more personal, now sometimes they don't even ask for loot, just knowing that their advance a little their agenda to save their loved ones seems to be motivation enough. I think many of us had similar reward systems, without the cards. If I may add, the expiry time is fundamental for high level campaigns, yes, level 15-20 characters _could_ do anything, but they _cannot_ do everything at the same time, what to tackle first is a great way of giving high level players agency into the complex world now they help to shape. Finally, rewards could also have complications or negative impacts if the players do not choose to take a mission or fail at it, I see how you could tie this to Organizations Intrigues and is awesome.
I can 100% confirm matt's recommendation on starting slow and not letting goals take over the game.
In my last proper campaign I made the bold statement "After you reach level 4 you will never level up again". From that point the players would get more class abilities exclusively through a very similiar goal/reward system. The players got to choose what they wanted to get (Higher sneak attack damage, more hp, a different classes ability, or what ever they could think of) and I'd set a goal they needed to accomplish to get that reward.
In theory it was ultimate freedom, the players could literally become anything they wanted and I had the power to sculpt the perfect story. In practice analysis paralysis became a constant problem and the story, which I similarly left entirely too open ended, dragged to a halt as the players couldn't even figure out their options much less what the consequences of those options would be.
Folks, when matt wrote up this thread on twitter; I jumped to the drawing board and made my own. My next session, I doled them out, immediately my players were like: “Oh, I like this!” and they continue to. Not to mention, Matt hasnt mentioned that if you’re players forget what their “quests” are, they simply refer to cards and are back on track.
That's a good point. I get that a lot where my players characters are looking at eachother like " why do I know you?"
Can you reply with some examples?
@@buckhunt6832 Examples of what exactly? Cards? Quests? Rewards?
Or revisit the blacksmith who handed out the subquest.
Good point. Counteracts the “why are we going to [POI], again” questions that are so infuriating.
I'm in my second campaign and I am trying really hard to improve my skills as a DM. Had a chat with my friend who is an experienced DM and I realised that every cool idea I brought to the table was from a Matthew Colville video. Absolute God tier advice
In my home game, this has now become: Goal Oriented Backstories. You get X to start, and you get Y when you achieve a goal, designed WITH the player. It's been a major success!
This feeds into my desire to make rewards out of the myriad feats from 4e and 5e. You want the Sentinel feat? Take up a more protective role in combat. Want the Spell Sniper feat? Use true strike as your main cantrip (maybe that's a bit too evil)
Nice use of older rules as inspiration
Wow!! That’s incredible! I’m sparse with home brew when it comes to altering the characters, but in my current campaign everyone gets a feat WITH their ASI. I did that to encourage them to create more 3-dimensional characters with greater flavor variety. I think this is an even better way to do it!
I've actually implemented this recently in my current campaign. I had a player ask if they could target multiple enemies with one attack, ie Cleave. I said they could attempt it but they didn't have the training, feat, necessary to do it reliably. Thus would suffer penalties to hit.
So I told them if they could hit with the penalties enough times in combat then they would unlock the feat. Or find a trainer to teach them, or get 3 nat twenties in combat.
They did and then another player asked to do the same thing the very next combat!
It is too evil....
The idea is great though. :)
@@TubingKri I feel like it's the best of both worlds. They get to feel like they have a badass character, and they earned in a way that is specific to them.
I literally JUST switched my campaign over to a more west marches style schedule specifically for this reason. I have two extremely motivated, curious players who have lots of goals, but the group as a whole tends to be more meandering, happy-to-show-up-and-hang-out-sometimes and it was causing a lot of awkwardness. Excited to see about implementing these kind of clear goal-motivated rewards!
I've been experimenting with this kind of thing in my new Tomb of Annihilation campaign! My biggest gripe with the WOTC modules is that they build these huge awesome sandboxes full of cool things in every corner, but give no incentive to the players to actually see all, or even most of the content. Once my players know what the "main" objective is, they tend to bum rush it and abandon everything else. So, to incentivize exploration (which is what ToA is really all about, imo) I tied leveling up to helping out the different factions at play in the module. And then I made each faction involve exploring different locations in the map. I also tied other specific rewards to each faction; I disallowed Feats at level up and instead made a specific faction be the sole source of giving Feats, I made one be the main source of magic items, I made one faction that makes traversal easier the more it is helped out, and so on. The hope being that players don't just B-line one faction, but instead dabble with all of them to get the rewards - thereby exploring lots of different corners of the map they would otherwise ignore. It's pretty early still to tell how successful it is, but my players are already discussing how they can best manage their list of goals, so I have high hopes!
