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Umael
2009-07-19, 11:27 PM
Most games reward the characters by granting them XP and loot. But you can give the character other things.

Plot-relevant information. Deeds of land. A title.

For me, last game? I gave someone's character a free feat. Don't ask.

Look, it was from BoEF, okay? Don't ask which one he picked. Don't ask what he did to deserve it. Yes, the other players were cool, although I'm thinking I should do something similar for the rest of them.

Anyone else want to mention interesting rewards they gave out as DMs or witnessed other DMs handing out?

The_Scourge
2009-07-20, 12:33 AM
-A sky-castle shaped like a thwomp.
-A demi-plane seed
-Demi-Godhood to "Da best" orc
-Wishes
-Custom items relating to the PC's profession

And those were just one game. There's plenty you can give to your players, just be creative.

Greengiant
2009-07-20, 12:51 AM
Gift cards! 50 gp gift card to the hilarious store of the DM's choice, for example, a store filled with bottles of unlabeled unguents, spices, ground plant/animal material, different rocks, powders, liquids. The shopkeep is an old man that charges 10 gold for everything, and doesn't know what any of them do, except one that's filled with blue dust that makes you sneeze.

DM's can have hours of fun, especially if a player buys a bottle, and takes it somewhere. Depending on exposure to light, humidity, air, etc, it will do whatever the plot, your whim, or hilarity calls for. Or the more super-powerful it looks, the more hilarious the effects. For even more hilarity, have the bottle crack or leak whenever your whims call for it.

I love stuff like this for my players.

celestialkin
2009-07-20, 12:54 AM
A deck of many things. :smallbiggrin:

RTGoodman
2009-07-20, 12:54 AM
Gift cards!

You know, I do believe the XCrawl setting uses that extensively. Adventurers can also sell out and hope to get sponsorships from companies. We had a guy in our campaign back in college that had glammered scale mail that changed to have enough places to put company logos and ads on, Nascar-style.

God I love that setting...

Greengiant
2009-07-20, 01:13 AM
You know, I do believe the XCrawl setting uses that extensively. Adventurers can also sell out and hope to get sponsorships from companies. We had a guy in our campaign back in college that had glammered scale mail that changed to have enough places to put company logos and ads on, Nascar-style.

God I love that setting...

Ha! "Die in the name of my lord, Pelor! For your evil deeds demand swift deliverance! Brought to you by MikeandIkes, the choice food for any great adventurer."

RTGoodman
2009-07-20, 01:15 AM
Ha! "Die in the name of my lord, Pelor! For your evil deeds demand swift deliverance! Brought to you by MikeandIkes, the choice food for any great adventurer."

Nah, more like, "Man, that sure was a tough fight. Think I'll catch my breath and have a nice, cold, refreshing Pepsi Cola!" *Swig, wink at camera/crowd* "Ahhh, now that's refreshing."

Seriously, it's a REALLY fun setting (http://www.goodman-games.com/xcrawl.html).

Sanguine
2009-07-20, 01:18 AM
Nah, more like, "Man, that sure was a tough fight. Think I'll catch my breath and have a nice, cold, refreshing Pepsi Cola!" *Swig, wink at camera/crowd* "Ahhh, now that's refreshing."

Seriously, it's a REALLY fun setting (http://www.goodman-games.com/xcrawl.html).
That setting sounds awesome. must have precious

Greengiant
2009-07-20, 01:22 AM
I always like giving my players novelty items based on their achievements, like some sort of trophy. "Thanks for slaying the dragon hero, we made you this!" and the mayor of the town presents to them a little dragon miniature, or maybe a plush doll. Ha!

Mongoose87
2009-07-20, 01:23 AM
A deck of many things. :smallbiggrin:

Are you sure it wasn't a punishment?


My DM made us demigods and the kings of a floating island.

celestialkin
2009-07-20, 01:25 AM
Are you sure it wasn't a punishment?

No.

I have been playing for nearing three years (I think), and I have yet gotten a chance to draw from one. The only time I came close another player tossed it down a sewer (I left the group at that time). :smallfrown:

Avor
2009-07-20, 03:58 AM
My favourite rewards are land and titles, another good ones are befriending NPCs or being owed favors.

