[Torg] Possibility Spending

[Benjamin Grant]

>>> :: After a roll, you can choose to spend a possibility for
>>> a reroll.  Any opponent can choose to spend a possibility
>>> to cancel the possibility you just spent.  You then may
>>> spend one further possibility for a reroll which cannot
>>> be cancelled. ::
>>
>>At the end of the day it's your game, go with what's best for you. It
>>strikes me as something important that hasn't been considered is Cards.
>>Do you play with cards? The reason this is important is that cards
>>duplicate ppoints - the player with a Hero/Drama card in his pool
>>already has a way of spending a possibility after his initial
>>possiblity has been countered.

We do not play with cards.  Instead each player gets three Hero Points at the start of each session which are only good for that session.  You can spend a hero point for any card effect except Subplots, Escape, Drama, and some other ones like Seize Initiative.

However, one can run out of Hero Points, and we frequently do, unlike cards that cannot be run out of, as eventually one gets to refill one's hand multiple times per session.  Plus I think that if one character gets to counter another, the original character should have the ability to counter the counter for fairness's sake.

>>> :: In any scene with a major conflict, the villains' side
>>> should have a fixed number of possibilities that that side
>>> has access to, depending on the dramatic quality of the scene.
>>> All scenes involving possibility rated villains are dramatic,
>>
>>I'm not sure why this should be the case? I certainly don't implement
>>this. It might be a good rule of thumb, but it's not a given. Take the
>>scene in the Possibility Chalice Trilogy where the PCs fight a
>>cyberknight (deVries, I think he's called). He's p-rated, but I'm
>>pretty sure from memory that it's a Standard scene. And quite right
>>too.
>>
>>> but some are epic, movie-ending kind of scenes.
>>
>>Now THEY'RE the Dramatic scenes! If a scene isn't dramatic, it isn't
>>Dramatic!!

I am beginning to agree with you - having a p-rated opponent does not necessarily a dramatic scene make.  If we embrace that idea, that dramatic scenes are the really big ones that do not occur every session, then I would say that in a non dramatic scene the villains' side gets an allotment of X possibilities where X is the number of possibility rated characters on the hero's side.  In a dramatic scene the allotment would be tripled.

>>
>>> Of course, I suppose the GM could simply house rule
>>> that out, so that just because we are fighting a super
>>> we aren't necessarily having what Torg calls a dramatic
>>> scene.
>>
>>Opposite I'm afraid. You've house-ruled this yourself! I checked the
>>wording of v1.5 and there's no guidance there that suggests this. Maybe
>>the boxed-set Adventure book has something more solid though, i don't
>>have that to hand.

I am confused by your response.  I thought you were just demonstrating that having a possibility rated villain does not necessarily make it a dramatic scene?

>>
>>
>>> So I guess I would like to know if anyone thinks if using
>>> the above rules and ideas will cause our group any problems?
>>> If so, what and why, and what might be the solutions?
>>
>>I don't like being an old curmudgeon, but your changes seem unnecessary
>>and complicated, that will lead to slowing combat down. I'd stick with
>>card play, enhanced if necessary, and go back to using mostly Standard
>>scenes.
>>
>>Phil

I guess my ideas may make more sense in the light of the absence of card use.  I do not see how the changes I am considering greatly influence combat speed?  But I thank you for your insight and for evaluating my ideas.

-Benn Grant
eFix Computer Consulting
benn at 4eFix.com
603.283.6601