I feel like a lot of 5e modules put a HUGE weight on the DM to fix encounter balance (especially if you have optimized casters), tie storylines together better, and make the players care about things like you said
As a SPED teacher I absolutely agree with this approach to engagement and will maybe use cards like these with my kids, as well as with my players ;^) You rock Matt!
I did this with my home brewed campaign. It was the first campaign I ever ran, though I had been wanting to for like 15 years and it was your videos that got me into finally running it. I think you were at episode 30 of Running the game at the time?
Anyway, I did this, but not deliberately. Basically I hated the murder hobo, so I started off giving my players jobs. Well, I asked them what job they wanted, and I made high fantasy style jobs that would exist in my world like "Delvers" that go into micro-planes and exploring to make them safer for the nearby town, "Gladiators", "Mage's Guild Members", "Messengers" who deliver messages from town to town in a monster infested world, Etc. This also brought with it a home, since once they knew how they made their money they could then imagine where they might live. In the mage's guild tower? In an old house just inside a local micro-plane? In the barracks of the gladiatorial arena or in the Orcish tribes living in the complex tunnels beneath? In inns, always covered by the Messenger's Guild or in their wagons on the roads?
This all seems unrelated to the video, but let me explain:
Once you give your players professions, they start creating their own goals throughout the game in the backs of their minds involving how their character fits into that world. "I want to delve into that unmapped ruin to report back on what I find", and "I want to seek glory so people wish to come watch me fight in the arena" are examples of what comes from having a profession. And you can give them rewards of all kinds, from material, stat and ability based, and even just fame, accolades and promotions.
I've kept this short, but I think I might go into more detail by trying to get back into UA-cam again. I don't have a recording space anymore, hence why I haven't uploaded a video in a while, but maybe I can just record in an imperfect location to make it work. We'll see!
I would love to hear more on this.
Wow man, it's been a year since you made a video that wasn't about a video game. Better get on those dreams man.
I guess that settles it. I'll have to just find a way to record without a proper space. The issue is that I have 3 young kids and nowhere to go to escape the sound of their playing in the background. Maybe outside the apartment or something? Ill see what I can do.
I think I found a way. Stay tuned, although it may take a bit to actually upload.
This sounds like it would combine very well with a westmarches game! you can even justify it as a noticeboard system: someone posts a thing they want done and they list the reward they will give for it.
Or listing the item that is rumored to be findable. Quest giver just wants to study it first, offering free Identify and such as downtime benefit before the character gets it back for their next quest. The whole benefit of working for an adventuring consortium is PCs never needing to lean on personal resources for studying loot.
I am currently trying this in my campaign: I have given everyone a minor magical item at lvl 3 once they picked their subclass. Except each of these items can lvl based on actions the player takes with them. The players don't start knowing what the rewards are nor how to achieve them instead they are given some lore or history of the item and are encouraged to explore/research to find more info. Hopefully, this pans out.
I heavily suggest checking the guideline (BUT NOT THE EXAMPLE ITEMS THEMSELVES, they were mostly terrible and inefficient) section in 3es weapons of legacy (and evolving artifacts and DCP 3rd part version of WoL).
@@ANDELE3025 thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out.
decent suggestion but i think the first 'evolution' should happen right away to make them realize that it changes (unless you had an out of game discussion about it)
@@Xenibalt yeah the first unlock came very quickly. We had a hellblade that needed 8souls, a pair of gauntlets that needed the barbarian to go one fight without raging, the artificer got several sets of blueprints to upgrade and is now looking for materials, our warlock needed to become "friends" with 10 people (it was part of their backstory). So those weren't off pretty well. Most of the unlocks are tied to things the characters are doing or arcs the player has said they would like their character to go down.
@@MrApocryphon thats good because it only exists if the players touch it and it touches back, otherwise its just not "real"
All of Matt's videos are inspirational for me, as a DM, but something about this one really clicked with me. I immediately opened up a notebook app and wrote quest/reward points for each one of my player characters. It really helped me get un-stuck on a few backstories I didn't know what to do with. A real "ah-ha!" moment as I listened.
Matt, I feel this with just about every new, interesting, unique, amazing idea you throw out there to all of us as DM's and Players, but I wanted to take the time to say, thank you immensely for your creative mind, and for this specific great idea. I think it's just what i needed right now to jump start my campaign and give the players huge excitement to engage in the plot threads they've heard about. Keep doing what you do. Cheers
Normally you lead me in a new direction, Matt. This time you have literally described what I have been doing for 4 years. My campaign is going strong with the same players for over 4 years.
