Every DM has their own style of play, but rewarding players for mechanical and/or roleplay reasons is pretty common. "Inspiration" is the official means of rewarding a player's performance, but some DMs may also opt to grant players boons such as feats or magic items, either as part of the character building, or as part of later character progression.
That said, feats and magic items can have a significant impact on a character, and if not distributed evenly, can cause imbalance among the players. Ergo, I'm curious about how others might approach an alternative system that emulates "Gamer Achievements". Something that can be handed out fairly generously and spontaneously without being too destabilizing.
For example,
"Gamer Achievement: Case of the Mondays..." — Earn by rolling an unreasonable number of Natural 1's in a single sessions.
When you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack, ability check, or saving throw, you can choose to treat it as though you rolled a 20. [1/Session]
This is essentially a "permanent" trait that the player gains, which serves to reinforce memorable aspects of their time at the table. Preferably, the trait would be something that creates an interesting highlight moment, rather than conferring a permanent boost, such as a +1 bonus to an attribute.
Possible applications for this could be:
(1) Turning bad days into good memories, (2) Highlighting memorable accomplishments, (3) Incentivizing exploration and experimentation, (4) Making characters slightly more unique, (5) Provide an element of continuity between campaigns.
The obvious downsides are:
(1) Any new mechanic adds complexity, (2) This could lead to players expecting to be rewarded for acting stupid, (3) Cumulative rewards can lead to a disparity.
Possible strategies to avoid issues could be:
(1) Cap the rate at which "Achievements" can be earned. (2) Keep the earned "Achievements" hidden until the party gains a level, (so that the DM can allocate fairly.) (3) Be explicit about the types of "Achievements" that are available. (4) Give the players a set number of "Achievement Points", which they can cash in when they feel something memorable has happened.
If a motivated homebrewer wanted to make an unofficial publication, they could have a moderate list of recommended achievements/perks, and a few tables of categorized unallocated perks that DMs could quickly skim through or roll for on the spot.
What kind of perks would you offer?
Would your table enjoy something like this?
What are your most memorable moments playing D&D and what kind of perk would you assign to them?
One possibility, if you're worried about these things stacking up, would be to let players only keep three - if they get a new one they have to pick one to dump/inactivate. or build them all such that they're all used once a session, and once you use an Achievable/micro-feat ability you can't use any more for the session. That way players can keep earning new ways to use that once-a-session boost, but they still only get a boost once per session.
Elsewise I like the idea. Heh, but then I'm always down for homebrewing cool little boons for players throughout the game, though yeah - you can get stuck with players who're expecting the extras. Best/only real way around that is just to play with chill people who aren't gonna be butts over it, though it also strikes me as a good idea to limit such micro-feats to one per character level. Award them when it makes sense to award them, but once somebody has earned an Achievable boon for something neat, they can't earn another one before they level up regardless of what they do.
As for someone fishing for them? You're the DM, you decide when to hand out a boon. If someone's fishing, the rest of the table is likely to recognize it, and anyone who's gonna play in bad faith that way doesn't merit the use of the idea in the first place, ne?
Double post, but I don't care because nobody ever posts to anything in Homebrew and I liked this idea enough to work up a somewhat more formal, proposable-to-players version. Just for shits.
“Quirks of Fate” At the DM’s sole discretion, when a player accomplishes or experiences something particularly memorable they may be awarded a quirk. Quirks are small, minor feats that commemorate the memorable game moment in question, granting the character a minor benefit related to that moment. Quirks are not intended to be huge, game-changing abilities, and a player can only use a quirk ability once per session regardless of how many quirks they earn.
In general, a DM should try to avoid granting a single character a quirk more than once per level, and should not feel obligated to grant characters quirks. Players running particularly colorful, memorable characters have a higher bar to pass than players running quieter characters that fade into the background more; avoid letting one player with a sense for drama accumulate a disproportionate number of quirks, and consider using party-wide quirks as part of quest rewards for accomplishing significant feats in the game.
A few examples of possible quirks (taken from my own campaigns) follow:
“Combat Narcolepsy” Earned by: Bart putting himself to sleep with his own Sleep spell, and no one else, despite having exactly the opposite intention.. Effect: Barthandalus can roll an extra 2d8 when casting Sleep
“Nah. Javelins.” Earned by: Malsvir introducing himself into the campaign by hurling javelins at the back of a pirate captain the party is negotiating with, igniting combat and chaos. Effect: During the first turn of combat, Malsvir can draw and throw a javelin as a bonus action without using his free item interaction for the turn
“Fey Ancestry?!” Earned by: Star discovering she’s actually the child of an infamous elven black mage, one of the most feared and powerful criminals of his era. Despite being a tiefling. Effect: Star can use her reaction to gain advantage on a saving throw against being charmed or put to sleep.
“Oh Hiiiiii, There!” Earned by: Ozryk Ironbender XIII just ******* existing. Across campaigns, space, and time. Goddamn dwarf. Effect: If Ozryk has no ‘thundersnake venom’ (dynamite), he can roll a DC 13 Investigation check to discover a stick he forgot he still had in his pack.
“Needles of Fury” Earned by: a shady murder elf dealing over 40 damage with a single blowgun attack. At level six. WTF, Tamsin. Effect: Tamsin can roll 1d6 for the damage of a blowgun attack, instead of treating it as 1.
