[Torg] Possibilities: Better Results Now VS Character Advancement

[Benjamin Grant]

I just had a conversation with one of my players about this, who had this to
say: He thinks that the more success he has in game, the more reward he
should get.  Or to be more specific, if he spends 5 possibilties over the
course of a session to succeed at various in game conflicts, that his skill
advancement should not have to suffer, but should instead be rewarded.

Put another way, he feels that it feels wrong to him to have to sacrifice
character advancement in order to have more success in the story - he
instead feels that success in the story should generate *more* character
advancement, not less.

He *is* a huge player of DnD I should mention, so is used to (and prefers) a
more wargmaing style rpg, and not so much story driven gaming.  However, I
only run story-driven rpgs and am a big believer in GM's choice.

In counter point, *I* said that one valid perspective is that possibilities
are player resources that can do several things.  One use of this resources
is to have a direct, artificial, and momentary effect on the success of
one's character.  The reward for this use is the in game accomplishment's of
your character, not even more points.

As an example, let's say it's a Star Trek style setting, and the character
is trying to appease and befriend a subordinate who has an axe to grind.  He
knows that the subordinate is starting Hostile to him, so he knows he needs
a good roll.  His Charm Skill Total is 13 pre-roll.  He rolls and 11, for a
BV of +0.  Now this player is in a quandary - he wants his character's Charm
to be effective, but he is so heavily focused on skill advancement that
every possibility he spends he feels as one more extra step to get to his
skill level goals.  This is when the players start talking to me (the GM)
saying that in DnD one gets XP rewards for defeating bad guys in an
encounter, one does not have to sacrifice skill advancement to accomplish
the encounter goals.

I see where he is coming from.  My take on it is that DnD and TORG have
fundamentally different goals, not just different implementations.

With DnD, you don't have any Hero Points, I don't think. In any case, DnD's
main goal seems to be the pursuit of XP awards, within the context of a
story.  It is a very quantified game, which makes me think of it being more
akin to wargaming.

With Torg, you are given the option of spending resources to moderate the
effect of randomness on your character's actions.  The clear implication is,
I think, that you would only do so when the result mattered enough to you to
make it compelling.  In other words, with Torg, the success in the story
*itself* is the primary reward, with character advancement being the vehicle
for character growth and expansion in a much wider way than mere stats.

Now I offered to this player that I would be willing to find a new and
separate skill advancement system, so that he would not have to agonize over
whether he should hoard or spend his possibilities, if he asked me to.  I
also warned him that I did not think that this would fix his overall issue
here - that even if his possibilities could not be used for skill
advancement, he would still agonize over whether or not to use them now or
save them for use later on a different roll.

Ultimately, he seems to be having issues with the idea of the main reward
for success being the victory itself, although he also always gets his 6-12
possibilities per arc of course.  He seems to think his award should be
encounter based instead of adventure based.  He is very concerned that some
adventures he may feel like he has to spend more possibilities in order to
achieve success than others.

I think, in the final analysis, that his greatest problem is being
overdependent on the overly mechanical nature of DnD, and then not having as
exact parameters to game against.

What do you guys think about these perspectives?  Is TORG as it seems to
both my player and I not really conducive to the playstyle that focuses
mainly on skill advancement?

-Benn Grant