I love your content. It still blows me away when you release something like this that seems so valuable and insightful after churning out so much material regularly.
Your videos always are good, but I can't believe you still have some masterclass new ideas in the tank for us! Love it and thankful you create these videos for us!
I really love these design-related videos (just arrived here from the gun design one!). I've been working on a gamesystem of my own for a few years, and hearing a talented professional talk about design makes me SO inspired! The gun-video helped me refine the base of my system, and now I think I have tools to work on the experience system. Thank you for making awesome content!
I experienced this "reward conditioning" in My first campaign as a player. The DM would reward 3 (yes just 3) points of experience for finding a pop culture reference, this was enough to turn all players into reference-seeking goblins, to the point that they had to remove the reward altogether because we would get distracted all the time asking "is this a jojo reference??!?1"
Name of the campaign setting: Za Waarudo
This is why I told my table that I will hand out inspiration for a list of things and only one per session and that list was
Something hilarious, but not disruptive
A great risk that led to great reward
An emotional character moment
Resolving a personal issue in an interesting way
So sometimes one of the players would say or do something funny enough to blast my sides into orbit and make it impossible to run for a few seconds because my composure died. The best example was someone playing a Feren from SOTDL (They have a human form and a cat form) turned into a cat because she wanted to explore a crime scene while the local priest was documenting it. She then was told by another player to make a distraction so that one of the party members could steal the priest's notebook.
So, the cat knocked over the urn on the shelf near the corpse, the urn being full of the deceased man's wife's ashes, and so the priest dropped the notebook and screamed out "Oh no, Mrs. Henderson!" before running into this small hut now filled with ashes and blood during this grizzly murder investigation just because the party was too awkward to ask the priest to see the crime scene. They got an inspiration that day and we also had to clean the table off because someone spat soda on the plastic folding table we played at.
@@grimjudgment6527 My favourite inspiration/fate points mechanic in a system is probably tenra bansho zero's karma-kiai-aiki system just because how its baked into the rules, and apart from the GM the players can reward eachother (though, to avoid inflation when more than one person gives a token to the same person for the same cool moment they take just one) Even if it's not perfect it's very interesting and keeps players engaged in the roleplaying!
I've watched the streams Matt talked about this theme, agreed with what he proprosed and planned to do it next time I run a D&D game. But it took me watching the video to realize that in Blades in the Dark game I'm getting a little frustrated by passive players... Why don't I just do this in that game? I should! And I will! And knowing my players, I KNOW they're gonna enjoy it. Good, now I got some homework to do...
It really is a hard egg to crack, as the problem wedges right between character motives and player motives. Funny you mention Blades in the Dark, bc my first thought was also "how would clocks work with goals?" .... just doodle the clock next to the goal I suppose! Another trick that worked really well in a sci-fy game I ran: give them new toy Y and take it away because of worldbuilding reason X. Suddenly, players have a dislike for an ideology, organization, character, or all of the above. Nobody likes the tax man
I heard this and, though I’ve only ever heard people talk about BitD, I thought of the clock system as a game that was working on this problem. It seemed to me like it was motivation with reward and/or consequence under a timeline. I’m pumped to pull this in as part of my games regardless of the source.
Your understanding of player psychology is incredibly profound. The things you say make complete and total sense, and I would have never have been able to reach these conclusions. My players really enjoy the game, but I've always felt I had to railroad them to get there, this system you invented really is genius and I thank you for your contribution to the game we all enjoy!
Matt, another very great video! This reminds me of your video about using video games or other systems to improve your 5e game. Thank you for putting into words what I have had trouble figuring out how to improve my game.
My go-to reward for minor extraordinary acts is to reward inspiration. A easy, tangible thing that is already baked in to the mechanics and I don’t have to worry about too many items breaking the game.
Partway through a campaign that we just finished, we had an option to track down a number of divine magical orbs. Each one that we collected was functionally just a point that we could use on a custom branching skill tree that would allow us to unlock unique powers based on our ancestry. This also led to some interesting choices, do we peruse the big bad, or do we take a detour to potentially find one of and maybe let them escape? Do we Collect the power from all of these orbs, some times the locals are using the power to "keep the lights on" in a dark and dying land that is becoming ever more unhospitable.
