So I recently rediscovered the quest vault and have been busy making my own custom campaign. However, I can't seem to come up with a good solution to the problem of quest rewards. The usual standby is giving the heroes gold and the overlord XP, but that's hardly exciting or creative. The official campaigns reward unique overlord cards, relics and lieutenant bonuses, all of which seem cheap to reuse for a custom campaign since players will have already seen it before.

There's one or two quests in the Shadow Rune campaign that if the overlord wins, he has the option to use shadow dragons for any quest for the remainder of the campaign, which is a pretty interesting idea, but other than that I'm having a hard time coming up with quest rewards for my campaign. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Honestly, you're going to have to re-use Relics if you want to award relics at all, so you might just have to go with that. With some expansions, there's plenty of options, though, and I do have the vague recollection that there are a few relics that aren't part of any pre-existing quest, such as the Trueshot Bow, but I might be mistaken.

Another option that I haven't seen in the base game would be to give out actual shop items, or allow them to pull a search card for their next encounter.

Maybe a treasure trove-orientented adventure, or with a treasure trove or vault at the end, allowing them to pull two extra search cards to use in the next encounter (after which they'll get the gold as usual) along with getting the Treasure Chest Search Card, allowing them to pull a random item? That in itself is a pretty powerful reward, easily on-par with any random relic. My group got the treasure chest as a regular search card and instantly got an item worth 200 gold. Maybe it'll just be 75. The randomness is part of the fun.

You could also award flat bonuses to the Overlord. An arachnid-focused quest that he wins, he may now field any arachnid monster (Bane Spiders, Cave Spiders, Arachyura) regardless of traits. Or maybe a goblin-focused adventure ends up awarding all Goblin Witchers with the Scamper Special Ability and all Goblin Archers get 2x Surge Curse. After a necromancy/fire ritual quest, zombies lose Shambling and if they succeed on a Grab, the Hero also gains the Burning condition; they essentially become "Burning Zombies" or something.

Or maybe the Overlord could gain an ability to give any one monster group 1x Surge to put Burning on someone. Or Poison, for that matter, after winning a quest based around the Overlord gaining control over some alchemical process or farming a bunch of poisonous leaves.

That's a possible reward for Heroes too. After a quest, the heroes must choose one weapon that the group owns; that weapon gains 1x Surge Curse or Poison or Burning or whatever.

One thing I think could be cool would be to give any one hero a certain skill card, regardless of their class, but it'd necessitate considering a number of possible options, considering that you don't know what classes are already in play. Such as giving any one hero Sneaky, Ghost Armor, Peaceful Rest or Drain Spirit, present classes excluded. This'd amount to some interesting effects, but at the same time amount to only one experience point that'd have to be assigned to one of the heroes. In my head (for the reward discussed) this'd be for a quest involving both Shades and Phantoms, and an appropriate award for the Overlord might be to give both Shades and Phantoms Fly, for example.

Just some thoughts.

I've dealt with this a bit in my own custom campaigns. Luckmann is right- the only relics that exist are relics that have been awarded before- the best you can do is come up with a different, interesting backstory for it.

There are also several OL reward cards (Secrets of the Flesh, etc) which are fun to give out, as well as corrupt citizen cards from Nerekhall. I only use the "use this monster group anytime" or "never use this monster group again" sparingly, as that can really influence the way the campaign plays from here on out.

Remember that you can also be creative with your victory conditions, not just your rewards. For example, check out my quest "Blackwing Swamp." There are two sets of awards based on what happens during the quest, but also determined by a choice the OL makes about how the second encounter plays.

Enjoy the vault!

(Also, while I'm glad you're interested in the vault, there is a subforum specifically for it).

These are some very nice ideas. Here are some things which have been done in the regular campaigns (besides Gold and XP):

- Receiving a relic. (Heroes and Overlord)

- Allowing certain monsters as open groups regardless of quest specific traits. (Overlord)

- Allowing XP Redustribution. (Overlord)

- Removing certain Lieutenants from a campaign finale. (Heroes)

- Gaining an ally. (Heroes, LoR specific)

- Receiving ally skills (Heroes, LoR specific)

- Playing a certain quest as follow up. (Heroes and Overlord)

- Receiving certain Overlord cards as reward (Overlord)

- Gaining certain Lieutenants for a campaign finale (Overlord)

- Gaining "Corrupt Citizen" cards (Overlord)

- Banning certain monster groups from the Finale. (Heroes)

There are also a lot of effects, which come into play by winning an act II rumor follow up quest. These are of course tied to certain expansions, but they can provide interesting effects, and are usually not seen very often.

Thanks for all the great suggestions guys! I'll definitely be using a lot of them in some way or another.

(Also, while I'm glad you're interested in the vault, there is a subforum specifically for it).

Heh, I was going to post there, but its description was "A place to discuss the quest vault" which I didn't think this fit into. Oops!

Could always give the heroes shop items as well.

Could be lazy and award them the treasure chest and let them draw a free item from the shop deck.

Or, you could pick specific shop items; possibly from Act II when they're in Act I to avoid the cases where they've already purchased them.

Would have to be careful this so as not to make them too overpowered.

Could give the OL a specific OL skill (tier III) that there's no way they would have been able to purchase up until that point.

Could also do some simpler things that give them a perk in the next quest but not a long term advantage.

E.g. heroes start with a health potion, or warding talisman at the start of the next quest. They could get the gold from it at the end as normal too if you want to add a more permanent reward.

This would be good for giving a reward that feels significant, but doesn't sway the balance too much.

Could also remove a monster from the starting limits for the next quest too. Again, an advantage doesn't does sway the balance long term.

So instead of 5 spiders in the next quest, the OL starts with 3 or 4. Wouldn't affect group limits for reinforcements so it may not be a massive disadvantage for OL.

For the OL side, they could add one or two monsters from an additional monster group (can keep it specific too if you like). E.g. If the OL wins, he gets two extra zombies in the next quest.

Just a few quick ideas off the top of my head

(1) Can reward with extra Threat tokens or Fortune tokens. They have high utility as long as OL has a Plot deck.

Following only works for 3-hero games:

(2) Can change a monster group limit for the next encounter, based on the monster card. For example, heroes lose quest in a 3-hero game. Next encounter, 1 of the monster groups (specified or open, depends on your ruling) use the 4-hero limit for the entire encounter. If you specify zombies or something, or if the group has no reinforcements, it's not that huge a deal.

(3) Similarly, the Lieutenant which appears next can use its higher or lower tier stats, depending on who won previously.