D&D Kids: Rewards and Penalties, or “No, you can’t have Orcus as your pet!”

The first part of this article is fun – gold, XP, magic items, super powers, epic mounts and lovable pets. The second half is less fun – fines, punishment and exile. Two sides of the same coin, your stick and carrot. Let’s begin with the carrot and hope we’ll never get to the stick.

Rewards

Rising Through the Ranks

XP is more than just an award for killing monsters and solving puzzles. It’s a method to inspire good behavior and discourage disruptive gaming. It is also a method of controlling the pace of the game – from astronomical rise from peasant to god in ten sessions to a slow and bloody grind to recognition taking hundreds of sessions.

Give XP per encounter or per session but don’t bother calculating it based on each monster killed or each successful use of a non-combat ability. The progression offered in the core rules is too slow for impatient young gamers in my opinion. I grant some 150-400 XP per encounter depending on how hard and important it felt.

A trick I like to employ is to ask the group whether anyone thinks he deserves extra XP for this session. Usually, you will get replies like “Me! I caused a lot of damage!” or “Me! I used a daily power!” or even “Me! My rolls were really high!” but occasionally a kid will point out generally impressive achievements you may have overlooked, such as good roleplaying, solving a puzzle, keeping a lavishly illustrated journal, performing some impressive battle stunt and so forth. Don’t give in to extortion – only reward the kind of activity you want to encourage! Explain that rolling a high score or spotting an enemy is plain luck. Extra XP is for achievements of the player, not the character.

I also like to reward out-of-game activities such as tidying up the class after the game or shushing kids who interrupt the game. Some consider it abuse of power. I don’t.

He Who Dies With the Most Toys Wins

Magic items are awesome! If you don’t accept this paradigm, it’s not clear what you’re doing playing D&D. Yes, with the money they make, kids can buy any item in the book, but collecting loot is just so much more exciting! On the other hand, remaining empty handed or worse, with grandma’s knitted sweater, after everybody got a cool toy can be quite upsetting.

As with the XP, I suggest twisting the rules a bit, at least with younger players. Not getting an item, or getting what is perceived to be an inferior item after an encounter might well lead to tears. And we don’t want that, now do we?

So tailor the treasure for the group – let the fighter get armor, let the rouge get a dagger, let the warlock get a wand and so forth. Non-battlefield items, such as a ring of protection or a bag of holding, are for some reason less popular among kids than armor, arms and implements. On the other hand, cool but useless things such as weird idols, esoteric tomes and so forth are quite popular if presented in the right way. As a rule, younger kids, those who hadn’t mastered the art of Munchkinism yet, prefer items that are different and cool to those that are effective or truly beneficial.

Insist on fair distribution. The method I found the most effective is as follows: first write all the items won in the encounter on the board. Make sure to have at least as many items as players, even if some of the items are ogre cooking manuals or boxes of old shoestrings. Next, have the players roll d20s to determine the choice order of the items. The player with the highest roll gets the first choice, and so on, until all of the items have been distributed. Do not use initiative because the low-dexterity folks will (rightly) complain about discrimination. Besides, it’s not a grabbing contest but a fair distribution of goods. Unconscious or even slain characters should also get their pick.

Treant: Is this axe here to cut down trees and kill animals?
Kid: Nope. Just people.
Treant: Allrighty then, have a safe trip!

The Big Money

Don’t neglect coins. Kids love coins. Even small amounts make them happy, which isn’t surprising, given that pocket money is often only a few dollars. For this reason, a few coins, while nothing but annoying paperwork for adult players, is a cause for celebration for kids… at least until they learn that decent magic items cost thousands of gold coins.

A technique I like to use to maximize the “yay!” effect is to grant insignificant rewards for the first few sessions and then suddenly drop a thousand or so gp on the group. A fair word of warning though: put on your earmuffs before announcing this treasure…

Encourage fair distribution of coins. PCs who hoard thousands of coins while their friends have to bag for scraps in the market have a tendency to draw deadly friendly fire in combat… or during dinner.

