It's a videogame thing, but I'm toying with the idea of introducing badges/achievements to http://www.russelldeneault.com/gpc"]my (http://"[url) game[/url]. This is probably easier in an online game where I can view the entire play history with ease, but could transfer well to tabletop sessions, too.

For those of you unfamiliar with Xbox or other game achievement systems, most games these days have a layer that sits atop the game being played that awards titles and/or points for playing the game in a certain way. Some of these achievements are gained simply by playing through and completing portions of the game, while others encourage exploring or playing differently. On the surface, these awards don't do anything more than add to a score that you can use to compare yourself against other players, but they're also a good tool to draw more value out of a game and direct players into certain activities.

Achievements should typically be difficult to achieve, but still be attainable. The player should have to go through some extra effort or really work at gaining achievements. Some simple, but iconic, events might be worth including: maybe witnessing Arthur pull the Sword in the Stone for example.

Some ideas for Pendragon Achievements:

Playing each Era from start to finish
I survived the Anarchy Phase and all I got was this lousy t-shirt
Kingmaker (Boy King)
Great Pendragon Player (play through each era in the Great Pendragon Campaign)
Do-Over (5 character deaths)
Family Man (play the grandfather, father, and son from the same family. Father and son must be born and grow through the in-game system)
[X] Slayer: Kill 50 [Saxons, Britons, monters, etc.]
Master Hunter: Hunt and kill at least one of every non-monster animal from the hunting table (player, not character specific)
Seneschal's Favorite: Rescue Sir Kay from mortal peril
Champion's Punching Bag: Be defeated by Lancelot five times
Vincible: Defeat the Black Knight
Baby-Killer: Help Arthur in his quest to avoid his unavoidable fate

What do you think? Surely we can come up with more!

Neglect not the bad puns.

Might Makes Right: Get the Chivalry bonus
Medieval Times:
Sir Forrest of Gump: Meet at least five major characters from the Arthurian canon
Ol' Dirty Blaggard: Personally defeat a recurring enemy (King Octa and King Mark count)
Nobody Expects The . . . : Be the first one to make a Monty Python reference, you derivative hack
Happily Ever After: Marry a woman above your own station
I wolde I knewe how of thee I might be Quitten!: Live up to the highest ideals of courtly bromance and form an alternative relationship with a knight in shining armor.
If ich sayde that thou hadde a bele chose, woldstow holde it ayeinst me?: Roll a Flirting critical
The Accountant's Tale: Roll a Stewardship critical
Pourin' Out a XL For My Homie: Avenge/memorialize a deceased comrade in a suitably epic way
"Enough is enough! I have had it with these mother-swyving Saxons on this mother-swyving plain!": Defeat a Saxon army on the Salisbury plain.
Battlestar Ecclesiastica: Become a Knight Templar

I can do this all day.

Yes, you've got it!


Anything You Can Do - Introduce a female knight into the game
He Just A Beardless Boy! - Oppose Arthur's right to the throne and do battle to defend your position
Magician's Apprentice - Become a favorite of Merlin
Scrooge McKnight - Maintain a superlative standard of living for five consecutive years
You may call me Lord - Become the lord of ten NPC knights through gameplay
Boom, Headshot! - Kill another knight in a single blow
[li]Lances-a-lot - Have at least a 3-1 win ratio with a minimum of 50 recorded lance competitions

a lot of these are shamelessly stolen from jokes on chaucer's blog (big fan if you can't tell)

Need For Tweed: Cite a scholarly work (academic journal article or book by a university press) to solve an in-game question
Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense: Do something dumb in the name of Romance
Suck It, Dan Brown: See the Holy Grail with your own eyes.
Unlocked Wordhoard: Get an Orate critical
Pimpin Be Not Easy: While married, initiate a Romance
Henri le Poitier: Dabble in magic (witchcraft, astrology, or some other supernatural activity)
Ich Pwne Noobs: Win a tournament
Got Medieval: Do something unpleasant to a prisoner who can't fight back

Not Cool, Man - Lose a knight through reaching Honor 0
It Didn't Look That Deep - Lose a knight through drowning
Bloody Conscience - Kill another player character
Bloodied Conscience - Be killed by another player character
Adonis - Play a character with Appearance 18


Trait-Specic Achievements

[li]Not Quite a Knight - Any three above 15 of Lazy, Arbitrary, Cruel, Proud, or Cowardly
Devil's Knight - Any three above 15 of Lustful, Lazy, Selfish, Proud, or Indulgent
Pushover - Honest, Prudent, and Trusting over 15

Smarter than Caesar, Sexier than Cicero: Get a Read (Latin) score of 20
When You're A Jet: Get a critical Dancing roll
100 Problems: Your wife is in a Romance with another knight
On a Boat: Put a skill point into the Boating skill.


Also, got some names (i.e. the important part), feel free to complete these:
Finalest Fantasy:
Fiat Voluntas Mea:
Pax NON!:

Ha! Those are great ideas! I would definitely use them...I'd even give bonus points or a one-time gift or something.

1. Sir Itch-a-lot: Slept with Morgan le Fey

:)

A lot of great ideas, here, but my question is:
What purpose does it serve?

Players have enough info to keep track of, and glory already encompasses the idea of achievements. If these things each come with a glory award, I could see it being fun and something that players will care about. Otherwise, I think it will just be something the GM tells the players they have accomplished, the players jot it down, and never notice it again.

You are absolutely right that this adds even more stuff to keep track of, but running a web-based game I find that easier to do than in a traditional table-top setting.

The primary purpose is to entertain ourselves with silly titles and interesting achievements, but if I do choose to add this to my own game then I would attach a reward of some kind. I see these achievements as something that attaches to a player. Once achieved by one character, that character cannot get the same reward again with a subsequent character. In the world of video games, achievements are also a great way to pull extra value out of a game even when they don't do anything but display a number on a gamer's profile page.

If we attach a point system to the achievements we can weight the award more heavily for more difficult items. So something like Master Hunter, a difficult to complete achievement considering the hunting tables are usually random, might be worth 20 points. Others you can assume will be both easy to complete and common, like Nobody Expects The..., might be worth 1 or 2 points. Going along with the XBox achievement system, these points are worth exactly nothing apart from bragging rights (as our esteemed doorknobdeity says) your e-peen.

Going a little further, I might consider letting players cash in these achievement points for one time rewards. Maybe for re-rolls, instant character imrovements, or even destiny points that some game uses to let players alter parts of the story. Cash in 20 points to re-roll your family characteristic for future generations. 200 points gets you a seat on the round table! I'm not a huge fan of these systems, but it could be fun.

If I wanted to really get into detail, I might make an achievement score link to certain character creation guidelines.
Maybe players with

less than 50 points must begin new characters with a household knight
between 50 and 100 points may begin new characters with a landed knight
greater than 100 points may begin new characters with a landed knight and a guaranteed dowry of 1 or more manors


Again, this stuff is much much easier to track on a wiki/forum than on paper, but it's still possible.

More!

The Tourist: Play at least one significant scene in each major region of Britain, Ireland, Gault, Italy, etc. etc.
[li]Blessed are the Poor: Play a knight for 10 consecutive years with poor maintenance and a pious score greater than 15.