Additionally the powers that we unlocked was interesting since we couldn't see down the path of all the branches, but could could tell a general theme. Do we go down the path that gives us more immediate power, but that makes us more demonic and potentially corrupt our selves? Or do we go down the more divine paths that let us help others more but don't benefic us in combat.
sounds awesome :)
Wait a second, he's talking about beats! Heart: the City Beneath is a super cool game system with character advancement built around this exact sort of goal-oriented design. At the end of each session, each player picks a couple beats from a list provided by their "calling," that reflect things that they and/or their character wants to happen in the upcoming sessions. Do the thing described by a beat, get a new ability from your class! Beats and advancements are even divided into major and minor categories like Matt mentioned in this video! I think it's super neat tech that I would love for more people to employ when running any kind of game!
00:29 "If you know how a game rewards you, then you can figure out what behavior it is encouraging" - That is some deep knowledge right there.
Man, just discovered your videos this week and they have been an eye opener in so many regards. This + action oriented monsters feel like they will catapult my games up like nothing else, regarding player engagement and fun.
I’ve watched every Running the Game video and, while I’ve found many of them fascinating, this is the first video that generated a lightbulb moment for me. I will 100% be implementing this in my next campaign, once my current 3-yr long one wraps up of course.
Rewards are critical in maintaining player engagement! It's always nice to see the players' reaction to rewards that they've wanted for a long time as well. I've found that variation of rewards can also be quite helpful, switching between story rewards, levels, gold, and magic items pretty regularly has made my players less likely to be burnt out by each in turn. Great video! :D
Probably the most enlighting arguments on a TTRPG I found on youtube ever, identify a problem, point out the parts of the mechanics responsible for it, propose a (conceptual) realizable change of direction, and warn that this solution has enormous implications that are not obviously evident
I have seen so many different flavors of "DM tips" channels, and you Mat are by far the most useful to me, changed my games, and made them *so much* better for it, and this is the video explaining why, it's not literally the advice about cards that helps me (though I suppose it could, I've never had much difficulty finding engaged players, or at least getting an engaged party,) but the translating of what exactly motivates players, and getting me to think about the types of games I want to run, and the ways to make things *happen* in those games. Thank you.
I love how this idea dovetails with K&W. Deal with the orcs and recruit a unit. Easy goal and reward!
I love how “player desire”-oriented this video is, and I think this kind of DM mindset is almost guaranteed to make players more motivated.
For me (and I know this won’t apply to everyone) as well as most people I play with in narrative-driven games, we are inherently driven by plot, and secondarily motivated by leveling up. We want to be agents of change in the plot, we want to see it unfurl, and we’re motivated to do anything and everything (explore, fight stuff, inquire, etc.) as a means to that end.
I’ve noticed that the only times our players aren’t motivated are when there are lulls in the plot/the players doesn’t have a clear direction on what to do.
Same here buddy - I'm wracking my brain for a slightly clearer way to conceive of how to reward players with "plot" - should we be thinking about concrete "nuggets" of key moments of story? Ends to Arcs/pivotal moments that revolve around doing the things the game is about?
@@GeeBarone What about rewards like: Learn a secret about [insert npc]", or "[Npc] owes you a favor"?
@@CruentusMessor I like those. In the notebook they go!
@@CruentusMessor Brilliant! The possibilities for intrigue are limitless!
@@GeeBarone I had a GM reward my interest in teaching an npc by having them become my retainer. Later, one of the larger quests the party went on was partly motivated by my character’s desire to help his retainer reclaim the artifact that would prove she was the king’s secret heir.
Story rewards don’t have to be centered on the PCs, if the players are invested in an npc enough providing a reward for that npc can be reward enough for the players.
Thnx Matt! This is exactly the thing I might need to get some of my players more engaged. I'll start trying it from next session onward and hope to come back with good results.
This already feels incredibly useful, thank you!! It also helped me realise what my party are already motivated by, as they're questing towards things without a clear reward at all, just out of curiosity or similar. I know what I'm going to reward now
"The behavior a game rewards is behavior the game encourages." - This is more or less a universal truth, it's known as Goodhart's Law.
I've been doing this for a long time thanks to my previous GM's magic items. Highly recommend.
Magic items with specific attunement requirements.
Magic items that have multiple levels of attunement that have specific requirements.
Milestones being laid out specifically (as he described)
Having clear rules for how your players earn inspiration.
Honestly more magic item with abilities locked behind a deed would be very cool.
@@megatroymegaa few examples from my game.
First one is romance/to inclined. Second is combat/downtime adventure inclined. Third is quest/subquest inclined.
Mother's Wedding Band
Ring (requires Attunement)
This ornate gold band could have cost someone their life's fortune. To you, it is your mother's ring… passed down to you by your father following her death.