Little Friends with Teeth

Kids will attempt to convince or tame any living creature they meet to become their pets. Rangers and druids will go as far as directly address nature and ask it to send them a ally. This is how much they like non-humanoid companions!

In the first installment, I have recommended allowing kids to begin game with a small pet, now let’s see how to use more advanced pets as rewards.

Starting pets should be limited to rather weak creatures – ravens, squirrels and dogs that can distract foes and spy ahead are good choices. Wolves, leopards and eagles who can actually assist in combat are pushing it, but still acceptable.

This is good for starters, but kids who got a taste of fantasy want more and this is exactly what you’re going to give them.

Not surprisingly, the most popular pets are dragons. Kids don’t really care about the dragon’s color, age or abilities; they just want to have a dragon. The story is similar in many groups; every time an NPC mentions a dragon, the kids immediately decide they want to go to its lair and tame it so it will be their pet… usually with disastrous results. Eventually, when they do find a dragon egg about to hatch, or a friendly young dragon looking for adventure – they are jovial.

Gryphons, hippogriffs and other flying beasts are also extremely popular. Next come horses, dogs, snakes and other real world animals. Strangely enough, they seem to be more popular than mythological monsters among most groups. Other groups, when told the town offers an excellent selection of horses and mules ask if I can offer them something “more interesting” like giant ants, tamed raptors or purple worms. Try to spy a little before choosing the right pet reward for your players.

Some kids like to own slaves, mostly healers and gladiators (whom they usually treat exceedingly well) but slavery is a touchy subject best avoided with younger gamers, so this reward should be used with discretion, possibly as a prelude to an exploration of the nature of slavery.

To summarize, this is the order of pet awesomeness*:

Dragons
V
Flying Animals
V
Large animals
V
Small animals
V
Slaves and followers

*in some cases…

The Power and the Glory

People look up to heroes for guidance and leadership. But are the young heroes ready to lead?

After dozens of bloody battles, the PCs stand victorious over the smoldering ruins of the tyrant’s citadel. The people, now free of his oppression, look up for the heroes to lead them to a brighter future. Having gained a momentary glimpse into the majesty of the Fallen God and immediately reached enlightenment, the PCs have sworn to walk the land and teach the people of the deity so that with their faith they would awaken him and light the world. After the PCs have single-handedly defeated the diabolical bandits, the Baron decided to appoint them as marshals and invest them with the power to raise and train a militia and investigate supernatural crimes.

For me, it is fascinating to see how a group of young children deal with the responsibility of leading nations and shaping the fates of thousands. Some kids really enjoy it – one group in particular has designed a new religion, wrote a bible for it, trained evangelists to spread it across the land and eventually raised a fundamentalist oligarchy of some 15,000 humans, elves and dwarves with towns named after PCs. This religion now has a Facebook group and a fair amount of likes. Also, it makes the Spanish inquisition look cute in comparison…

Another group convinced all the slaves they freed in a series of bold assaults against an orcish fortress to join them in forming a militaristic community in the forests. Each player has his fighting unit and spends some time each session describing how he trains and stations his troops.

It’s a Bird! It’s a Dragon! It’s a Successful PC!

So we’ve discussed xp, gold, treasure, influence and companions. Now let’s talk about the coolest reward of them all – transhumanism! Under this bombastic term I include all rewards that grant powers or features to the character, be they powers that stem from the gratitude of demon princes or superpowers induced by the bites of radioactive mosquitoes.

Depending on the source of the power, it can be the same special ability given to each member of the group (“you have rescued the snow witch, grateful, she grants you powers over cold and snow”), powers tailored for each player’s gaming style (“you have survived my labyrinth, now let each be rewarded according to his exploits”) or utterly random (“everyone who eats a fruit of the eldritch tree gains a different aspect of a beast”).

Mechanics-wise, Transhumanist powers perform the function as magic items with the obvious exception of not being a tradable commodity.