I enjoy titles too much, turning "Bob" into "Sir Bob the valiant, Protector of the southern foot hills"

Tafkan
2009-07-20, 04:11 AM
After killing a bunch of bandints, we apparently found a naked painting of the Queen. The party wizard cast Burning Hands on it though, claiming his character didn't want disturbing mental images, because the Queen was a dwarf. :smallfrown:

AslanCross
2009-07-20, 04:20 AM
Alliances. Of course, these shouldn't be as simple as "kill the orcs next door and we'll be your slaves for life," but I think it quite rewarding for DMs to reward players with a whole network of helpful NPCs, especially in low-resource campaigns.

celestialkin
2009-07-20, 04:28 AM
After killing a bunch of bandints, we apparently found a naked painting of the Queen. The party wizard cast Burning Hands on it though, claiming his character didn't want disturbing mental images, because the Queen was a dwarf. :smallfrown:

How much did the beard cover?

celestialkin
2009-07-20, 04:29 AM
Alliances. Of course, these shouldn't be as simple as "kill the orcs next door and we'll be your slaves for life," but I think it quite rewarding for DMs to reward players with a whole network of helpful NPCs, especially in low-resource campaigns.

Thank you.

As someone who wants to run low-wealth campaigns this is advice I can really use.

Arcane Copycat
2009-07-20, 04:38 AM
I once gave out a little black book of locating.

You concentrate on 3 specifics of a being from either race, height, weight, age, gender, hair colour and length, eye colour, clothing and deity worshipped.

With those 3, it would generate a list of beings that matched the description, giving details on current plane residing on and nearest permanent teleportation circle or portal to get there. It would not give names, how they matched the description, direct directions after arriving on that plane, nor could it break through polymorph abilities. It could ignore effects that blocked scrying and illusions though.

Tafkan
2009-07-20, 04:40 AM
How much did the beard cover?

No idea. Thankfully, the DM didn't get too detailed with his description.

kpenguin
2009-07-20, 04:46 AM
After killing a bunch of bandints, we apparently found a naked painting of the Queen. The party wizard cast Burning Hands on it though, claiming his character didn't want disturbing mental images, because the Queen was a dwarf. :smallfrown:

Hey man, some of those dwarf ladies are fine!

bosssmiley
2009-07-20, 05:12 AM
Bizarre, random and not-obviously-valuable treasures (http://oldguardgamingaccoutrements.blogspot.com/2009/07/100-odd-and-random-treasure-items.html) are always good. Anything that makes the game seem more real is always good.


1. A 50lb canvas sack of duck down feathers.
2. A soapstone jug containing a large wad of ambergris.
3. A famous battle banner, long lost, smells badly.
4. A reliquary containing the bones of an ancient holy man.
5. A litter of boar hound puppies. (Six, weaned)
6. A cloth roll of ornamental bird feathers, such as used in clothing.
7. A fragile bottle of a rare perfume.
8. Fifty pounds of fine bees wax.
9. 100 5"x6" diamond panes of clear glass.
(etc)

Phat lewts aside I find that advancing PCs in their affiliations (be it PHB2 style, or more freeform) and allowing them to reap respect, status and political advantage from same is always good. Nothing says 'hero' quite like a parade...

...except the Grand Khan of All the Hobgoblins offering you the hand of his eldest daughter in marriage. :smallbiggrin:

"She lovely girl! Hair like raven's wing, skin delicious light grey, flawless tusks. You write courtly poetry for her, yes?"

Tempest Fennac
2009-07-20, 05:58 AM
Near the end of the first campaign I ever ran, the player's character ended up as chiefess of her Lizardfolk village after the previous chief died during a battle with some Goblins (the war started while the player was away due to the chief's son being killed in a fight with the player near the start of the campaign). The character basically announced that she was in charge before paying for the ex-chief to get a Raise Dead after killing the Goblin Chief, who was using a melee class the player had made (they were using an LA 0 Lizardfolk Battle Sorcerer with full Sorcerer spellcasting).

