Creating Goals for our Party

In this post we're going to revisit things you can do when you have more time to prep. In this article we'll dive into the next idea: integrating characters into the story through party & individual character goals. I found this to be an excellent way to mesh character backstory & goals with the overarching campaign plot.

My Process:

1. Write 2 goals for each character. Think about the characters and their backstory: what do they hope to accomplish that they haven't yet? These should be things the players would be excited to pursue but haven't yet for whatever reason. Often times the Main Plot™️ is endlessly urgent, so the players need reassurance that they can pursue personal character goals as well.
2. Tie those character goals to fun rewards. Based on their play style and commonly used abilities, what magic items or artifacts would they really like? Get creative here! You can also reward titles, deeds, information, membership into certain groups, etc.
3. Create plot-related goals with fun rewards. This helps provide additional motivation beyond "we have to do the right thing for the sake of it." For some goals, I required the party to visit many different cities and complete various tasks.
4. Tie leveling-up to the completion of plot goals and/or a certain number of personal goals. This is probably the most controversial step– further down I'll discuss the potential downsides of doing things this way.
5. Create a display board for the goals (optional, but fun!). Thinking up and creating these sorts of props is why I love GMing. It doesn't have to be fancy, but having physical props definitely helps with engagement. For a free / online version, you can use something like Google Sheets / Google Docs. Final result below:

What went well:

• The players all seemed to like the goals! They tied in well to the characters as I had a good idea of who they were by then. This may work best if you introduce the goals partway through a campaign once you understand the characters well.
• The rewards were enticing but not game-breakingly powerful. It helps that the goals were already things the party was pursuing.
• It's good to have a mix of goals the party can actively pursue (i.e. complete tasks at these locations) as well as goals that we have more control over (when certain enemies are encountered / defeated). This helps us to adjust the pacing of the campaign on the fly.

What can be improved:

• Leveling up after completing certain goals seemed like an interesting idea at the time, but it's hard to balance and sync up well with story beats. In my case, the goals are taking longer than I anticipated, so it's been a while since the party has been able to level up.
• Having to travel to lots of different areas takes a while.
• Be careful that the rewards don't become obsolete by the time they are earned.