Player motivation for an exploration-themed game

[RangerWickett]

For my current game, I want to encourage the players to travel, explore, and discover. They all started in a remote village, but I want them to interact with the wider world. While I can set up plots as usual, I'm considering an unorthodox way of encouraging travel: standardized tests.

I think they used something similar in Final Fantasy VIII; you were in school, and received a regular stipend based on your rank. You increased your rank by taking tests, which had questions about the world. You had to explore to get the answers if you wanted to get more money.

I'm considering doing something similar. The party's starting at level 6, and in the vague, perhaps too-epic-awesome plot I have in mind, I expect them to get off their current continent by level 10, travel the planes by level 20, and save the world by level 30. And the threat to the world I have in mind can only be defeated by understanding the world well enough to hold it together with sheer willpower (and likewise be able to shape reality with thought and desire).


I'm thinking of making 5 lists of 15 questions each. I'll set it so they already know the answers to 6 questions on each list. The other 9 will be drawn from events I've got planned for heroic tier. The questions will be public, maybe posted on a wiki. Whenever the PCs collectively as a party learn the answer to a new question, they can mark it done.

When they have 7 answers in each of 5 categories, they go up to level 7. At 8 answers per category, they go up to level 8, and so on.

Once they reach level 10, I'll come up with 15 more questions for paragon tier. (Actually, I'll probably add 5 now, then add 5 more after they've gained a few levels, and 5 more a bit after that. There'll be a total of 30 questions available in each category by the time they're 20th level, but this gives me the option to come up with new stuff as needed.) Likewise, epic tier will have yet more questions.

The idea is that the players will want to explore the world, and I'll design each adventure (2 or 3 sessions) to provide the opportunity for finding the answers to several questions. That way it both spurs player interest in the setting, and forces me to be creative.

The categories I'm thinking of are Geography, Politics & History, Philosophy, Magic, and Miscellaneous.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

 

[utopia27]

I think if I were one of the characters, I'd figure out who was asking the questions, go take their money, and find out what they were trying to accomplish. I'd be a little concerned the folks setting the questions had ulterior motives. and after the list grew longer a couple times, I think I'd be frustrated and annoyed.

but me, I'm paranoid, and tend to play chaotic characters.

so what has historically motivated people to go exploring?
- god
- gold
- glory

you've got gold. maybe a little bit of glory. I'd recommend engaging the god mode. and the glory mode.

Glory, BTW, is actually a great way to soak up excess gold and treasures. It's expensive to maintain a title. Even a small estate (particularly with an associated high title) can be a fine excuse for required entertainment (the princess is coming to visit for a week! wouldn't want to offend!), for levies of troops and taxes, and other good ways to sop up the excess wealth.

Glory is also a handy place to throw in rivals. If you've got public lists, and some shadowy forces generating/asserting/maintaining are spreading around rewards... you may want to have a couple of rival groups. Don't neglect to make them potentially (or partially) admirable and cooperative. Some deal-making and shifting alliances can provide a lot of spice (and some good levers for the GM).

God is an easy road to invoke - particularly where state and religion are aligned. It does get a bit stickier at higher levels, when characters get to ASK God directly. So... remember to keep the stories straight, and watch out for characters worshipping trouble-makers. I hate it when Coyote cuts a deal that delays defense of the universe for a couple generations, and neglects to tell the rest of the deities, or his high priests...

Finally... gold. Your rewards don't have to be strictly monetary. They can also be land grants (less preferred in this case), access to information or secret societies, titiles, etc.

In parting, a small piece of general advice. Your players and their characters, will not necessarily have your plot as their continuing sole concern. Remember to lighten up from time to time - support some character-specific goals and subplots. Allow some independent successes, and don't use everything the players gain as levers to get them "back in the groove"

 

[Haltherrion]

For my current game, I want to encourage the players to travel, explore, and discover. They all started in a remote village, but I want them to interact with the wider world. While I can set up plots as usual, I'm considering an unorthodox way of encouraging travel: standardized tests.

....

What do you think? Any suggestions?

That seems very artificial. I don't think I'd find that very appealing as a player at all as it just seems like a club the referee is using to goad the players into doing something he wants.

Instead, how about some incentives to the players to travel? There are all sorts of options from pure carrot (the players find a treasure map and must travel to many places to get all the pieces needed to get to the final treasure) to stick and carrot (invaders using flying castles destroy their current base, they have the chance of capturing one of the castles but the invaders now pursue them all over the world) and so on.