Mind Shielding. While wearing this ring, you are immune to magic that allows other creatures to read your thoughts, determine whether you are lying, know your alignment, or know your creature type. Creatures can telepathically communicate with you only if you allow it.
You take 2 less psychic damage (minimum of 1 damage). Once per day you can reroll an intelligence saving throw against a psionic ability that you fail. If you do so, you must use the new roll.
Hidden. You can use an action to cause the ring to become invisible until you use another action to make it visible, until you remove the ring, or until you die.
Dearly Departed. If you die while wearing the ring, your soul enters it, unless it already houses a soul. You can remain in the ring or depart for the afterlife. As long as your soul is in the ring, you can telepathically communicate with any creature wearing it. A wearer can’t prevent this telepathic communication.
Attunement (2): Give this ring to someone else.
GM NOTES.
Attunement (2): Give this ring to someone else.
Sending spell at will between the one you gave the ring to.
Acts as a ring of protection for the wearer.
Attunement (3): married? Get mother's blessing?
Douma's Faith
Shortsword (Requires attunement by one of the bloodline)
"He saved my life and what is left of him is in this sword… I hope he protects you like he did me…"
Frosted Blade. When you hit with an attack using this blade, the target takes an extra 1d6 cold damage. In addition, while you hold the sword, you have resistance to fire.
Once per day or by spending inspiration, any damage other than the weapon damage added to this attack becomes cold damage as well. If this attack kills the target, they become frozen solid.
Home in the Cold. In freezing temperatures, the blade sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet.
Winter winds. When you draw this weapon, you can extinguish all non-magical flames within 30 feet of you. This property can be used no more than once per hour.
Attunement (2): Slay a Fiend with higher CR than your level in single combat.
+1. You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Frosted Blade (2).
• When you hit with an attack using this blade, the target takes an extra 1d6 cold damage.
• While you hold the sword, you have resistance to fire
• A creature you kill with this sword becomes frozen solid.
• Your sneak attack damage is now cold damage.
• Once per day or by spending inspiration if a creature would be resistant to cold damage you deal but not to radiant it is not resistant to your damage.
Winter Winds (2).
• When you draw this weapon, you can extinguish all nonmagical flames within 30 feet of you. This property can be used no more than once per hour.
• As an action you can stab a creature turned into a block of ice by this sword. A cold blue light imbues the blade and the surrounding temperature is reduced significantly. While the blade is imbued you may speak the command phrase "I bring Auril's Breath" to cast the Investiture of Ice spell. The sword's imbuement is lost at dawn if unused.
Attunement (3): Perform 6 labors.
1. Visit The House of Auril's Breath in Gevris and have the blade blessed there.
2. Visit Icedawn's House and have the blade blessed there.
3. Visit The Towers of Fury in Sebah and have the blade blessed there.
4. Visit the Winter Palace and have the blade blessed there.
5. Visit the Ice Temple and have the blade blessed there.
6. Only once the above are completed, observe Midwinter at True North.
Reidren's Stave Rivseahtdh
Quarterstaff +1 (requires attunement by a warlock)
Once your book, now a staff of hard metal. Even still the wings can open revealing writing beneath.
Attunement (1): Return the Dryad of the swamp to the dwarf.
Blessings. While holding this staff, you gain a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls and to saving throw DCs of your warlock spells.
Power. You can regain one warlock spell slot as an action while holding the staff. You can't use this property again until you finish a long rest.
If you use your inspiration while using this effect you gain back all your pact magic spell slots instead.
Attunement (2): Put the spirits of your dwarven forefathers to rest
Weapons. Aganazzar's Scorcher and Creeping Sleep are added to your spells prepared.
Creeping Sleep
1 Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (30-foot radius)
Components: V S M (A vessel which has been yawned into, sealed, and now opened)
Duration: 1 minute
This spell sends creatures into a magical slumber. Roll 5d8; the total is how many hit points of creatures this spell can affect. Each creature in a 30-foot cone are affected in ascending order of their current hit points (ignoring unconscious creatures). Starting with the creature that has the lowest current hit points, each creature affected by this spell falls unconscious until the spell ends, the sleeper takes damage, or someone uses an action to shake or slap the sleeper awake. Subtract each creature’s hit points from the total before moving on to the creature with
ndead and constructs aren’t affected by this spell.
- At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, roll an additional 2d8 for each slot level above 1st.
Whenever you cast either of these spells you treat them as though they were cast at 1 level higher.
Power (2): Once per day or by using your inspiration you can temporarily gain access to a warlock invocation which you do not have for 1 hour.
