So you don’t have to look far online to find videos or options for doing player rewards. And it’s honestly a regular challenge for any game master, because if you give too much gold, eventually they don’t anything spend it on. If you give too many magic items you risk breaking your game. And finally too many level ups can be just as game breaking.
But how do you reward your players, with something interesting without it being money or items. I’ve given this a lot of thought and want to share an idea that I built into the world on Zenith, and they are called Boons.
So where did this idea come from?
So when I was building Zenith, one of the key features of my world is that the mega city of Zenith, is that the city was founded by a person known as “The Architect,” and they appealed to 6 core families to help them build the city of Zenith. Each of those families controls a core industry within Zenith.
Now if we take that idea a step further. You get to a point where these 6 families have such generational wealth that the idea of money seems insane. When you have such control over a mega city like Zenith and core industries, you need something else cause money has no real value. So what do the noble houses exchange if money has no value… and that’s where the idea of Boons came from. Boons are essentially a system for trading favors and obligations and an enforcement code to make sure that these “markers,” are honored.
What is a “boon?”
So a Boon is actually a contract agreement, but more specifically it’s very similar to a “favor.” And the idea that the noble houses would have a system for trading favors. So when a member of a noble house grants you a boon it’s the equivalent of a “favor to be named now or later.” And depending on the type of boon, determines what kind of things you can ask for.
But the cool part as a GM is it means that you don’t need to figure out what to give your players but rather give them a “check with limits” that they can determine what they want.
What are the types of boons?
So with this, all favors are not equal and shouldn’t be, because not all debts are equal. So here are the levels of boons that the noble houses of Zenith recognize.
One key element of all types of boons is that
- Must be within the power of the person who granted the boon. This is absolutely key point to keeping these controlled. So for example a distant cousin of the patriarch for a family has less power and influence than the patriarch of the family.
- The receiver of the boon does not get to specify the “how” of the boon being fulfilled. Yao you can’t tell them how you want them to get something done, just what the outcome is.
- The boon cannot cause physical harm to the person or their family. Generally speaking violence is discouraged for boons, because the finance guild maintains the records for these boons, who they were granted to, and when they were collected.
Minor Boon
A minor boon is a relatively more common occurrence when dealing with the noble houses. This basically denotes a favor that is a “once and done” activity. And can’t directly go against the interests of the person or the family. The goal being that you can ask for something reasonable. But you can’t say “give me 1000 platinum a day for life.” Or “give me control of your family.”
One of the key elements of a minor boon, is that there is usually a 60/40 on the power in the negotiation. The key to this being that there can be negotiation but once it is agreed upon, the “favor is locked in stone” and can’t change afterward. If a person receiving a boon wants to change their mind, their only course of action is to allow the person giving the boon off the hook.
Any member of a noble house can grant a minor boon.
Major Boon
A major boon is a favor of larger value that is to be given with less negotiation. The goal of a major boon, is that this can even be something to the person granting the boon’s detriment. So this is meant to be on the level of something more public like “here’s a castle.” Or “here’s a title or ownership of a business.”
These kind of boons are a lot more rare.l, and more than that can only be granted by the immediate family of the matriarch / patriarch of a noble house.
Epic Boon
An epic boon is a once in a lifetime kind of grant by a noble house, and can only be given by the matriarch / patriarch of a noble house. An epic boon also means that the noble house must grant this if it is within their power, and even if it is against their better interests. You still can’t get them to give up their position, but you can say things like “Torpedo this major deal?” Or “give up control of any interests in this region.”
What happens if someone does honor their boon?
So how does this system work, what’s to say that someone doesn’t give a boon and then fail to honor it. The key to preventing that is the Finance Guild maintains the records of all boons that have been granted. And if a member of a noble house refuses to honor a boon, than the entire noble house is barred from collecting on any boons themselves. Which means, that they can’t get the benefits of the boons that help make their goals happen, if they don’t honor a boon.
And more than that, if you fail to honor a boon, to reverse the ban, the boon level must be moved to the matriarch or patriarch of the noble house and they must deliver something in their influence (which is considerably more). This makes it that from the top down each noble house has an interest in their subordinates honoring boons.