So I was completely unprepared for my group's latest Deathwatch session; I have been too busy with work to develop an in-depth and interesting plot and the location we left off at the previous session was limiting (locked in underground tunnels) with regards to freedom of movement and action. I feel bad, so I think for our next session, I am going to spice things up in accordance with some fun real-life Holiday traditions.
To treat them for their patience, and to mix things up, I think I am going to have a white elephant gift exchange with in-game prizes/curses. Here are the some of the things I have brainstormed so far:
BONUSES
-a requisition purity seal - grants permanent +20 requisition
-a bonus XP seal - grants permanent +10% bonus XP
-a follower (most likely will be a serf or one of the floating skulls)
-+1500 XP
-2 free advanced skills
-1 armor upgrade (battle damage, legendary, etc.)
-really rare, awesome grenade (like a vortex grenade)
CURSES
-a +10 corruption/session curse. I would develop some sort of sidestory for the group to do in order to stop the curse and undo the corruption gained on that individual.
-become hunted sporadically
-Mystery curse. For this one, I would just tell the player that he/she is cursed and would randomly have bad things happen to them. This would be more for fun and I would probably never have it negatively affect their in-game performances.
Really, my intent with this is to just have fun and to see how the players pick and steal from each other. I only have five players, so not all of the bonuses/curses would be used, but I want there to some variation in the bonuses and I don't want to force anyone to have a curse (unless they keep it if they've drawn it).
I already sent out a mass-text to my players to give them a heads up, and it was fun to listen to their excitement (and their complaining--some of them think I'm too harsh of a GM ). Anyways, has anyone else tried something like this? Let me know what you think!