My players and I are deep into a long-running campaign that has lasted for a little over two years. We play almost weekly and have all accepted the idea that we are going to try and run this campaign from the level 1 at which it started, all the way to level 20. We have also all chosen to use Milestones to level up. But this caused me to run into a problem.
All my players have written backstory things that they want to do and I have woven that into a naturally progressing story that will eventually bind all the lose threads together. The players also know this and they are aware that they are most likely to gain a level-up when they complete a story arc.
But at the same time, my players are explorers. They want to see every corner of the map and they want to see what nuggets of sidequests and such they can find all over the world. They are aware that this pushes back the progression of the game but at the same time they are interested in the world I have build and want to go out of their way to interact with it.
The problem that we run in to is the following. If my players choose to, for example, go into a city that is along the route they have to take to finish a story arc they may run into a side-quest that is there that will take them several sessions to complete. By doing these kinds of side quests they can naturally find loot in the form or gold, magic items and the like, but they can't get the same progression in the form of leveling up as they would if they would simply stick to doing the main storyline. This is because if I do let them level up after finishing these semi-long sidequests, they will reach a much too high level much too soon and would eventually cause us to run a decent chunk of the campaign at level 20 because thats what we are at at that point. (I am aware that epic boons exist but the players and I all invision reaching level 20 a few sessions before the end of the campaign. This is something we discussed and all are looking forward to.)
So, I want to encourage my players to venture out and explore my world and interact with the pieces that they find interesting and I want to reward them with character progression without letting them level up. What is a good way of doing this? What could I give them, in the form of character progression, that could fill the long intervals between leveling up?
I am quite proficient at modeling my game to my stronger players, I am dealing with 6 10th level players at the moment and its going pretty alright. That is why I have had the idea to grant them an additional ASI/Feat as a reward. I am aware that this could make them stronger much quicker than the game anticipates but I believe I could manage the adjustments that would be required to balance the game after doing so. It also wouldn't be a super-regular occurrence. It may happen like twice or three times in the remainder of the campaign.
Any thoughts or other ideas? I'd love to hear them!
The easiest method is to simply not put enough milestones in the main quest to get them to level 20, so if they want to not be grossly underleveled, they have to do side quests.
This is exactly the kind of situation that Boons are for. Give them bonus feats or other boons. Make them special boons that actually apply to the quests they go on. That will let them progress as characters and reflect their accomplishments, but it won’t level them up at all.
Page 228 of the DMG has a section called Charms. They are described as 'minor supernatural gifts,' and they are great rewards. Feats and boons have the potential to get your balance spiraling out of control. But Charms are cute special rewards that have limited uses. I think they might make the perfect kind of upgrades for side quests because they can be tied to the story, NPCs, and landscapes they explore. To keep players from stockpiling them, afraid to use them, I usually have the magic fade after a week. You can adjust the time as needed so they use them up during the next main plotline quest. Once you see how they are made, you can easily create your own with any spell or effect. Check them out and see if you like them.
I’ll second sposta’s suggestion for boons. What about more rp type rewards? Give them a castle or a title, though from the sounds of it, that could sidetrack everything and turn into castle management. But if you do give them one, you can then give them stuff for it. Gold isn’t too exciting, but an NPC mercenary company the party saves can swear their allegiance, and go to guard the castle. That strange metal they found could be used to reenforce the doors. The castle, of course, will have some retainers who can carry that stuff back and forth.
Anything in the Other Rewards section of the DMG will likely suit this purpose. Boons, and feats might alter power level, but you've already stated that's a non-issue for you. You might consider applying time or event pressure on the party in the attempt to keep them focused on the main story arc, and leave some of the world for the imagination to fill in. After all, once the final act opens, it might rush to a close, whether the party is there to stop it or not.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
For example there's one druid I have in a party who goes and communes with nature and his deity at every chance. I really wanted to reward that roleplay and dedication to chartacter. I thought it was amazing. So I wrote a custom feat for him that allows him to wild shape one extra time (I think it was per long rest). Mechanically it doesn't actually change the dynamic of the game, it just allows him to be more in touch with his wild shapes and use them not just for combat but for role play too.
For an old campaign a fewbyears ago, I rewarded the players for RPing their camaraderie very well. Essentially I asked each of them which other PC they would be mainly talking to, training with, etc during down time; then after a certain point, I awarded them with each a small modified version of the other PC's class abilities.
