If you think one bonus is too little then maybe 2? We get one skill-bonus or PA today. Getting 3 would be fun!
Alternativly 2 bonuses for those who deliver in time and no bonus to the late.
Personally, I think a random +10 “bonus” is not a bonus at all. It’s potentially a liability. I hate it when I get a +10M “bonus” on a new emmie, unless it comes with a great skill rank on a movement spell. It’s useless and now costs me maintenance every turn.
If you can’t choose it, it is not an incentive.
The +500 artifact is a good idea, but I empathize with Clint’s point that they’d have to spend way too much time setting it up (and I think the whole goal of this is to reduce overhead & time)
Is extra starting gold an incentive? you bet. I would prefer that to the +10 skill.
Dave
I would give extra gold to the players on time. Easiest to implement.
+10 to a stat is nice only if you get to choose who and what skill rank it is.
If you really are looking for a few carrots – give them one turn of PC production in their PCs (think about the “extra time”) or give them a troop bonus say 50% more troops.
I liked the artifact idea, but I see how it might be difficult to implement. Maybe you could give them 2-3 random artifact numbers at game start - one step faster to acquiring some artifacts.
Mark F.
To make the carrot effect easier to implement there could be a box on the start up sheet (with the appropriate wording to say it is for early setups only) to allow the person to include their option with their initial setup … so they wouldn’t have to send in anything extra or delay the game any further by implementing this.
Gavin