Duke of URL
2009-07-20, 06:35 AM
Idiosyncrasies (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57241).

grautry
2009-07-20, 07:08 AM
Even though I never played OD&D I do it in that style.

In my games, there is usually this unspoken agreement between powerful entities and heroes that characters of level lower than ten shouldn't be touched but anything higher is fair game for powerful outsiders, ancient dragons and so on. This is the reason why all but the most epic heroes retire before that level as well as why we usually take a bit of a break from constant xp-farming/plot progression and focus more on the characters.

This usually means that by level 10 most of my players will have land, titles and followers. Melee types will be the sheriffs, divine types have their temples, rogues have their guilds while mages will have their schools of magic.

If the players deserve a reaaally uber reward then I'll give them an epic destiny at 10-20(usually somewhat nerfed, because otherwise everyone would choose Eternal Hero).

mikeejimbo
2009-07-20, 07:09 AM
Just last night, my group and I were awarded medals.

Hunter Noventa
2009-07-20, 07:15 AM
Our DM is rather fond of giving us airships, usually for the climax to a campaign. Like the current one, we actually stole the airship, a 250-year old design, from the evil empire that's really good at making them. The army refitted it while we teleported around gathering up loots. Now the evil empire is invading and the whole thing's been remodeled...to more or less look like the Hagane, with the giant crescent thing at the front actually being a cutting blade that heats itself instead of a giant energy cannon, which would arguably be cooler, but broken.

We've never done much with the land and titles sort of thing really.

Typewriter
2009-07-20, 08:36 AM
In one of my campaigns I made a list of all the different templates across all the books, and put each one of them somewhere in the world where players could acquire them. Well, not every template, but a good many. Some of them had puzzles behind them, some required fights. Some were 'against the players will(but those were never really bad ones)', some were of 'opposing types' that one player couldn't get both of(cant have water and fire).

By the end of the campaign each player had around 3-6 different templates.
It was pretty cool.

JeenLeen
2009-07-20, 08:48 AM
In one game we played (a homebrewed setting and rules, mostly), one of the characters, without knowing it ic, became the ruler of the northern tribes and, not realizing it occ, got married.

There were a variety of tribes, each specializing in a certain skill or magic. The Horse tribe -- mounted chargers -- attacked us when we entered their land and he killed the chieftain. Tribal law made him the chieftain. We ended up uniting the clans to defeat the 'blood mages', and he rescued the wife of the Blood Mage chieftain. The other tribes assumed he took her as his wife, as did she.

About a few games later when we had teleported to a city he was hitting on some girl, and my character asked him, "What about your wife?" "What wife?"

Curmudgeon
2009-07-20, 09:07 AM
You can have deity-driven character detours. I had a Rogue character for which my DM had me roll on a personality quirk table. The roll came up "religious fanatic". Mostly this was just color, but the DM said I also got a 1% chance of divine intercession if I needed it. Well, it came up -- and I rolled 01. So my enemies got smited, but then a high Cleric showed up and said I needed to do a solo quest because I was indebted. I figured out a clever way to accomplish the goal and was then told the deity had a reward for me: a +5 inherent bonus to WIS.

Huge, right?

Well, it came with strings. The bonus was +1 for each level of Cleric my character took. And because my Rogue was an Elf, I got screwed on the multiclass XP: a 20% penalty, forever.

It was still too good to pass up. Rogue/Cleric is a good combo anyway, in part because the Cleric's saves exactly fill in the Rogue's weak spots. And using the Cloistered variant my skills didn't suffer too badly. So my Rogue took a 5-level detour into Cleric.

13_CBS
2009-07-20, 09:09 AM
Sit around the fire, children, and listen to the story of Noh...(from 1d4chan)



My group was in a dungeon where, unbeknownst to them, they were being tested by the spiritual forces that resided within, in order to see if they were worthy of... bla bla bla, the same old shtick.