Every DM has their own style of play, but rewarding players for mechanical and/or roleplay reasons is pretty common. "Inspiration" is the official means of rewarding a player's performance, but some DMs may also opt to grant players boons such as feats or magic items, either as part of the character building, or as part of later character progression.
That said, feats and magic items can have a significant impact on a character, and if not distributed evenly, can cause imbalance among the players. Ergo, I'm curious about how others might approach an alternative system that emulates "Gamer Achievements". Something that can be handed out fairly generously and spontaneously without being too destabilizing.
For example,
This is essentially a "permanent" trait that the player gains, which serves to reinforce memorable aspects of their time at the table. Preferably, the trait would be something that creates an interesting highlight moment, rather than conferring a permanent boost, such as a +1 bonus to an attribute.
Possible applications for this could be:
(1) Turning bad days into good memories,
(2) Highlighting memorable accomplishments,
(3) Incentivizing exploration and experimentation,
(4) Making characters slightly more unique,
(5) Provide an element of continuity between campaigns.
The obvious downsides are:
(1) Any new mechanic adds complexity,
(2) This could lead to players expecting to be rewarded for acting stupid,
(3) Cumulative rewards can lead to a disparity.
Possible strategies to avoid issues could be:
(1) Cap the rate at which "Achievements" can be earned.
(2) Keep the earned "Achievements" hidden until the party gains a level, (so that the DM can allocate fairly.)
(3) Be explicit about the types of "Achievements" that are available.
(4) Give the players a set number of "Achievement Points", which they can cash in when they feel something memorable has happened.
If a motivated homebrewer wanted to make an unofficial publication, they could have a moderate list of recommended achievements/perks, and a few tables of categorized unallocated perks that DMs could quickly skim through or roll for on the spot.
What kind of perks would you offer?
Would your table enjoy something like this?
What are your most memorable moments playing D&D and what kind of perk would you assign to them?
Unlucky master
Succeed an saving throw, attack roll, or ability check, after rolling a one for it.
Perk:You can add twice your profiency bonus, to the same type of roll that gained this acheivement (dm can adjucate on the precise meaning of this)
My homebrew content: Monsters, subclasses, Magic items, Feats, spells, races, backgrounds
One possibility, if you're worried about these things stacking up, would be to let players only keep three - if they get a new one they have to pick one to dump/inactivate. or build them all such that they're all used once a session, and once you use an Achievable/micro-feat ability you can't use any more for the session. That way players can keep earning new ways to use that once-a-session boost, but they still only get a boost once per session.
Elsewise I like the idea. Heh, but then I'm always down for homebrewing cool little boons for players throughout the game, though yeah - you can get stuck with players who're expecting the extras. Best/only real way around that is just to play with chill people who aren't gonna be butts over it, though it also strikes me as a good idea to limit such micro-feats to one per character level. Award them when it makes sense to award them, but once somebody has earned an Achievable boon for something neat, they can't earn another one before they level up regardless of what they do.
As for someone fishing for them? You're the DM, you decide when to hand out a boon. If someone's fishing, the rest of the table is likely to recognize it, and anyone who's gonna play in bad faith that way doesn't merit the use of the idea in the first place, ne?
Please do not contact or message me.
Double post, but I don't care because nobody ever posts to anything in Homebrew and I liked this idea enough to work up a somewhat more formal, proposable-to-players version. Just for shits.
“Quirks of Fate”
At the DM’s sole discretion, when a player accomplishes or experiences something particularly memorable they may be awarded a quirk. Quirks are small, minor feats that commemorate the memorable game moment in question, granting the character a minor benefit related to that moment. Quirks are not intended to be huge, game-changing abilities, and a player can only use a quirk ability once per session regardless of how many quirks they earn.
In general, a DM should try to avoid granting a single character a quirk more than once per level, and should not feel obligated to grant characters quirks. Players running particularly colorful, memorable characters have a higher bar to pass than players running quieter characters that fade into the background more; avoid letting one player with a sense for drama accumulate a disproportionate number of quirks, and consider using party-wide quirks as part of quest rewards for accomplishing significant feats in the game.
A few examples of possible quirks (taken from my own campaigns) follow:
“Combat Narcolepsy”
Earned by: Bart putting himself to sleep with his own Sleep spell, and no one else, despite having exactly the opposite intention..
Effect: Barthandalus can roll an extra 2d8 when casting Sleep
“Nah. Javelins.”
Earned by: Malsvir introducing himself into the campaign by hurling javelins at the back of a pirate captain the party is negotiating with, igniting combat and chaos.
Effect: During the first turn of combat, Malsvir can draw and throw a javelin as a bonus action without using his free item interaction for the turn
“Fey Ancestry?!”
Earned by: Star discovering she’s actually the child of an infamous elven black mage, one of the most feared and powerful criminals of his era. Despite being a tiefling.
Effect: Star can use her reaction to gain advantage on a saving throw against being charmed or put to sleep.
“Oh Hiiiiii, There!”
Earned by: Ozryk Ironbender XIII just ******* existing. Across campaigns, space, and time. Goddamn dwarf.
Effect: If Ozryk has no ‘thundersnake venom’ (dynamite), he can roll a DC 13 Investigation check to discover a stick he forgot he still had in his pack.
“Needles of Fury”
Earned by: a shady murder elf dealing over 40 damage with a single blowgun attack. At level six. WTF, Tamsin.
Effect: Tamsin can roll 1d6 for the damage of a blowgun attack, instead of treating it as 1.
Please do not contact or message me.