Rewarding exploration

Nirrum sends his Hikaorahi to find books and lore for the library.

I, on the other hand, send my players to discover thinly veiled Discworld references

Most people know the feeling of being told "no" in one way or another, to have the game maker's face just metaphorically appear as a wall in game, obstructing the path forward or not letting the actor do what they, by most accounts, should be able to do. But one thing that lets down players nearly as much is exploring and finding nothing. For this post, I'm going to go through a few scenarios and talk about the sort of rewards a player could be rewarded with without unbalancing your game with extra items or EXP.

Food & food locations.

People are so much more pliable when they find food, especially familiar food, yet exotic food. In knowing what your biome and ecology looks like, you end up having a rare opportunity to tell your rangers and foraging folk what they find. In Drakenhearth, climbing a tree, can reward you with a few fruits, digging with vegetables, and hunting with exotic meats:

  Giant Beetles 

Boalisks

Monstrous Crayfish 

Quipper and other fish

Papaya, tamarind, wild (and thus shitty) banana, Taro, and various vegetables

but food needn't come from the wild. The audience has a tendency to bond with any character with a name that holds narrative salience. Our desire to pack bond and to do so with the most desirable individuals means that the back-alley ramen shop owner who said hello is leagues more desirable than <default restaurant owner>. He's special, he's theirs, He is the ramen maker, there is no need for another in their eyes. It's worth noting that this is especially powerful when you don't seem to have planned this, the candid, honest, and surprised answers of the Victim NPC are what endears them to the players. Let them have it, it's an easy reward and a good hook for later.

Hard Resources 

When your players catch on to the idea that they can decide to do things with stuff, they're going to be pleased. This is again, where knowing what your world is made of really comes in handy. If you have an idea of what sort of minerals and trees you can find in any given area (hint: google "Minerals of <place that looks like the place I'm imagining>" and "Trees of <zone>", then you'll be able to tell them, either mentioning it in passing or giving them an answer when they ask. Your players want to have trees to build with, to craft with. They'll make a note and either will come back later to get it or make something with immediate benefit now, like a hardy spear shaft or a replacement shield. The same is true for minerals. Iron and gold are obvious boons, but Granite and marble are similarly excellent finds! If you know what's in an area just look up "uses of <thing>" and you'll be able to find some interesting finds, like this Asbestos stuff! Jewels are a different source of obvious value that one can find if you just know how to look. If a player is looking for something specific, look up online where it is found and then put it in the place in your world that is the most likely to have that! Don't ignore your player's expertise if they are looking for something! Add  it to the world and reward the player for having taken that path in real life by making their experience gain more verisimilitude.

Pets

This one can get a bit dangerous, but as mentioned, humans have incredibly strong pack-bonding instincts. We exist majorly in a social capacity. Because of the advantage of social behaviour, humans have evolved to pack-bond with just about anything that we can even slightly anthropomorphize. One example I heard about included a dented pack of colored markers. This gets particularly strong with animals that come with benefits. Dragons as an extreme example. While dragons, as sapients that are not spectacularly social, would be difficult to convince of anything that doesn't directly and assuredly benefit them, other animals are much more pliable. Social creatures like gricks, wolves, lions, and ants (provided you can smell right), become easier to access and work with if you are able to establish yourself in their social order. Such animals might not listen often and with some of them, if you aren't at the top of the social order, they might expect you to listen to them.  Be aware of what it is like to keep such an animal as a pet before you allow your players to say it is "tame" or if they breed it "Domesticated."

Pets might seem like they change the balance of the game but it is important to note that no amount of non-magical bribing will stop most natural creatures from being skittish, driven to survive, and unlikely to take an arrow to save you. Being raised from a young age might help this, but to fight instincts requires a few generations. On top of that, it's just an excuse for you, the designer, to throw bigger challenges at them.

Plot hooks for later!

If you're in a place where civilization has left it's mark, that mark can easily be a plot hook. A letter, a key, an eye in a jar that always looks at the one non-magical party member. Of course they won't leave it there, a party will never leave anything behind provided they have the time to take it with them. Showing a stampeding herd move down a valley, the dust on the horizon of an army on the move, a book titled "10 tricks to tame the tarrasque" that's tossed into a trashbin, a series of  blowdarts in varied states of rust throughout the grass in what looks like a great campsite are all great things to let them find, but only let them find it if they look!

Information and Knowledge

Hinting at what is to come is a great tool for a Game Maestro. It doesn't work every time, hell it'll probably barely work half the time, but the moment your player picks up on something, you'll feel great. Learning that the monks use waterwheels to power their traps tells your  to prepare ways of making ice or stopping the water. Learning that the super lich has buried deep into the mountain tells them to take a lot of rations with them. Knowledge that informs their decisions is a great thing to hide in the environments that they go through. Stumbling on knowledge on accident can also be a really good tool to encourage that exploration. It tells players that paying attention to the world is something that they can benefit from, and then rewarding them when they go looking is a good way to hook them on your world.

Next up I'll be talking about making your game into your game with your own skills

Jaraha Ganhihi'u'ab, Falioru Kuke'a'ab

-Nirrum the Mad, Archbard of the College of Lore