They find a secret door, and inside is a pedestal with a highly ornate and obviously magical rapier (which two of the characters used), resting upon a similarly ornate/magical chain shirt that the two other characters used.
Next to them, a young girl, with a blank expression, simply requests, "Please do not take these items." Of course, my players didn't want to pass up such great items, but they knew that something bad would happen if they just took them, they decided they needed more information before they could make a decision. Pretty standard method of action. And, the only way they could get more information was from the girl.

I didn't want to spoil everything, and more importantly I wanted this to just be a short test so we could go on to the next part. Also, since she was just the physical manifestation of a minor spiritual entity, she didn't need to do any more than fufill her task as a test giver. So, I decided she would be like a NPC from a videogame. She would only respond with "No" or, if a negative answer would confuse the players or the players decided to get crafty and ask something like "Can we NOT take these items?", she would simply reply "Please do not take these items."

The conversation was pretty much:

P1: Can you tell us about these items?

DM: No.

P2: Can we ask your name?"

DM: No.

P1: What are you doing here?

DM: No.

P3: Are these items important to you?

DM: Please do not take these items.

The players kept at it for a few minutes, until the bard decided to use a perform check to "Awaken her dormant soul etc." and rolled a 19. As such, I decided I might as well say that she shed a single tear.

At this point, my players could no longer stand it. And they ended up doing something I was completely unprepared for.

One of them scooped her up, put her on his shoulder, and decided they were going to take her. They quickly began to argue as to which one of them was going to carry her, completely ignoring the amazing magical items less than an arm's reach away, and talking about how she was the cutest thing in the entire world. They decided to name her "Noh", since it was what she replied when asked her name.

They then carried her through the dungeon, risking themselves many times in order to keep/protect her. After the third time she slowly walked back towards the items when she was left alone during a battle (accompanied each time with each player screaming her name), they decided to go back, put the items on her, and then continue carrying her around.

I had added this whole test as a bit of a side thing, and didn't know what to do. At the completion of the whole thing, their reward was to have a spirit bound to one of their magic items, corresponding with what virtues they exhibited the most through out the dungeon. As a bit of a side bonus (since she was practically a construct anyway), I decided that a spirit would also be bound to Noh, but the complete binding would take some time, and that the players would be able to take her out of the dungeon. My players were so happy, and they concluded that along with the rest of the adventure (which they seemed to enjoy), this was the best session they've had in years.

I feel bad.

Good End:
Sunlight filtering through a canopy of leaves, a young girl resting beneath the trees.

She just lay there thinking... thinking. Another new experience. She had more thoughts in her head now than she’d ever imagined before... mostly because she didn’t have much of one up until now, she thought. So many things to see, to think about, to experience.. it was almost overwhelming at times. This must be the way they feel all the time! she thought. All these thoughts, ideas, decisions- and she knew she barely understood anything yet! Having a self is more difficult than she thought... or would have thought, she guessed, if she did any thinking back then.

It was so... different. For so long, all she knew was one room, a pedestal, two items. Her purpose was to be a test, nothing more. She fulfilled her function with no concept of time, no idea of want, not a thought, not a care, not a need; a construct like her had no need of such things.

So then, why?

She was barely aware when it happened, as she was taken away. The feeling of strong arms lifting her, carrying her. The familiar pedestal and its contents dwindling away in the dark. She had struggled weakly, then; her nature forebid her from leaving her charge, her purpose. But then, they took her back, gave her the items- her own charge! Gave them to her!-and took her, and them, along. For the first time, in her whole existence, she felt something, a sense of shock, mixed with fear, mixed with wonder.
Since then, things were... different. There must be another word, she decided, but she must not know it yet. So much happened, and in such a short time. Time. Another new concept. Every day, she understood something more. Suddenly, there was more than a dark room, a single task; suddenly she was more than a test, more than a simple construct. They freed her from her duty, gave her things to call her own.

She even had a name...

It was all so confusing. She had learned so much, in the past few months, but still understood so little. What was she to do? Her purpose was already gone, the items taken from their resting place, even if she was the one who took them. Now, she could think, could feel, but for what? For-

“Noh! Hey, Noh!”

