[Torg] Awards

Mon Feb 23 11:47:35 EST 2009

"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)."

Oh really - I missed that part - upon checking the rules more closely, it
does indeed say that:

"Glory cards can only be played in rare circumstances. If a character rolls
a 60 or more on an action that has a major impact on a dramatic scene, his
player may play this card."

I had always, apparently incorrectly, permitted Glories for *any* action in
*any* scene where the roll was 60 or more.  Narrowing in on *only* actions
where it is a *dramatic* scene, and it has a *major* impact, would make the
number of Glories far fewer.

This may, more or less, answer most of my concerns about over-rewarding
players.

-Benn Grant

eFix Computer Consulting

benn at 4eFix.com

603.283.6601

From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com
[mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of Chris
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 9:54 PM
To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
Subject: Re: [Torg] Awards

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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