For instance, our fighter said they were hanging out with our paladin to train - therefore, I gave the fighter two choices of "archetypes" that they'd have trained towards: basically being offense or defense. If they chose offense, then 1x/day they'd be able to deal an extra amount of radiant damage on an attack. If they chose defense, then they'd get a 'Lay on Hands' pool of 5 hp that they could use to restore people as an action. For each character and class, I made little custom rewards like that.
These are much smaller rewards than what you may be thinking of, but I just wanted to mention them to give you an idea of homebrewing rewards in a slightly different direction than Levels or Feats.
Rewards for exploration should typically come in the form of rare magic items, gold (for players to use to further their personal goals), and the odd feat or boon here or there. You want to reward inquisitiveness and investment in the world, and give them more tools for further exploration and creative problem solving.
Also, consider that eventually your players might get too much treasure and gold and magic items to carry around with them. Also consider that this is a good thing, because that means they now need a place to keep their treasure and magic items not currently in use, and that means they need a stronghold! And you're going to need people to run your stronghold, guards to guard your stuff, servants to facilitate things, tradesmen to do the hundred other things that need doing around it. Once your players have a stronghold set up, now they have a direct investment in the world and can effect it. Now gold has meaning again, because the more you expand your stronghold and its people, the more gold you have to invest back in it to keep it running, and now you can try and buy upgrades and cool fortifications. Suddenly, where before you had the problem of how to reward your players who'd already bought into your world and seemed to be having a blast in it, now you've been able to continually reward them appropriately (with attunement restrictions keeping things from getting too OP) and you've given them yet another strong tie to your world in the form of a functioning home base they can shape full of lovable npc's they've recruited, that also gives you a great opening for plot hooks (i.e. a dark power seems to be rising just to the east of our stronghold--we should intervene before it threatens our people! Or worse...our stuff!")
Honestly though? This sounds like a great group and the perfect problem to have. Most groups struggle with player investment, interest in the world, and character motivation. The fact that your players are so into this world and exploring it? I wish every group could have this "problem."
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Dear Dungeon Masters,
My players and I are deep into a long-running campaign that has lasted for a little over two years. We play almost weekly and have all accepted the idea that we are going to try and run this campaign from the level 1 at which it started, all the way to level 20. We have also all chosen to use Milestones to level up. But this caused me to run into a problem.
All my players have written backstory things that they want to do and I have woven that into a naturally progressing story that will eventually bind all the lose threads together. The players also know this and they are aware that they are most likely to gain a level-up when they complete a story arc.
But at the same time, my players are explorers. They want to see every corner of the map and they want to see what nuggets of sidequests and such they can find all over the world. They are aware that this pushes back the progression of the game but at the same time they are interested in the world I have build and want to go out of their way to interact with it.
The problem that we run in to is the following. If my players choose to, for example, go into a city that is along the route they have to take to finish a story arc they may run into a side-quest that is there that will take them several sessions to complete. By doing these kinds of side quests they can naturally find loot in the form or gold, magic items and the like, but they can't get the same progression in the form of leveling up as they would if they would simply stick to doing the main storyline.
This is because if I do let them level up after finishing these semi-long sidequests, they will reach a much too high level much too soon and would eventually cause us to run a decent chunk of the campaign at level 20 because thats what we are at at that point. (I am aware that epic boons exist but the players and I all invision reaching level 20 a few sessions before the end of the campaign. This is something we discussed and all are looking forward to.)
So, I want to encourage my players to venture out and explore my world and interact with the pieces that they find interesting and I want to reward them with character progression without letting them level up. What is a good way of doing this? What could I give them, in the form of character progression, that could fill the long intervals between leveling up?
I am quite proficient at modeling my game to my stronger players, I am dealing with 6 10th level players at the moment and its going pretty alright. That is why I have had the idea to grant them an additional ASI/Feat as a reward. I am aware that this could make them stronger much quicker than the game anticipates but I believe I could manage the adjustments that would be required to balance the game after doing so. It also wouldn't be a super-regular occurrence. It may happen like twice or three times in the remainder of the campaign.
Any thoughts or other ideas? I'd love to hear them!
Thank you in advance!
The easiest method is to simply not put enough milestones in the main quest to get them to level 20, so if they want to not be grossly underleveled, they have to do side quests.