Noh looked up, across the clearing, to where the rest of them stood. A small group, ragged adventurers all of them, packing up gear into well-used packs. To some, they would be an unwelcome or unpleasant sight, but to Noh, they seemed to be the smartest and the strongest and the bravest...
“Come on, Noh, break’s over, we’re moving on!” one of them called.

Noh jumped to her feet. Thinking was nice, she decided, but you can’t just sit and think forever. After all, there are plenty of places yet to see, things yet to learn, new things to think about. So, with a small smile on her face, she ran over to join the group, to join her....her...

Family?

Yes. That was the word, she thought. Family. Another new thing she’d gained since that day. Perhaps there was a better word, she thought, to describe her feeling, but for now, as she joined them once again, that was enough.


Bad End:

And as the pain in his body escalates, he turns to his 'daughter'... the little girl with a blank stare whom he just saved from certain death.

Noh looks at the wounded warrior, curious and seemingly looking for an emotion. The warrior coughs up blood, further increasing the party's anxiety as they look upon him.

"Noh... I'm so glad you're safe. Do not cry for me, for this is another facet of life you must learn." He reels in agony as he speaks. "Before I go, I want you to know that I, no WE love you. You are our daughter, our family."

Noh's gaze pierces the warrior deeply, taking him great amounts of strength to hold his tears back. "Alas... this is the end. Noh... can you smile for me...?"

The little girl looks around, confused and troubled. She then looks straight at the poor warrior and says

"Please don't take the items."

He then died painfully.

Choco
2009-07-20, 10:45 AM
Our group are about as far from munchkins as you can get, rarely min/max, and often purposely make unoptimized choices for RP reasons. No one is hardcore about the rules being followed to the letter, whichever of us is the DM usually makes up most of the stuff encountered by the PCs, and PCs are encouraged to create their own stuff too (custom item requests, custom class ability substitutions, etc). Campaigns I run also tend to be high powered, so things I give out as rewards are (phat lewts not included, even unique custom stuff):

skill points (with training time enforced)
feats (with training time enforced)
ability bonuses
semi-gestalt class levels (only gains class abilities, don't gain HP, saves, etc. this also requires training time)
templates
titles
followers (Oblivion style, where you do something impressive and might get a rabid fanboy/fangirl who will follow you anywhere and do almost anything for you, has fanatical devotion)
allies
divine favor (help out <x> deity enough, they may send a Deus Ex Machina your way should you need it)
positions of power (late game)
various comical rewards (medals, certificates of achievement, fans asking for autographs, portrait of <x> character inside the outhouse that some family was able to build with the help of that PC..)

Tiki Snakes
2009-07-20, 03:41 PM
Noh, partly because of the players attatchment to her, is probably the cutest NPC I've heard about in a long, long time.

Great story. :)
(I must admit, gaining lackeys, retainers, surrogate-children-goblins* does seem to appeal to a couple of players in my group.)


*One player, in the Keep on the Shadowfell game I'm running, took to a rather-abused version of Splug I'd included like it was his (Ferocious, human-child-biting lizardman Ranger's) very own child. Splug was allowed to join them after begging for his life, claiming he'd carry the Lizard's bag. He technically does, but the Lizardfolk insists upon giving him piggy-back-rides all the time, helps him dress, and is determinedly working on beefing up Splug's self-confidence. He calls him 'My special little man', rather a lot.

For his lot, Splug is bemused and not a little worried, but playing along seems a good way to ensure his safety, for now.

penbed400
2009-07-20, 04:56 PM
My characters are going into an evil land so protection from being detected all the time would be good so after an adventure or so there one of the rewards is that they can get a tattoo fro 1d3-1 permanent Con damage but it makes them immune to all detect good spells and whatnot.

Darcand
2009-07-21, 01:44 PM
I wrote a Jaws style Bulette adventure inspired by The Ghost and the Darkness. At the end of the adventure the foreman who hired the PCs died, and the bulette did not. The PCs did not get any money at all from the adventure, but did get to walk away with a limited Tremorsense 15' and a +4 bonus on Fear Saves, having looked death in the eye.