Example please
@@buckhunt6832 check my reply to Randell in this thread. Here's an example of inspiration:
I have these in a doc in my vtt and at the end of every session I have the players talk about who triggered what and how. Sometimes we do mini recaps of what a character has done to try and find something.
Triggers:
Whenever you perform a weeks worth of downtime (8 days non-adventuring and 2 days off).
Whenever you writes a diary entry or internal monologue from your characters perspective of at least 4 sentences that reveals something the character thinks, feels, or believes in.
Whenever you reveal something meaningful to your character to another character in a scene.
Describe a change in their character (appearance or not) that results from the fiction the game creates.
Whenever your character acts in a meaningfully selfless way
Whenever your personality traits, ideals, bonds, or flaws are presented in gameplay and are noticed by someone else.
Solving an issue or problem the group has been stumped on or making an insightful conclusion.
You can only gain inspiration from any one of these once per session.
Matt, you always say the first 5 videos are all any DM needs. This is the 6th. This is such an amazing and incredibly important video. I will immediately begin incorporating this into my game- I’m a new DM and never even thought about it. You’re a genius.
I think this will go down as the most important realization and advice for DMing - especially fifth edition - you have put out, Matt. Realizing that the game’s intended rewards as just baked into the XP system, and that the game just kind of assumes everyone will get XP for showing up and playing the game, is such an eye-opener.
I took this to heart and just implemented what I called “goal based” XP, where when they decide to do something I assign it an XP value based on how hard it is, and then I may tell them extra goals on top of it worth additional XP, or tell them their is More xp to be discovered, and reveal it as they sort of “discover.”
Man I was having this exact problem with my group, and I really wanted to figure out how to make my game better. I never considered just buffing skills or making cards. Thank you so much!
Ever since I watched the web DM's video on this topic, I've been constantly thinking of the idea and I'm really excited to your perspective on it. It's not often talked about from what I can tell!
Got a link to webDM's vid, my dude?
@@DrLekz
Idk if I'm supposed do this or not, if not sorry, but here ua-cam.com/video/47hSfq7TjS4/v-deo.html
I think the idea of those little "Goal - Reward" cards ties in very, *very* nicely with quest-board-driven adventures. You can make each quest on the quest-board into one of those cards, add a few for personal goals, make up a few on-the-fly as and when the players state them.
Also, you *can* keep the reward secret, narrative-only, or on-the-fly - as long as you make it clear that there *will be* one.
Love this video as I had struggled with similar problems and reached similar conclusions. Here are some of the ways I reward and encourage the type of behavior I want:
- I let players know I reward role playing. Behind the scenes, I not only give XP bonuses for exceptional role playing, but I penalize low engagement or poor role playing.
- I ask players periodically what their PC's goals are, and give rewards for completing them commensurate with their level and the magnitude of their goal.
- I give XP rewards were accomplishing party goals beyond defeating monsters.
- I reduce the XP for defeating monsters that could have been avoided.
Retrieving a lost item, rescuing someone, or passing on information were recent examples of party goals. Any of these could have just as easily been personal goals.
Successful proselytizing, consecrating an area, avoiding combat, and finding a ruin were recent examples of personal goals. I had a player whose PC was the reluctant leader of the party and her goal was to keep everyone alive, so every time anyone gained a level I gave her a pittance of XP*the new level, but she lost 10 times that whenever they died regardless of whether they were revivified, raised, resurrected, etc.
He's gone full Colville again! Love this and it gets to the heart of some players complaints. They all have different interests, but so little path to get what they want. I'm already looking forward to using this next week in my game. Now mix this with his other videos on types of players and it'll really unfold.
I love that idea, it reminds me of how Burning Wheel deals with Goals - the difference being that there the Players come up with the wording and it's (the equivalent of) XP per Goal, but this broader way, adding loot, maybe even abilities, to stuff players come up with, without having to overwhelm (many of) them, great! Thank you for this!
I've tried multiple times to shoehorn in bits of BW into my D&D campaigns with decidedly mixed results. This does actually sound like it might be effective.
This is a great idea! I've written it down to use in my next campaign. In my last campaign, I had a list of "quests" for the players to see, which I added to when stuff came up in play - I used this for determining when they levelled up. It worked well, but I think it would be even better to have the rewards written out ahead of time too, and to have various rewards tailored to the goals, in order to make things more interesting and motivating for the players.
