Creating & Rewarding Heroic Moments

What we go for in games with our players is that big moment. The build up for these scenes is something we DMs strive tirelessly for. It is sometimes the work of careful plan and web weaving, it is sometimes the happenstance of an act of sacrifice you werent expecting, and its sometimes just the brilliant move of a desperate group that the dice bless. I was lucky enough to have one recently at a homebrew D&D session with a group I've been running for more than a year at this point.

They had fought through fiends of all sorts as they trekked deeper into a volcano trying to find the source of where they were coming from. The previous session had left everyone a little cautious. Almost dying because of failed rolls when crossing a small ledge over a lava river and having hordes of spiders trap you in nightmares will do that to you. It had left them all shell shocked and in need of a short rest to recover. The paladin and blood hunter have already been having trouble as their backstories are tied very closely to events with fiends. Our blood hunter had accidentally signed away the lives of her whole city thinking she was protecting them from a greater threat. While the paladin had their whole battalion laid to waste around them leaving them dying in a field before found by their diety.

With hope they jumped right into the session navigating deeper, coming across a group of imps enjoying a tasty meal. It hit them harder than expected as their dice had decided to still turn against them. Twice bit by those polyhedrals they took a long rest before continuing, suddenly hearing the sounds of howling and growling echoing around them as hell hounds rushed them. That fire breath did a number on them as they kept bunching up but quickly learned their lesson. After all of that they were skeptical of the room the entered that was empty.

Now at this point you must be asking why all of the background? Because it shows a rise of tension. It was building to something that would force the group to face a decision that they might not like or be faced with a battle they were not prepared for. No great moments can happen without first building tension and conflict. Your players need foils to combat and feel like they can defeat. It gives them a moment to feel heroic, it lets them be the heroes as they want to write them. We will talk more about crafting those moments in a minute, first lets hop back into the story.

The chamber they entered was segmented by rivers of lava making it so that to navigate them they'd have to leap where possible. Our cleric casts a high level water walk spell on everyone letting them walk on lava while taking some fire damage from the heat, but most of them made the jumps anyways. As they are half way through leaping a pair of fire elementals rise from the lava to block their path. They don't try to attack the group just block them and keep them from reaching the part of the room they need to get deeper. At first they talk about fighting them, I of course internally hyperventilated knowing at least half of them would be TPKed in that. The fire elementals weren't aggressive but were very assertive in not letting the group pass, pushing them back if they got to close with their heat. The cleric and druid stepped forward to try and talk with them but found out they didn't serve a language. Instead they resorted to pictograms and Intelligence rolls to decypher each other. Eventually through the knowledge of fiends that the blood hunter and paladin have, with what the cleric and druid can interpret from the symbols some pretty harsh things. Fire elementals were pulled here and trapped, forced into this duty of protection and can't break it. They kept drawing two large circles and three small circles, wiping out the small circles before drawing a diamond shape with the small circles in it. This is drawn several times before the group backs up to talk options. They believe the small ones are children fire elements being held hostage being used as leverage in a contract to keep the parents as guards.

It is at this point that our cleric and druid step up to say that they will free the small circles if they let them pass. The fire elementals talk together for awhile and seem to be debating when the cleric goes from the mouthpiece to be heroic. He walked over to the lava and scooped some up with his bare hand to put three drops on his shield in an oath to free and protect them. Both of the elementals walked over and put their hand on his shield melting in their hand print, looking at the group one last time before moving off to either side of the tunnel. As the group left an explosion rockets the space behind them and screams pierce the air before fading away. They had sacrificed themselves on the oath of the group.

This was a shock to us all. Up to this point, the cleric character has been a little standoffish and closed-lipped about things. He had been keeping his distance not sure if he trusted the others enough to share more of his story. Doing this is the first time his character has stepped up and shown he cares about others, and he did it not only for those in need but because it was the best way to move forward. It deserved something more so I created a Shield of Fire Elemental Oath to give him a +1 shield and fire resistance. As long as the oath is unbroken he now has a huge boon inside the volcano while fighting fiends that seem to be doing fire damage.

Our greatest achievement as DMs is having our players leave the table excited, in wonder and unable to wait until the last session. We want them to feel powerful even in their character's weakest moments. We want them to feel like they can step forward to do the hard things and be rewarded for it. In the world you build with them they are supposed to be a step above the rest writing their own epic.

To do this, even while improving, I keep a few things in mind. First - your players want those chances. They will leap at the chance if given a character reason to do so. Our cleric's backstory is one about trying to protect those who can't do so themselves. Even if it means following down a dark path and getting his hands dirty. So when given an opportunity to do the same for the group he lept at it. Second - characters get on high alert and pay closer attention to when those might happen when you've been building tension. A sudden set of traps raises suspicions that might lead to your rogue catching sight of a trap as it triggers before leaping in the way of the arrow. Having been chased by kobolds for several sessions and constantly harassed by small attacks will cause the group to get jumpy if it all disappears and becomes quiet. Use the nature tension you are building in your session to your advantage. These two things help you build situations that give your players the opportunity to step up and be the hero because that is what they deserve to be.

An important thing to remember though is to make sure you reward your players with something as impactful as what they did. Be it an item, a boon from an NPC, a DM's inspiration, etc. It needs to meet a minimum threshold of impactfulness. How do you know if it does that? Well great question there self let me tell you how. Is it personal? Is it unique? Can its usefulness carry forward to help them even more in the future? A player is willing to wait to be given the details of what exactly the item is as long as they know its coming so no stressing about creating on the fly. You also don't have to go big or go home on these rewards. A personalized item or reward even if on the weak side will be held on to and maintain a longer life in the game then any high impact reward they can get. Its because the memory of that deed their character did is tied to the object, the lore of their heroics within the group are pointed out every time it's used. Have fun with these and your players will too.

With that little rambling over with, I’m JustKay your regular DM Dalliance on the web and I’ll see you next post.