[Torg] Awards

[Chris]

My ridiculously short response to this is: Not every session need have (or
does have) dramatic encounters (which is the only time glory can be played).
It doesn't match my own experiences, and as for why, I think it is because
while it may be the most efficient way to secure yourself more possibilities
later, it can really hinder you in the mean time when you find out that you
need an Adrenalin right before a fight starts, or to chase down a baddy for
story purposes.
That being said, you could have players saving up their three hero/drama +
glory for a dramatic encounter that won't happen for another session or two.
I know that when I get hero/drama cards, I hold them because they are
useful, and only when a glory surfaces, do we even think about hording the
free possibilities for the glory. Until that time, most of the group we have
will freely use hero and drama cards, though we try to save the dramas until
absolutely needed.

Another difference I see is that I don't believe we get per session awards
with our group, though they may be factored in later when we get our
adventure/act rewards. When we get the act awards, they are usually around
5-10, depending. As for the adventure reward, we get around 15-25 each,
depending on glories, dramas, subplots, etc. I think I had 2-3 dramas at the
last adventure completion, a subplot, maybe something else, and it rewarded
me with about 21P, if I remember correctly. And that may have been the
highest.

As far as whether HP is less abusable than the deck, though, the answer is
that it depends on the situations faced in the session, length of session,
and the like. It should be easy enough to prevent random use of cards to get
new cards outside of encounters, though. If a character is walking down the
block, or driving a car, and wants to use a card to make them do something
interesting with no purpose (not even for its background), don't allow the
card to be used, or allow it to be used, and don't replace it.


-chris


2009/2/22 Benjamin Grant <benn at 4efix.com>

>  How many possibility awards do you see given out in general?  (Assuming
> that I am not the only person in a regular weekly torg game or three.)
>
>
>
> Possibility sources:
>
>
>
> Per session: Session Awards+Subplots
>
> Per Arc/Adveture: Arc Awards + Glories + Dramas.
>
>
>
> It seems to me than when using the actual drama deck, if one is willing to
> put the effort into it, one can manipulate the cards (by "using" them up on
> ancillary rolls) getting a "perfect" set – one Glory, and three
> Hero/Dramas.  Using that set-up, one can roll one's dice, add a possibility
> reroll, add up to 3 more rerolls from the Hero/Drama cards – that's a single
> roll followed by 4 rolls each of which must be at least a "10" and each of
> which yields an average of about 13.  If we roll an 11 (average) to start
> with, followed by 4 13's, that's 11+13+13+13+13 = 63, more than enough to
> play the Glory.  And if for some reason we fail to hit 60 through unlucky
> rolls, we can ask a fellow player to use a card like Leadership to play
> another Hero/Drama or two into our pool.  Or if that doesn't work, we can
> simply give up and rebuild our hand, trying again.
>
>
>
> Long story short, every player benefit from a Glory roll – every time **
> any** player gets a Glory result, **all** players get +3 possibilities at
> the Adventure award.  With intelligent players, one would imagine that they
> would encourage each of them to get as many as possible, and to help each
> other do so when possible.
>
>
>
> If putting in the card manipulation effort, it would not surprise me to see
> two Glories a session occur with four players – maybe even with three.  (Of
> course, this requires significant card grinding, and also means not having
> the cards/resources available for other things like rescuing the princess…)
> With four player (let's say) and two glories per session, that's 6 extra
> possibilities per player per session.
>
>
>
> That seems like a lot.  However, the card stack is a never ending resource,
> and so long as you use up a card and are not in round by round, you get an
> immediate new card, right?
>
>
>
> Now the group that gets two glories per session would be by definition
> almost a pedantic grindy group starying far from staying focused on the
> narrative to churn the cards for the glories, but **mechanically** that is
> not illegal play, yes?
>
>
>
> So if we figure a 6 session adventure, 2 Glories per session, that's 12
> Glories or 36 extra possibilities **per player** at the end of the arc.
> With four players, that's 144 **extra** possibilities that the group gets.
>
>
>
> It seems to me that with the rules as written and some moderate effort and
> intelligence, it would not be hard to get half that amount, or 72
> possibilities for the group (18 per player) at the end of an arc.  Does this
> match anyone's experiences?  If not, why do you think that is?
>
>
>
> Now, as I have mentioned before, we do not use the drama deck – instead we
> use Hero Points (HP), of which you get three at the start of each session,
> and they only last one session.  This means that the most you can do to try
> to get a glory is use a roll, a possibility, 2 HP as rerolls, saving the
> last HP as a Glory card.  That's an average of 10 + 13(possy) + 13 + 13 (HP
> as rerolls) = 49, not enough for a glory.  This means that glories are
> harder to get with Hero Points instead of the drama deck – mostly since the
> Drama Deck is an unlimited resource, but you only get 3 HP per session, and
> any HP not used at end of session is lost.
>
>
>
> Does this mean that our HP instead of the Drama Deck approach is less
> abusable for farming Glories and Possibilities?
>
>
>
> -Benn Grant
>
> eFix Computer Consulting
>
> benn at 4eFix.com
>
> 603.283.6601
>
>
>
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