Achievements in D&D, part 2

No music spotlight today - instead, update on the D&D Achievements system! We finally managed some D&D game time on the weekend, for the first time in months. I've been gradually adding more and more achievements to my master list for some time now, and decided to implement them in Saturday's game.

I printed all the achievements I'd come up with on 2.5" x 3.5" cardstock cards (baseball card size) with the name, point value, and criteria (and a little line at the bottom for the achiever to write their name). An empty box to check when the points had been spent, and I was ready to go.



I told my players, and they were excited about this new element of the game. One thing I was sure to emphasize was that in general, each achievement would only be attainable once, ever. I told them it would make sense later.

The first achievement

About 20 minutes into the game, the first achievement was given out! It was one for rolling over a 30 on a skill check. This was a perfect opportunity to explain why each achievement was only attainable once - in this case, it was so that the other players, upon learning of the criteria for an achievement, didn't go out of their way making silly skill checks or stacking bonuses to get a result over 30. I think that unlike video games, purposefully "farming" achievements would ruin the game and get everyone distracted and preoccupied with metagame thinking.

Problem: Tracking long-term stats

I quickly ran into a predicament with some of the achievements though. Long-term ones such as "kill 100 enemies with melee attacks" quickly made me realize that I need some sort of easy recording method, as it's quite tough to keep track of in the heat of battle, especially when you're running half a dozen monsters and numerous abilities, status effects, etc. A master list with each player's name & current kill count already written down will help. Since this is an ongoing, permanent stat sheet, it should be easy to keep updated.

Problem: Tracking short-term, temporary stats

The other type of achievement that caused me headache were the short-term ones such as "Fail 5 saving throws in a row." Not only did I need to track each PC when they had a status effect, but if they saved against the effect and then received a new one, I had to start counting all over again. I haven't yet figured out a nice way to handle these.

For both of these, I could ask the players to help me, but I think asking them to keep track of how many saves you fail in a row would tip them off that there's an achievement related somehow, which I want to avoid.

Problem: Need More Achievements!

One player got a little disappointed after pulling off a phenomenal series of actions to keep the entire party AND a room full of important dignitary NPC's alive, and not getting an achievement for his efforts. We laughed about it, and I told him flat out that I mistakenly forgot to design some healing achievements (though I do have a long-term one for restoring 15 allies from negative HP to positives).

While this wasn't a big deal, it did slightly set off alarm bells that getting achievements was already an important objective in my players' minds, despite there being nothing to redeem the points for yet! I'm hoping this was just because they were new and fun, and everyone wanted one.

Overall, the achievements were a great success. For next time, I'm going to try to come up with some better bookkeeping methods, and maybe a fun little sound to play when an achievement is received - maybe the Final Fantasy victory jingle?

Achievements in D&D

I'm thinking about implementing an Achievement system into my 4E campaign, much like the achievements in Xbox 360 games or World of Warcraft. I believe that achievements, while meaning a bit of extra bookkeeping/tracking on my part, will enhance the campaign in a multitude of ways.

Recognition. Extremely heroic or awesome actions will now be rewarded not only with in-game victory, but also out-of-game recognition and celebration.

Permanency. Each achievement will be in the form of a cardstock card or slip, that players will be able to keep with their sheet - tactile reminders of the adventures they've had.

Consolation. Achievements for really bad luck, such as 5 failed saving throws in a row, will (hopefully) lighten the mood and help an unfortunate player get back on his feet.

Humor. Many of the achievements will add humor to the table, either through weird requirements (such as drowning a flying monster) or funny titles referencing running/inside jokes.

Redemption. I haven't figured out how this will work, but players will be able to "cash in" achievement points they have earned for favors in-game. Not like a store, but more like...divine favours, like the gods themselves are rewarding them for their feats. Rerolls would be the simplest exchange, but maybe also things like a permanent bonus to a skill or defense. Minor boons.

Some achievements are easy to plan out - kill X enemies, deal over X damage in a single attack, etc. I've written up plenty of those already. The harder part now is coming up with creative achievements that will suitably reward a player doing something bizarre and unexpected. In other words, exactly what someone should get an achievement for.

Here are some sample achievements I intend to use:

• Kill an enemy with a power that does not deal damage or ongoing damage.
• Kill an enemy with a utility power.
• Roll a natural 20 three times in one encounter.
• Fall 100 feet and survive (only attainable in Heroic tier)
• Knock an enemy off a ledge, cliff, etc., where it dies from fall damage.
• Perform an area attack that includes at least 2 friendly targets where you miss every friendly target but hit every enemy target.
• Have at least 3 players at the table wearing pop boxes on their heads at the same time.
• Miss three attack rolls in a row.
• Go an entire game night without taking any damage.
• Survive an encounter while wearing armor you are not proficient with.

One potential drawback of achievements is people getting carried away with them and "achievement-hunting," but this won't be an issue because the achievement list & requirements will be secret, and each achievement will only be attainable once. So players won't be able to intentionally try for achievements.

Another drawback will be trying to keep track of achievements that are bestowed for things like 100 kills, or like in the list above, surviving an entire night without taking damage. I'm considering making a graph with each character's name on one axis and achievements the character qualifies for on the other axis. That way, I can tally kills or put an X in a character's box when they no longer qualify for an achievement. Not sure how well this will actually work, but it seems a decent method in theory.

I've ran the idea by a few of my players and they were very excited about the idea, so it should be fun to see how they react when the achievements start popping up!