I’ve instituted a rule where at the end of the game the players vote on who made the most self-destructive decision of the night and award that person a bonus XP. It’s not a huge mechanical reward, but my players have started competing to win the honor and it has driven our games in wonderfully more desperate directions. I highly recommend it.
I’ve instituted a rule where at the end of the game the players vote on who made the most self-destructive decision…
I’ve instituted a rule where at the end of the game the players vote on who made the most self-destructive decision…
oh that’s really smart. that sounds good enough to steal.. 🙂
Bonus XP to reward play that you like is a good idea. Have you thought about sometimes changing what gets the bonus? Once your players are being self-destructive, rewarding the most creative action? The best environment description? The best incidence of team work?
To be fair, if you’re swapping it, you either need to tell the players at the start of the session what the new behavior is, or at least tell them that it will be different (and depending on you and your group, have it written down so they know you aren’t just changing it to give the reward to someone in particular).
For fun, you could also have a list of things that you think would be fun/interesting if they happened and give bonus XP to the first player to trigger it. Could be as specific as first player to cook and eat a deathseeker crow or more general like first player to use a character voice. Whatever you wanted, I guess. Just make a list and keep it secret and reward the players at the end of the session after they’ve done it.
This vaguely reminds me of an achievements hack I was working on a couple years ago for a modern Cypher system game. It was things I wanted to see happen on-screen which earned them XP, and a handmade card to clip on their character sheet. Things like.. Need for Speed (escape a high speed chase), and Cat Burglar (perform a quiet rooftop B&E). I might bring that back, but with more Blades-y and spooky triggers..
Mark Cleveland Massengale I love the idea of naming them and giving character titles or physical cards. Very cool. Whether or not those titles also give a mechanical/roleplay benefit or not is a separate matter which needs considering, but I kind of like the idea of a minor ongoing benefit at least, in addition to the one time bonus xp.
I don’t mind giving rewards for abstract things like most creative, best teamwork etc., but I try not to push any narrative on them. We play other games that are on rails, Blades is all about player choice for us.
Mark Griffin That’s why if you were to go with the list of bonus things, you’d definitely want to keep the triggers secret. If they don’t know what will get them XP, they can’t stick to rails because you haven’t really set any. If anything, having mysterious unknown triggers might encourage them to break away from ruts they might fall in to, big (players always killing members of any crew they have negative relationships with rather than attempting to repair the relationship for mutual benefit) or small (a particular player always using the same piece of equipment or tactic or never using a particular item) or inbetween (as in an example in a recent post of someone whose group always picked stealth for their engagement). Not necessarily the best examples but you get the idea. The idea of the bonus list is to encourage and reward creativity and variety, not to force players to act in a certain way).
Jason Lee I like that achievement cards could carry a benefit in-game too. Perhaps being worth a benefit when using them as part of normal play: like during Devil’s Bargains (for example, to reveal a valuable secret). Not sure if that prevents them being that useful or limits them unnecessarily though..
Another thought; such achievements could simply count as bonus Stash (2 or more each I think).
Mark Griffin Nah I wouldn’t make them all openly visible. Like Xbox Achievements or PS Trophies, half the fun would be discovery – so some would be open, and others secret.