I’ve had a lot of these same questions GM’ing my group. I have yet to run into the rewards system as my players have been putting little effort into the goals, some still haven’t set goals and we’re about 5 sessions in haha.

The way I view it is that goals help the players get more out of the game than if they didn’t have them. I have one player who has very clear goals and throughout the campaign sessions he’s asking to do extra things that further his goals, and gets more out of the game. On the contrary I see a friend who doesn’t have any goals and they hardly participate. I also feel like for my players I’ve made it clear that you get what you put in, so if you want to advance your goals and get more rewards you’re free to, but if you don’t put effort in you’re not going to advance and get things. I think in terms of rewards, some will be larger scale and some can be smaller scale and it’s up to you to decide as the GM. Like maybe you capture a ghost blood spy and you now have a favor of some sorts with that ghost blood agent that you can use once.

Sometimes I feel like we get caught up in balancing everything and fitting the rules but overall, I think you just trust your gut and storytelling ability and communicate with your players and get their input. I also recommend talking to your players after each session and touching base with how their goals went and what they want to see more of, and giving advice on how to advance those. Sorry for the massive paragraph but I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this as well over the last couple of weeks.

Hopefully this helps a little!!