Really like this video - my favourite Running the Game for a while as it does what all your other good ones do - gives clear paths to making the game your own. It's easy to 'know' that - Hey D&D is our game! We make the rules! - but difficult - without much experience - to understand what we can do to make it ours and why we want to. This is great Matt - many thanks
I started with the 4th edition of D&D, and I really liked it! It's a pleasure to see someone talking good about it!
i love the minions and the action monsters
hate the ability spam but dont worry i hate cantrips and echo knights as well
My problems with 4e are entirely as a DM... worst supported edition for RUNNING a game. It was AWFUL to adapt for literally anything other than a stable 5 person party... as a player, on the other hand? Eh... other than the definite ILLUSION of choice, it was fine
4th ed WFRP is messy, but rewarding.
In my experience my friends were at first overwhelmed with d&d and how they "SHOULD" play their characters. And then I asked them to give me some info to costomize the character sheet and the goals to how they wanted to RP. It worked. Each character has a job in our Thieves guild and get mini level up as individuals when they do it 😊
This seems like a good starting point to potentially bring back the pulp to DnD. In our backgrounds there is usually enough for a DM to identify 'motivators'. In real life there are extrinsic motivators: rewards such as money, goods, grades etc and intrinsic motivators: honor, curiosity, mastery, power, order, relationships, etc. In most games, players are rewarded - hence extrinsic motivation. XP and Gold are both extrinsic motivations. The XP for Gold formula worked to stimulate the players because it also allowed them to satisfy their intrinsic motivations - typically, master, power or some such in the gaming context. Where it breaks is that the characters the players play are not always motivated by gold. As such, Matt's goal system bridges the gap and allows the characters' intrinsic motivations and the players pursuit of the games extrinsic motivations toward measured states (leveling up). A system could be conceived then to identify a set number of motivators based on backstory. Those could stand in for the gold to XP conversion. Gain closer connection to your deity = XP toward leveling. Honor your duty as a paladin = XP toward leveling. Support your party through tough times = XP toward leveling. and of course, thieves can always steal gold = XP toward leveling. This seems way more prone to engage players in their characters than the well meaning, but under used, under powered, "Inspiration" system. Unless we open that up and just allow stacked DM inspiration... then at the end of a night you could tally the inspiration awarded, multiply by a factor to get the XP rewarded?
Great ideas Matt, as always thank you for sharing your wisdom! I would also add, that who you initially invite to the table is also extremely important to having engaged, motivated players... how well do you know the players, are they friends, what is their motivation for playing in the first place... what do they want from an RPG... questions to think about before ever getting to the table and session 0.
Absolutely love this. It helped me clarify ideas I had about giving players quest links to their backstories. I now have a minor and major goal for each character that are completely optional and will not impact directly the events of the BBEG in the world, but upon completion to confer benefits to the characters. These take the form of feats granting permanent increases to abilities and extra actions in combat or improvements to class features.
I feel like you could bundle in a secondary group reward, like XP when any player achieves a goal, to see provide a cooperative motivation.
At the start of this I was thinking 'Man, this really doesn't apply to my groups. In the best game we had (5e) the characters were all going hard on their personal motivations and goals and went out to explore the world in pursuit of that.' But as it went on I realized that the DM was doing exactly this, though not up-front.
The mage who did a whole bunch of experimentation every time he found some odd magical phenomena got expertise in arcana and the DM let him do some crazy things with modifying his spells and making custom spells based on his discoveries. The cleric of family and vengeance who barely survived charging through dark magic to kill someone who had hurt his clan developed an ability to regenerate from almost any injury afterwards. The ranger who rolled natural 20s three times when investigating places where a powerful being with permanent pass without trace had been got the ability to just see through pass without trace spells as well as applying it to himself permanently.
A lot of these events were partially luck, but they were also partially the perseverance of the characters taking incredible risks because they cared about the outcome. And the result was that players would continue seeking out risks to take based on their character's goals. Some characters died doing that (all but one, by the end) but there were good memories out of it, and that's the point, isn't it?
The balance there (as I'm trying to recreate the feeling of that campaign in other games I run) is trying to figure out how to make things like that work without leading to cold calculation on the player's part 'When he did X he got Y superpower, so we should have all our characters do the same thing' but I suppose I should probably have a bit more faith in my players or take care of it out of game if it does come up.
Hey, I really appreciate this video. It came at a really good time while I'm planning a campaign, and being able to think about how to reward players and desired behaviours before hand is going to be big. I think it could really help with an aspect of the game I've been struggling with :) many thanks.