Below are some suggestions of transhumanist rewards:

Kid (playing a warlord): Friends! Heroes die in battle. Cowards survive. So RUUUUUUUUN! To me: Do I have some attack that makes us flee faster?

Divine Favor

This is the reward most often given by supernatural beings such as nature spirits, ghosts, minor deities, demons and so forth. Unable to give the characters any physical rewards, they instead sacrifice a small portion of their essence to bestow some aspect of divinity on the heroes who risked their lives to help them.

These rewards are usually the same for each player and relate to the domain of the rewarding being. For example, a water spirit will give the power to breathe underwater at will and command water as a daily power while a devil may negotiate with his masters to organize a one time “get out of hell free card” which gives each PC a single automatic resurrection.

Purification of Flames      level 4

Having cleared the fire spirit’s shrine of the undead blight that corrupted it, you were granted powers that will help them clear the land of undead more efficiently.

Property: when you take necrotic damage, you gain combat advantage against the attacker and a +2 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.

Power (Daily * Fire): Minor Action. The next time you hit a target that has dealt necrotic damage to you this encounter, that attack deals extra 2d6 fire damage.

Superpowers and Mutations

Superpowers can be granted by grateful wizards, true deities, magic accidents or through interaction with artifacts or suspicious matters. The difference between a superpower and a mutation is that the former is an additional power the character can use, such as flight, regeneration, X-ray vision and so forth while the latter is actually a major change in the body of the PC such as growing an additional pair of hands, skin transforming into tough bark or getting a toothy maw that deals melee and poison damage. Mutations might traumatize some kids because for all their usefulness, mutations are still a deformation of the body and make particularly sensitive kids uncomfortable, sometimes to the point of not wanting to play the character any more. Use them with discretion.

I like to accompany mutations with random tables on which the players roll their mutations. For example:

Plant Mutations:

 

Vines Tendrils                   Level 6

Thick vines grow from your body. Through extreme excretion of will you can make them move and even fight.

Property: You gain a +5 (10 on 16^th level) item bonus to Stealth and Athletics (Climb) checks in wooded areas.
Power: Grappling Vines
(Encounter * Martial)
Standard Action               Close Burst 1

Target: Up to three creatures within burst.

Attack: Strength, Dexterity or Wisdom +2 (4 at 11^th level and 6 at 21^st level) vs. AC.

Hit: 1d6 + Strength, Dexterity or Wisdom modifier damage. The target is restrained until the beginning of your next turn.

Sustain Move: You can sustain this power until the target succeeds on a saving throw.

Reputation

Being well known in the realm has its advantages; merely saying “boo” sends fearsome warriors fleeing, the most outlandish claims are accepted without question due to your unblemished reputation and, after saving the land from the Great Wyrm, every shopkeeper automatically offers you a 50% discount. Good (or bad!) reputation is as much a power as shooting lasers from your eyes.

This reward should be granted to PCs who actually deserve it and be tailored for their achievement.

Celebrated Detective                              Level 3

Your unblemished reputation in fighting crime and exposing injustice makes you a force to be reckoned with on the streets.

Property: You gain a +5 item bonus to Streetwise and Intimidate checks in urban areas.

Power (Encounter): Minor Action. The next time the target attempts Bluff, Insight, Stealth, Streetwise or Thievery on you, it makes two rolls and uses the lower one of the two.

Other

Cybernetic enhancements from aliens crashed on the PC’s planet, magic creatures that bond with the characters, special tricks taught by grateful grongards, wandering souls looking for a home in return for their wisdom and magic might… the possibilities for transhumanist rewards are limitless!

Enhanced Vision               Level 6

Your eyes have been replaced with highly advanced prosthetics that offer you excellent vision and area scanning abilities.

Property: You gain darkvsion.

Power (Encounter): Standard Action. You can see invisible creatures until the end of your turn.

I recommend reading the “Echoes of Power” section of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting (page 211) it contains many excellent transhumanist powers as well as tips on using them as rewards.

