I am gifting some free N/A items to the group. I will be discussing more of that in another thread. For the sake of showing how, and why, I want to do the rewards, I'll put the short version here.
I'm going to be selecting a few minor and major artifacts. I'll be offering three options of how to handle these.
- Buy in. Immersion breaking, little bit bumming, but most fair. You choose the item you want from the list, more than one of the same item can exist.
- Bid in. This is collaborative project, if this defeats that purpose, then it's a no go. Absolutely this should feel high fiving, not last pick at kickball. This is the best midway between option 1 and 2. I'll be assigning "work" for players to do. I'll have a bounty board, those with bounties will have value, this won't mean high to lowest alone, but also based on the past year's worth of posting record. That is, if you've shown to be busy, I won't penalize you. If you've been fairly active, and have voiced an interest in doing some added immersion work, I'll use that as a standard. Bounties work toward others' votes for items. You don't pick your own. You can state your case, but this should be discussion, not debate. This gives the immersion, but also some autonomy.
- Group items. I'll write them down in a group pool. At all times they will be placed somewhere in game, as in a location or on a creature. I will, as part of being GM, make sure everyone has some say in how the artifacts are used. This is an idealistic, both for good and ill, approach. It can go very smoothly, or very rough.
I want to show you a reward, for being so patient, and cooperative. I'm doing this to invest in the game, BUT not add paperwork. Otherwise I'd award XP. I don't like the extra work that puts in. I could do other awards, I want to do this instead. The artifacts are hand picked, but as written in the various non-epic sources. Here are just a few I'll be considering, as sources; DMG, Magic of Faerun, Book of Vile Deeds, Book of Exalted Deeds, and Arms & Equipment.