This is exactly the kind of situation that Boons are for. Give them bonus feats or other boons. Make them special boons that actually apply to the quests they go on. That will let them progress as characters and reflect their accomplishments, but it won’t level them up at all.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Page 228 of the DMG has a section called Charms. They are described as 'minor supernatural gifts,' and they are great rewards. Feats and boons have the potential to get your balance spiraling out of control. But Charms are cute special rewards that have limited uses. I think they might make the perfect kind of upgrades for side quests because they can be tied to the story, NPCs, and landscapes they explore. To keep players from stockpiling them, afraid to use them, I usually have the magic fade after a week. You can adjust the time as needed so they use them up during the next main plotline quest. Once you see how they are made, you can easily create your own with any spell or effect. Check them out and see if you like them.
I’ll second sposta’s suggestion for boons.
What about more rp type rewards? Give them a castle or a title, though from the sounds of it, that could sidetrack everything and turn into castle management.
But if you do give them one, you can then give them stuff for it. Gold isn’t too exciting, but an NPC mercenary company the party saves can swear their allegiance, and go to guard the castle. That strange metal they found could be used to reenforce the doors. The castle, of course, will have some retainers who can carry that stuff back and forth.
Anything in the Other Rewards section of the DMG will likely suit this purpose. Boons, and feats might alter power level, but you've already stated that's a non-issue for you. You might consider applying time or event pressure on the party in the attempt to keep them focused on the main story arc, and leave some of the world for the imagination to fill in. After all, once the final act opens, it might rush to a close, whether the party is there to stop it or not.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Custom feats and magic items come to mind.
For example there's one druid I have in a party who goes and communes with nature and his deity at every chance. I really wanted to reward that roleplay and dedication to chartacter. I thought it was amazing. So I wrote a custom feat for him that allows him to wild shape one extra time (I think it was per long rest). Mechanically it doesn't actually change the dynamic of the game, it just allows him to be more in touch with his wild shapes and use them not just for combat but for role play too.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
For an old campaign a fewbyears ago, I rewarded the players for RPing their camaraderie very well. Essentially I asked each of them which other PC they would be mainly talking to, training with, etc during down time; then after a certain point, I awarded them with each a small modified version of the other PC's class abilities.
For instance, our fighter said they were hanging out with our paladin to train - therefore, I gave the fighter two choices of "archetypes" that they'd have trained towards: basically being offense or defense. If they chose offense, then 1x/day they'd be able to deal an extra amount of radiant damage on an attack. If they chose defense, then they'd get a 'Lay on Hands' pool of 5 hp that they could use to restore people as an action. For each character and class, I made little custom rewards like that.
These are much smaller rewards than what you may be thinking of, but I just wanted to mention them to give you an idea of homebrewing rewards in a slightly different direction than Levels or Feats.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Rewards for exploration should typically come in the form of rare magic items, gold (for players to use to further their personal goals), and the odd feat or boon here or there. You want to reward inquisitiveness and investment in the world, and give them more tools for further exploration and creative problem solving.
Also, consider that eventually your players might get too much treasure and gold and magic items to carry around with them. Also consider that this is a good thing, because that means they now need a place to keep their treasure and magic items not currently in use, and that means they need a stronghold! And you're going to need people to run your stronghold, guards to guard your stuff, servants to facilitate things, tradesmen to do the hundred other things that need doing around it. Once your players have a stronghold set up, now they have a direct investment in the world and can effect it. Now gold has meaning again, because the more you expand your stronghold and its people, the more gold you have to invest back in it to keep it running, and now you can try and buy upgrades and cool fortifications. Suddenly, where before you had the problem of how to reward your players who'd already bought into your world and seemed to be having a blast in it, now you've been able to continually reward them appropriately (with attunement restrictions keeping things from getting too OP) and you've given them yet another strong tie to your world in the form of a functioning home base they can shape full of lovable npc's they've recruited, that also gives you a great opening for plot hooks (i.e. a dark power seems to be rising just to the east of our stronghold--we should intervene before it threatens our people! Or worse...our stuff!")
Honestly though? This sounds like a great group and the perfect problem to have. Most groups struggle with player investment, interest in the world, and character motivation. The fact that your players are so into this world and exploring it? I wish every group could have this "problem."