Apotheosis of the Gamer

Often a kid would spend most of the session leafing through the Monster Manual, stopping at random pages and asking “can I play this?” When the question is asked about a purple worm, a gelatinous cube or an oversized beetle, one is almost tempted to say “sure” and watch him handle playing a character slightly more intelligent than the chair he is currently sitting on. This was a joke – don’t do it unless you’re doing a wacky session (a subject that will be thoroughly covered in a later article.)

When the question is asked about a centaur or a young dragon, you can either bum him by saying “no” or motivate him by saying “sure, but you must earn it first.” Eventually, you will have to live up to your promise – and why not? An Angel of Valor (MM 16), for example, is roughly equal in power to an 11^th level “normal” character. Why not let the player’s old Paladin undergo an apotheosis and become an angel as he reaches paragon tier. Or, if this seems too far fetched, why not let the old grognard rest his blade and let the angel who watched over him for so many years take his place.

This will create several problems for you, the foremost of which are player envy and character progression. The former cannot be simply dealt with by allowing all players to undergo apotheosis (don’t use this word by the way; no one knows what it means). Kids are perfectly capable of repeatedly declining an offered advantage while saying it’s not fair someone else has it. To cope, try to occasionally hint at the shortcomings of the kid’s monstrous character. For example, “no, you can’t stealthy approach the giants – you’re basically a huge torch hurling through the night sky like a roaring jet – there is no way anyone will fail to notice you!” Just don’t overdo it or you’ll get the reverse problem – the angel envying the mortals…

Regarding level progression, this is really less work than it looks. Often, you’ll be able to use an existing class or path as a basis for your table. For example, the angelic theme is already covered by the Angelic Avenger (PHB 72). Up to 12th level you’re good – just use the path as is. The 20^th level power, Angel Ascendant is inappropriate since the angel can already fly. Good, you have two levels. What’s next?

The angel has the Soldier role, which is the monsters’ version of the Defender. That, combined with its religious background, makes the Paladin the best power donor. When adapting powers, keep the following in mind – first, the Paladin uses mostly radiant damage while the angel fights with fire and lightning. Secondly, the paladin is a healer while the angel is a pure destroyer.

Here are a few examples of Paladin power adaptation; Entangling Smite can be used as is. Radiant Charge should probably be changed into Fiery Charge and deal fire damage. Renewing smite, with its healing theme, is simply not appropriate for this destructive character.

Give the angel 4 hp each level. Its starting hp is high enough. Use discretion with feats – I would allow some Fighter and Ranger feats, since the angel is a two-handed warrior.

Penalties

The Cracking of the Whip

The whip is of course metaphorical, unless held in the hands of a balor, in which case – run for your lives! But let’s get serious. Actually, seriousness is the issue. Some kids are not serious. Some kids don’t come to play but to socialize. Some kids want to play but their heads are out there in the clouds. Some, like the Joker of Batman, are a force of chaos. As a DM, it is your duty to deal with them lest they deal with you (and your game!)

The most traditional method of punishment is reduction of XP. Without a very good reason, don’t remove more than 50 XP at once, you want to warn the players, not to cripple their characters. Severe transgressions such as reading your DM notes, damage to people and property or highly inappropriate remarks should be punished harshly. In rare cases, even the extreme measure of removing levels can be used, although this will often be a prelude to kicking the offender out of the group.

Note that some kids care about gp much more than about xp, possibly because xp is an abstract measurement of achievement, not unlike a grade, which some kids don’t care about in the slightest, while gp is money, which everyone cares about very much. Most often, these kids will be your troublemakers – don’t punish them by removing xp because they don’t really care about it. Hit them where it hurts… in their pocket.

Another technique, developed by my esteemed colleague Nitzan Rimon, is based on rewarding free XP to anyone except the troublemakers. For example, if some kids are regularly late for sessions, wait until they arrive and demonstratively reward those who did come on time while stressing that those who were late get nothing. This technique is the most effective against kids whose misbehavior stems from malice or disrespect rather than absentmindedness or immaturity. It seems the former are more worried about others succeeding than about themselves failing.

