I have a party that have taken up sneaking past guards and avoiding traps and thus not getting encounter XP.
They all first time D&D players but long time boardgamers so they picked it up quite fast. They don't want experience to minimize the need for numbers in the game and it would be easier for me not have to bother with XP.
However, even though they are newbies, they are coming up with roleplaying moments, brilliant tactical ideas, ingenious solutions to puzzles & other such bonus worthy acts. I used to reward them with bonus XP based on the awesomeness factor but since we're no longer using XP, I need to reward them some other way.
They don't need it, they didn't ask for it, I am just encouraging an already existing phenomenon. I have thought of them waking up with a bag of money from the gods but it breaks immersion (seeing how the gods are dead and all).
I have then thought of a "bonus budget" which players can meta purchase things such as rerolls, healing or shop discounts but I have neither the time nor the experience to balance such a thing.
Does any of you know of such a reward system?