 

[Starfox]

• Get this into the game in an unobtrusive way; who asks the questions and why matters a lot. The best way might be to have a sphinx or inanimate shrine ask. Have it serve as the locking mechanism for something, or a requirement for a ritual such as plane shift.
• Make it a group effort. Answering at thing like this individually is boring schoolwork; doing it as a team could be fun.
• Consider how you'll address wrong answers and pure guesswork. Having no penalty makes it 20 questions. Having a large penalty means people just won't try. My suggestion is to give one opportunity per game session.

 

[fba827]

i like the idea in general, just be prepared for a couple issues that may crop up:
- what to do for the PC that has some obscene amount of arcana/history/religion/streetwise and might otherwise be able to consistently get the information in a way other than actual travel. Having said that, if I was in such a camapgin and knew ahead of time that this was the device for exploration then I wouldn't be miffed if the answer was always "this isn't something you've learned in your study yet" but if i didn't know that ahead of time, then, yeah, i might be a little annoyed if that was consistently the response i'd get back


As for questions/categories, one obvious one you are missing is "Nature."
"How many stomaches does an owlbear have?" "Why doesn't any plant life grow on the banks of the Moon River?" etc

 

[Woas]

Did you talk to the people playing the game about what you want to do? I think that would be the best thing to do first. Would be shame to do all that work then have the players get frustrated playing "Fantasy-SAT-Test & Dragons".

 

[Zinovia]

The characters all begin in the employ of a wealthy eccentric who wishes to create the ultimate library and museum. Lord Murchinson (fill in name of choice) is enough of a scholar to not trust secondary or tertiary sources, such as what other people say they know about an area. Instead, he insists on sending his own team to find answers to the many questions he has about the world.

"It is true," Lord Murchinson said in a somewhat nasal voice, "that Bartolemew Bogwalker did write an extensive travelogue of the Misty Swamps, but that was over a hundred years ago! Who knows what things are like in there now? Besides, he never did answer the question of why the swamp is the only place you can get candleflowers, which as you know are an important source of lumenite for the production of sunrods. Why do they grow only there? Is there really a ruined temple to the arch-fey in the middle of the swamp, as was reported in Garstock's Guide to the Gods? Do the flying frogs mentioned in Bogwalker's travelogue really exist? What color are they? He never said. Amateurs, the lot of them. No real scholarship to be found. I need you to get the answers!"

The information is catalogued by an army of scribes and cartographers, who create the most accurate maps in the world, based on first hand reports from the exploration teams. As Murchinson comes up with new unanswered questions about the world, he can forward them on to the group. They are left with the freedom to go and explore or find the answers to the questions in any order. Perhaps they gather rare specimens as well - unusual flora, fauna, minerals, or whatever else seems interesting. These can be brought back for the museum, while Lord Murchinson looks on gleefully at the proof of the mysteries to be found in the wide world, and beyond. Perhaps his teams even find out too much, revealing secrets better left untold...

 

[Pseudopsyche]

I seem to have interpreted the OP differently than most of you in this thread: I thought the questions would be posed out-of-character, even though their subject matter is in-game. This interpretation seems less artificial to me: the standardized tests become a game mechanic, not a story element that requires suspension of disbelief.

I very much like the idea of keying level gain off of player knowledge of the game world, in theory. I do wonder in practice how the change in incentives will affect the game. In particular, I wonder if players' tolerance for long combats will evaporate, once combats stop being the principal means to character advancement. The players may care less about character optimization and more about developing relationships with NPCs and collecting useful rituals. Assuming the players buy into the idea, I think it could be a big win.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[LostSoul]

That's interesting. I think that would work nicely.

It doesn't leave much space for player-created goals - though that may be a feature.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Many explorers were typically motivated by 2 goals: wealth and fame.

One of the most common reasons to go out looking beyond the boundaries of the known is to find new trading paths, new things to trade, and new sources of wealth in general.

Another reason is the fame of naming. Explorers are the one who make the maps that those who follow them use. That means they name the landmarks. That also means they earn the reputation of being the first to conquer particular challenges- imposing natural barriers, hostile natives and the ever-present unknown. Sometimes, that's enough.

Beyond those 2 main reasons, other explorers head out simply because they don't want to be around civilization any more than they have to...or that civilization doesn't want them around any more than absolutely necessary. The underlying reasons are things like misanthropy, belonging to a fringe religion or having committed criminal acts.