What more HW stuff!?!

From: Pete Nash <pete_at_pipistrel.com>
Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 09:49:19 +0100


Back again to thank some people for their clarifications. Alex and Philip have been most enlightening.

Alex writes

> [linebreaks changed as a public service. ;-)]

One of these days I'll sort out my line widths!

> Now, don't quote me on this, but I thought that the idea was that you
> had to _pay_ to do this, in Plot Points? Then at the end of the
> adventure, you either pay some more points to be able to keep the
> ability For Real, or you don't and it evaporates. (To steal Robin's
> example, 7 of 9 ressurrects the dead one episode, but can't do so
> the next...)

Ahh. I must have missed the initial plot point cost. This would make more sense. (Although I still wouldn't use it myself)Alex then shows me that action points can be simply lost as well as transfered.

> It also can cause them to be "forfeited" (meaning lost entirely) (this

> is the "usual", but not invariable result of a Failure, in fact -- fie

> upon that table!), which is normally going to be much more common than

> them being gained outright. But yes, the above could happen, though
> it sounds a little contrived.

Oh! Would you be surprised to find out that this never happened in the demo I ran? ;-) Maybe because the PC's all had very good skills and almost never failed. Does this mean that a conflict involving high skilled characters would tend towards action point accumulation? (because they always succeed (won) or Succeed (lost) )

> Aside: if one spends a PP to improve a Failure to a Success, how is it

> determined whether you've won or lost the round? Bring back partial
> successes, I'm beginning to think... (See also my comment about being

> able to go from "Success (Loser)" to "Big Success" with one PP.)

Hmm. I found this a problem too. There is also the situation of natual rolled 20's vs bumped Criticals (if this is not what you are already pointing out). I had to assume that these were automatic draws.

My Whitewall example snipped.

> You're assuming that: a) there's _no_ limit on the PP stake (as
opposed
> by being allowed to bet a tad more than one has), and; b) that the
> CB doesn't have a level or two of Mastery up its tentacle.

I thought that there was no limit on how many action points a player character could bid, even if this meant going massively negative. Wasn't it only NPC's who were limited to how many they had left?

Philip also replies to my crimson bat query

> That lone hero can only spend one Plot Point on his die roll, and the
> Bat
> probably has a couple of levels of mastery on him. Makes a nice mental
>
> image, though.

Ok. A single plot point ceiling would reduce the potential abuse. But I can still see the situation arrising between two characters of equal mastery when the foe has built up a very large resovoire of action points from defeating the player's allies, and friends.

By the way. Do NPC's have plot points too? It would be nice to make some big enemies resistant to the spending of plot points. And in fact make weaker NPC's able to harm the players...

Pete


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