[Torg] Possibilities: Better Results Now VS Character Advancement

[Benjamin Grant]

It's a cool and thought provoking idea, but if they have a subplot in play,
they would still agonize over whether to spend 3 possibilities that session
instead of two.

 

Here's a thought for everyone to comment on (if so moved) - I'm actually
thinking of maybe making Possibilties NOT be useful for skill ups (and
awarding less of them) and instead handling skill advancement some other
way.

 

What if possibilities were awarded as Act awards (2-3 or whatever), and
skill points were awarded as Arc awards (6-12)?  Or something like that?
Maybe it would also be permissible, perhaps, for skill points to be
converted into possibilities, but not the reverse?

 

On the other hand, I *have* had this idea about how raising skills could be
less about points and more about successful use and practice.  In other
words, no skill points at all - you simply have a small chance every time
you use a skill in a significant way (up to GM) to go up in it - perhaps
each significant use of the skill earns a checkmark, and each checkmark you
get makes it more likely you will skill up.

 

Or something.

 

-Benn Grant

 

From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com
[mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of winstoninabox
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 9:12 PM
To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
Subject: RE: [Torg] Possibilities: Better Results Now VS Character
Advancement

 


Benn,

It's not a game breaking problem, but it is a problem. Especially for
characters that are combat-based. As fighting is a major part of Torg the
party often relies on the big guns to make a difference, and so they more
often than others have to dip into their PP pools. 

What I did in my game was to make the Act PP awards only available to those
who had spent PPs during that ACT. I made a standing order of up to 2PP per
Act, depending on what the player had spent during the Act, so I only ever
had to mention an Act payout variation if it was going to be different from
2PP.

What this meant for the Act PP award was that if, during the Act, they
spent:
zero PP they received zero PP.
1 PP they received 1 PP.
2 PP or more they received 2PP.

For me this solved most issues, and I felt it even freed up play. When
players knew they weren't losing out to other players everyone spent PPs
more freely.

winstoninabox

  _____  

This seems an odd dichotomy to create.  Do we really want our players to
have to be self sacrificing to accomplish story goals?  Or to put it in a
more likely fashion, do we really want the players that hoard their
possibilities for self-advancement to be choosing to accept results that are
less desirable?

 

  _____  

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