D&D: ‘Call Of The Netherdeep’s Medals Of Merit Are Awesome Quest Rewards And You Should Steal Them
Call of the Netherdeep is full of new magic items, including ones that might kill you. But some of the best ones are the Medals of Merit.
Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep does a lot of things differently than the typical D&D adventure. From character interactions that can take surprising turns, to quest chains that feel like they’re pulled from an old-school BioWare game, there’s a lot to love. But one of my favorite things is also one of the smallest.
Call of the Netherdeep starts adventurers off in the lively town of Jigow where competition is a way of life. And if players choose to compete in the games at hand, they’ll win an item known as a Medal of Merit. There are seven different Medals all in all. They’re all common, single-use magic items that confer a pretty cool benefit. It’s something that there’s surprisingly little of in D&D. Most magic items have a number of charges that restore at certain times. Or else they’re potions. But the Medals of Call of the Netherdeep are a great way to show off your players’ strengths while also having a little memento.
Call of the Netherdeep – Medals of Merit
There are seven different medals all in all, including Medals of
- Muscle
- Conch
- Horizonback
- Maze
- Meat Pie
- Wetlands
- Wit
Each one is the top prize in various contests that players can enter in the starting town of Jigow. But not only are they prizes, their powers fall in line thematically with them too. The Medal of the Maze, for instance, you win for getting through a maze the fastest. And when you activate it, you gain advantage on Wisdom checks and know the quickest route to the end of any nonmagical path or maze for 1 hour.
And believe it or not, there are multiple places in the adventure where both of these boons are relevant. It’s such a cool bit of design.
Same goes for some of the other Medals, like the Medal of the Wetlands, which allows you to ignore difficult terrain for 1 hour, or the Medal of the Horizonback which gives you a one time reaction similar to the spell Shield.
These rewards are sure to interest players, and they’re powerful – but they don’t stick around long enough to break your game. Of course, you’ll still have to actually get your players to use the items.
But that’s a problem that any DM or game designer has had to deal with since the dawn of gaming. Because why would you drink a potion when there might be another, harder fight just around the corner?
But magic items like this – especially ones that have relevancy to later events in your adventure, are a great way to reward players for either rolling well or going out of their way for sidequests.
Do some investigating and exploring and you get a reward that will make your life easier, later. Which is the goal of any good sidequest. But especially if your players have run out of uses for gold pieces, or you’re worried about them leveling up too fast, it’s a great bit of design.
Happy Adventuring!
