Actions should have lasting consequences on the game world, both large and small. This can take many forms; some examples:
- NPCs recognize you and react to what they've heard about you, e.g. by cheering or fleeing in terror.
- Objects get built or destroyed. In the course of a quest, you could get NPCs to build a shrine or burn down a house, and the shrine or the charred ruins stay there for the rest of the game, a visible reminder of your influence on the world.
- Objects or even the landscape change depending on what you've done. You've helped a farmer against some bandits? Maybe his fields are in full bloom because of you. You've sided with the bandits, killed the farmer and plundered his belongings? The crops may wither and the animals may starve to death or perhaps the bandits move in and prove to be better farmers than the original one ever was
All of this provides the feeling of having achieved something and can even be a better reward than some XP and some gold.