Now, in my work I have encountered several types of troublemakers. While the below archetypes are gross generalizations, they might help you to identify and solve the problem in some cases. After each title you’ll notice a number of whips. This is to show how severe the issue is. One whip is a minor disturbance hardly worthy of your attention. Five whips will kill the game dead.

All the below quotes are sadly true.

The Astronaut *

“I attack with elven accuracy.”

…right after being explained it’s not an attack (for the fifth time)

The Crime: The kid is just plain oblivious. He has no idea what’s happening in the game right now, what are his character’s capabilities or even what the most basic gaming terms mean. Like the hapless hero of Memento, his memory seems to be restarted every few minutes.

The Verdict: Just be patient and helpful. The guy is honestly trying to participate but ideas keep buzzing between his ears. It’s not his fault, he’s not doing it to get you mad, he just can’t concentrate. Repeat yourself firmly and clearly enough times and eventually it will trickle down.

The Crybaby *

“But I don’t want to play a goblin!”

…after being given a list of twenty races, one of which is the goblin

The Crime: For the love of Pelor, how much can one complain! This kid always looks on the verge of tears or a tantrum. Any minor mishap – a botched roll, an item which differs from his dream sword, an encounter with an NPC who is not Orcus – and tears glitter on the child’s cheeks even as his knuckles go white with fury.

The Verdict: Nothing. Yes, he’s annoying, but unless he’s interfering with the game there is really nothing you can do to appease him. Crying is a mode of extortion and as soon as you start making concessions there will be no end to it. I usually suggest the kid goes outside and washes his face, more for civility’s sake than anything else.

The Cheater *

“18! Yes!! What? Oh, these didn’t count!”

…after rolling a d20 for seven times

The Crime: Dice rolling is a serious business… too serious to be left for chance. The mild cheater keeps coming up with creative excuses why bad rolls don’t count (“the die touched the book, it’s not fair!”). The devious cheater is just plain dishonest.

The Verdict: Kids love to tell on each other, so the chances of cheating to go unnoticed are very small. The mild cheater usually won’t go out of his way to argue his case unless he is a crybaby (see above) or an antagonist (see below) in which case his cheating is the least of your troubles. The devious cheater should be fined harshly enough to teach him that crime doesn’t pay.

The Serial Character Changer

“Can I play a Yuan-Ti, I want to play a Yuan-Ti, I hate my elf. I want him to die! I kill myself! Do I keep my XP and equipment.”

…after opening the Monster Manual on a random page

The Crime: A shrimp in an all-you-can-eat buffet has a longer life span than this kid’s PCs. The guy wants a new character every session. Every time he says it’s the last time, then he gets back home, opens the PHB or Dragon magazine or watches a film, and changes his mind again.

The Verdict: First try diplomacy to convince the kid how cool his PC is. Then explain that his magic items and experience points will be lost with this transformation. Most will give up at this point. Those willing to lose all to make a new character obviously care more about experiencing different classes and races than about character development. Don’t stand in their way – it’s a lost cause.

The Hyperactive **

“I’m Batman!”

While running around, occasionally bumping into objects and people.

The Crime: Like a man possessed, the hyperactive kid is all over the place jumping, dancing, singing, talking on unrelated subjects, drawing on the table or chewing the carpet. When it’s not his turn, he insures it’s nobody’s turn.

The Verdict: It is important to distinguish between attention grabbers and genuinely hyperactive children. The attention grabber will relax if ignored for enough time and occasionally given a harsh xp fine. The kid who is genuinely hyperactive needs stuff to do or he goes bananas. Just give him missions (collect dropped dice, draw stuff on the board, help arrange chairs) and it should pacify him. More severe cases may be beyond salvation (see below).

The Joker ****

“Want to hear me singing while balancing six dice on my nose?”

…in the middle of a villain’s dramatic monologue

The Crime: The same as the hyperactive kid’s, only with malice. The joker doesn’t do what he does because he’s restless, but because he wants to get cheap laughs out of the group and feel in the centre of attention.

