D&D Encounters has this system of Renown Points that it uses to reward players for doing cool things. Since, during a single season of Encounters, you may not gain enough experience to level up, Renown Points are really the primary reward currency in Encounters.

Now, my players level up plenty, and the lethality rate of my home game is probably a bit lower than that of Encounters, so I expect them to level up and gain all sorts of cool gear. I do not, however, like handing out experience rewards to a single player; for book-keeping purposes, and for the sake of simplicity and balance, I try to make sure that everyone gains experience at the same rate, and everyone levels up at the same time. In terms of monetary and gear rewards, I try to provide magical gear that is good for specific players, and I try to reward my players equally. These reward mechanics, therefore, reward the players for pushing the main story forward, but not necessarily for pushing their own stories forward, or for simply doing cool things in play. I’ve been trying to think up a reward mechanic that allows me to reward individual players without disrupting the balance of the game too much, and I just realized today that Wizards has already done a lot of that legwork for me.

That said, Renown Points aren’t going to work in my–or your–home game without a little tweaking. Some of the Renown achievements don’t make sense in campaign play, or in your home game, and there are some achievements that I’d like to add for the sake of story and character development. So, here’s the list of Renown Point achievements that I plan on using in my home game:

• Hit a milestone: 2 points
• Complete a minor quest: 2 points
• Complete a major quest: 3 points
• Create a personal quest: 3 points*
• Complete a personal quest: 3 points*
• Revive a dying ally: 1 point**
• Hit for 15+ damage against 1 enemy (25+ at paragon, 35+ at epic): 1 point**
• Kill 3 minions with 1 attack (4 minions at paragon, 5 minions at epic): 1 point**
• Take 50 enemy damage during one encounter (75 at paragon, 100 at epic): 1 point**
• Score a critical hit: 1 point**
• Moment of Greatness: 2 points*

*Can be earned once per session per character.
**Can be earned once per encounter per character.

This is a working list, and things may be added or dropped. Now, what can you actually get with those renown points? Poker chips. At least, that’s what I’m going to be using. Different colors correspond to different effects (listed below), and both your chips and your unspent Renown Points can be carried over from session to session.

• Yellow (10 Renown Points): +2 bonus to any one skill check, ability check, saving throw, or attack roll OR +5 bonus to any one damage roll.
• Red (15 Renown Points): Re-roll any one d20 roll or damage roll, take the higher result.
• Blue (20 Renown Points): Immediately regain one spent encounter power OR immediately regain one healing surge
• White (25 Renown Points): Immediately regain one spent daily power OR immediately gain one action point that you must spend before the end of the encounter (you can spend this action point even if you have already spent an action point during this encounter).

Again, this is a working list; values and effects may change. At any rate, I like this idea a lot, and I think I’ll float it by my players and see what they think. What do you think?