The reward doesn’t have to sparkle

It’s often overlooked but not every reward handed out needs to be a shiny and sparkly item. Of course, that’s the way the rules seem to be written that way, every time you accomplish something there needs to be a monetary reward attached, but as Creighton Broadhurst points out on his blog, that doesn’t have to always be the case.

In his recent posting, GM Advice: Not All Rewards Must Glitter, he covers eight different rewards that could be used in place of simply dropping a pile of gold on the characters.

The first item he mentions is favors, let’s face it’s always nice when someone, “owes you one.” This type of reward system is used commonly even today, if you’ll do this for me, I’ll do something for you in the future – parents use it with their kids all the time. You can also see this type of reward used frequently with any material that references organized crime (think of all the favors owed in the Godfather movies).

I also like the last one he includes, titles. I’ve used this one myself and the players seemed to really like the fact that the characters were rewarded and recognized by individuals in high status even though it didn’t include a compensation or a land grant.

Take a few minutes to check out the other suggestions Creighton makes in the posting, maybe you can fit a few into your next session/campaign.

May your dice roll well.

GM Advice: Not All Rewards Must Glitter via Creighton Broadhurst.