Differential Rewards for Player Investement

[PencilBoy99]

Of my 4 players in my Darkening of Mirkwood campaign:

1. only 1 of the 4 exposes themselves to risk (Forward Stance, spending personal Hope). As a result they've accrued the expected negative results (Shadow);
2. only 1 of the 4 has put any thought / pro-activity into coming up with downtime activities

In any RPG I run, I normally provide everyone with the same XP because I don't want to be bothered by it, but it seems bizarre that this player shouldn't be rewarded for this kind of activity.

Has anyone provided mechanical or other benefits for this kind of behavior?

[Indur Dawndeath]

Reward him with incorporating his story into the adventures. Use his ideas in the fellowship phase and let the adventure phase have secondary objectives that will help with his Holding, or just build even more to his story.

[Captain Curmudgeon]

Of my 4 players in my Darkening of Mirkwood campaign:

1. only 1 of the 4 exposes themselves to risk (Forward Stance, spending personal Hope). As a result they've accrued the expected negative results (Shadow);
2. only 1 of the 4 has put any thought / pro-activity into coming up with downtime activities

In any RPG I run, I normally provide everyone with the same XP because I don't want to be bothered by it, but it seems bizarre that this player shouldn't be rewarded for this kind of activity.

Has anyone provided mechanical or other benefits for this kind of behavior?

More info needed here. How long has the group been playing TOR? Are the other players less familiar with the game system than this player? How does the group as a whole feel about playing in the Middle Earth setting and using the TOR system? (I assume you're using TOR and not AiME) There are so many possible contributing factors that could be playing into this situation, on BOTH sides of the LM screen, that I think any real solution would require finding and addressing the root cause, whatever that may be. This will require having a conversation with your group about the seeming lopsidedness of the player engagement. One thing I would probably NOT do is give the proactive player more Experience Points and the rest of the table less, as this could cause some hurt feelings and resentment.

[Stormcrow]

Reward him with incorporating his story into the adventures. Use his ideas in the fellowship phase and let the adventure phase have secondary objectives that will help with his Holding, or just build even more to his story.

I second this. The reward of inventing your own narrative is having that narrative join the larger world. This character will become someone important in the community; the others will remain itinerants. Everyone gets what they want and what they put in effort toward.

[SirGamingScotsman]

Reward him with incorporating his story into the adventures. Use his ideas in the fellowship phase and let the adventure phase have secondary objectives that will help with his Holding, or just build even more to his story.

Again I agree with this, it's always nice to reward players, outside of XP and items, for putting more into the game world you've created.

For example early on in my game I had a Hobbit player who had invested Treasure and time into the Easterly Inn. This was before the rules for Holdings had been made. So during Fellowship Phases he spent at the Easterly Inn he would sometimes get some Treasure back from his investment, help or information for Adventuring phases, as well as the 'Falco Took' suite that was built as the Inn continued to expand.

His character was retired and moved into the area around the Easterly Inn. But from his, and the rest of the Fellowship's, involvement a small town has now grown up around the Inn, similar to Bree, called Easterly by the human inhabitants, and New Hobbiton by the Little Folk who now live there. This also gives the Fellowship a staging ground to start new adventures and provides a Sanctuary for Fellowship Phases. And to top it off the 'retired' Falco Took is now mayor of Easterly and could even be a Patron, if the Fellowship so chooses.

[PencilBoy99]

Thanks. I'll curb my normal GM approach of "something happens, now complicate it" to be "you took some initiative, so something wholly good comes of it."

[Stormcrow]

It doesn't always have to be good. Often, the player wants something interesting, not just a reward, especially if that something interesting leads to a new adventure.

Suppose you gain some Standing at home and start making military changes to your peoples' defenses. A nearby rival might wonder why you're suddenly shoring up your defenses and start sending spies into your lands. This could lead to new adventures in the adventuring phase as you deal with the spies, or try to figure out why your enemies are suddenly spying on you so eagerly, or try to convince your enemies you want peace.