The Verdict: Deprive him of this attention. Explain to the other kids that he’s ruining everybody’s game and that by playing along, they’re only encouraging him and ruining the adventure. Particularly disruptive escapades should be harshly fined and the offender should be send outside for a short while. If this doesn’t help, apply Batman’s method of dealing with Jokers.

The Chaotic-Stupid *****

“So… this is the great God-Emperor everyone’s talking about? I pee on his shoes and fart in his direction.”

While the party is negotiating with a 30^th level demigod

The Crime: Possibly the most problematic of the archetypes, the chaotic-stupid player doesn’t misbehave in the classroom. Instead, he plays in a manner which, if DMed realistically, would result in him getting killed every round and the group getting killed every session.

The Verdict: Death… of the character. If a PC jumps off a mile high cliff with an anvil instead of a parachute while screaming “Geronimo!” he does not deserve clemency. Make the player create a new character at a lower level than the rest of the group. After a few such deaths usually he’ll start feeling competitive and get more serious.

Actions that would result in the death of the entire group should instead result in only the offender’s (comically horrible) demise. In one instance, after a PC who mistook my campaign for Looney Tunes was vaporized by an archmage, one of the PCs exclaimed “thank you, O great wizard! This idiot was getting on our nerves since Waterdeep, but Uri wouldn’t let us kill him! Thank you! Thank you!”

Ah yes, no matter how strong their case is, don’t allow kids to kill each others’ characters. This creates a vicious cycle of vengeance that quickly ruins the game.

The Antagonist *****

“You think you can control me? I will destroy you!”

…after being told to stop tearing tiles of the wall

The Crime: Antagonist meet DM. DM meet suffering. The antagonist is your enemy, plain and simple. He came to destroy the gaming experience for everyone via whatever means possible. Mild disciplinary measures such as kicking him out of the class for a short time or taking away xp and gold from him are useless. Taking him outside for a talk is also unlikely to cool his battle spirit.

The Verdict: In rare instances, the antagonist’s energy can be redirected into wanting to be the best PC in the game. He’ll still be a douche, but at least he’ll be the douche who shushes everyone, helps you with the chairs (in return for XP) and screams at anyone standing in his way to more XP and treasure.

Sadly, few antagonists can be saved, so for them I recommend the harshest verdict of all – banishment from the realm!

Surviving the Horror: Gaining Levels

So your group has finally earned 1,000 shiny XP and gained its first level. My deepest condolences – they’re in for a treat and you’re in for a taste of hell… unless you do exactly what I say.

First of all – print the feats table. There are some 80 feats in the book and reading them to the group, what with all the questions and all the “I’m sorry I wasn’t listening, I was busy poking Adam with my pen” this process can easily take an hour. Instead, photocopy the relevant page, spread it around and be available to answer questions and make suggestions. Some kids will just ask you to choose feats for them and you should be ready with an answer, others will ask for clarifications on the function of feat so-and-so. Don’t be overly technical or detailed – half of what you’ll say will be lost in any case because everyone will be asking/ boasting of their 2^nd level character at once.

The same strategy employed for the feats can be employed for powers as well, although this is less of a burning issue because choosing a utility power takes only a few minutes and the choice is very limited compared to feats. When describing utility powers stress that they are helpful in combat but they don’t actually hurt the opponent. Someone will still try to attack an orc with their boundless endurance and you will still facepalm yourself into concussion, but at least you can say you gave it a try…

Last is the horror of the “+1/2 level.” First, if you’re playing with novice players, don’t dare mentioning fractions; leave this exquisite torture to your dear colleague, the math teacher. “Raise all skill bonuses, defenses and ability bonuses by one” is the way to go. However, make sure the kids raise the number in the right slot or it will result in an unreadable character sheet later. Some DMs prefer to just do the math themselves, but I am a great believer in teaching kids self-reliance, so I prefer to do this the hard way in the hope of the kids actually learning the game (and math) some day.

The author would like to thank the mighty Nitzan Rimon; a colleague, a friend and an orc.