Man does this bring to light some frustrations I've had with 5e. Defiantly some fun things in this video I can't wait to discuss with my play group. Thanks Matt
I love how all TTRPGs are skeletons for endless stories ❤
Wow! Timely video. I've been feeling this same problem in my game lately. One sad side effect of 3rd-5th editions of D&D is that magic items have really fallen by the wayside in terms of a valuable mcguffin the GM can use. This direct and explicit goal making seems fantastic and certainly allows for rewarding skill points and save bonuses outside of class that would be awesome. Great stuff. Thanks for the ideas, Matt!
Something I've done in my games is make lists of ingredients for potions, either for a potioneering or alchemist character or a shopkeep telling my players they could make them certain potions, as well as material/ingredient lists for enchantments for my casters and magic shop owners. My players ate it up, with the Druid and the Rogue looking and asking all over for potion ingredients to stockpile, and the Wizard and Warlock of the party have decked out the entire party in magic items. They all went so crazy over this, they didn't even advance the plot for about 4 sessions. It gave me so much more time to plan. And now, every time they come upon a new town or area, they always add investigation in for finding the stuff they need to make new things.
This slightly blew my mind bc I have never once in 10yrs of playing felt motivated to show up to the table bc of a mechanical thing. I am motivated by the story, by my character's internal goals and desires, by wanting to know what happens next, like tuning into my favourite tv show. Loot actually annoys me bc it's an extra thing to remember on my character sheet, likewise with levelling up, it's a chore I put up with to get to the story. It's so cool seeing this other way of looking at things, and I'll definitely bear it in mind when running for players who aren't me!
So we're getting into the nitty gritty of game psychology. I love it. Thanks Matt! I love that there is so much to explore in this game. I wonder if we will ever stop talking about it.
As a person who has very, veeery very strongly crafted a dangerous, low magic world, I 100% agree. I don't have characters going into the random dungeons, or being curious, motivated, and daring. Instead, they are all worried about dying terribly at the hands of the world's dangerous denizens. I can't blame them.
I, too, have longed for a return to that era of exploration and curiosity, and while I don't think I will go with a reward card system, I do think I am going to have to change up something a bit to more strongly encourage the game to go in the direction I would like.
At the start of the video, I expected it was going to be about the very possible flaws in accidentally encouraging specific things (as my game has - Dangerous and Low Magic encourages safety and caution) - that would be a topic I would love to see addressed!
If you would like a suggestion, I am currently running a low magic campaign and to give players rewards I have started to pull class abilities from 4e and handing them out attached to some sort of item. I have also removed feats as a level up reward and are using character actions to give them out. It seems to help encourage exploration
@@kaufmans111 I do think that things like that have worked in the past, and I like these ideas, but I also want the game to feel fair - I reward players, but I don't punish them for being themselves. The player that is along for the ride and just likes hearing the story play out shouldn't be punished for it. I've been trying to balance that edge - curate a specific type of _person_ who I want in my game, vs. running the game exactly as I expect it to run without any real curiosity beyond "what is the next chapter in the book"
@@jonathonleclare9268 makes sense different players and all
I would like to have this sub topic covered too.... I'm also running a "very dangerous" world with player death being quite prevalent in the West Marches style. Magic I wouldn't call low, but I would call it normal for what 5e expects.... which is low compared to what players and I am used to.... Currently the 5th levels each have one permanent magic item. They are too afraid to go into dungeons to potentially claim new magic items as well, despite me having several magic items seeded into such places.
To the players, everything is too dangerous in their eyes, and they aren't willing to risk going to these places. Instead, they have opted to try to save up money and buy magic items to increase their "safety" levels. I'm not a fan of the idea of buying magic items, making rare things common in that sense, but it's a catch 22 with the player's fear of adventuring. It's worth noting too, that taking an objective view of the player deaths that have occurred actually display the campaign to be far less dangerous than players seem to believe, but that's a different issue altogether.
I find it hard to reward players properly, and I think something like this will be necessary to be able to move forward in my campaign, but figuring out how to do that without going nuts on the magic items may be impossible, I'm not sure.
Understanding how something rewards a person is the easiest way to understand what behavior it will drive in general. We were just discussing this at work today when we were looking at new and innovative models for physician compensation in the US.
I started a D&D5e homebrew campaign and gave every player a sheet of paper where he should answer some questions to the game and what he exspected. It came out that optimizing characters was the least importat point, while story telling was the most important to them. They also liked exploring, fighting and acting their characters. They don´t know this world except for their home region and the next kingdom. They don´t know about the history or the fractions in the world, so they have to explore everything bit by bit. Being a campaing they have a far away goal, but they don´t know which evil is waiting for them.
I have to thank Matthew a lot for sharing his experiences on youtube, which helped me a lot. My players don´t know, but I named a saint in my campaign after him. :)