[Torg] Simpler card-play and p-points

[Travis James Hall]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com 
> [mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of Phil Dack
> Sent: Thursday, 25 February 2010 10:59 PM
> 
> Cards as ppoints
> Ppoints represent your maximum card deck. To spend a ppoint, 
> you discard any card and reduce your Deck size by one.
> You have potentially 3 piles of cards making up your Deck: 
> Hand, Pool and Potential. If you play a card, you immediately 
> pick one up and add it face down to your Potential. That way, 
> you always maintain the same overall Deck size, but some of 
> the cards aren't useable until you take an action that allows 
> you to add a card to your hand as usual.
> Consequence - less written book keeping, but more cards lying 
> around the place. Risk of confusion?

Well, I'm confused, so I'd say the risk of confusion is definitely there.
Though, that might be more your explanation than the actual mechanics.

I gather you are trying to use a pile of cards, called Potential, to act as
a count of available Possibilities. Right? And you just want to eliminate
the written book-keeping and keep Possibilities otherwise mechanically
similar.

If that's what you are trying to do, it seems to me that you'd be better off
getting yourself some glass gaming beads (like are used for a lot of CCGs)
and using them for Possibilities. I've seen the same done for a lot of
games' equivalents of Possibilities, and it works quite well.

Using cards as markers for this as well as other stuff just means more
chances for cards to get in the wrong place. If you've got different
markers, there's very little chance of confusion.

> Considering: to play a ppoint, card must come from Hand, not 
> Pool or Potential?

If you are wanting to assess an extra cost for using a Possibility, you
could do this. However, doesn't this effectively mean you are implementing a
rule that says that every card can be used as a Hero card?

> Cards as combat maneuvers
> No more vital blows. If you want to do a vital blow, you have 
> to build your pool up with appropriate cards.
> Aim/brace maneuvers become null actions that allow a player 
> to play into their pool.
> Active Defences remain as standard.
> Consequence - removes slow combat decision making (and for my 
> group, this was a BIG issue!). However, what about NPCs? Non-prateds?

If you remove maneuvers, you will either have to increase the availability
of cards, or accept more straight "I attack" declarations. Is that
acceptable to your group?

Also consider that you have eliminated a total of two options, out of all
the options that are available. The other changes haven't reduced the number
of options, just changed how they are implemented, and the new
implementation isn't really simpler. You have to ask yourself whether that
will really make a big difference to your group, and the time they take to
play.

> Considering: Some maneuvers have a negative penalty, usually 
> to attack or defend. Replicate this by allowing a player to 
> play a card straight from their hand in return for a -2 penalty?

This adds another option back in. If you are hoping to simplify the
decision-making process by reducing the number of options, this will take
you back where you started.

Not that this type of mechanic is necessarily bad, mind you. I think it
could have some very interesting consequences for gameplay. I'm just not at
all sure it is likely to produce the specific effect you are looking for:
speeding up play.

> Considering: Major NPCs still use maneuvers and ppoints? 
> Minor NPCs cannot use combat maneuvers?

I gather you are the GM. Is your speed at issue at all?

> Considering: Any card can be played as a +2 Action or +2 
> Effect total, as well as it's written effect?

Again, adding another option back in.

> I'm convinced that this kind of route is the right way to go, 
> but I'm not sure how to make it as clean and elegant as I 
> want. BAsically, I want to remove 1 element of 
> decision-making (Action, Card, Maneuver, Ppoints) and given 
> that you can't really remove Action and I love Cards, it only 
> leaves the manevuers! Wrapping cards and ppoints together is 
> just a bonus!

Something that 4th Edition D&D has done right - and you won't hear me
talking about things D&D4 has done right often, so mark this momentous
occasion - has been to put combat options on cards. It really does help
people keep track of what options they have available.

You may find that you can help your players simply by making up a set of
maneuver cards. Give everyone a set of maneuver cards, and they just lay out
the ones they use when their action comes around. Just having the info
readily available right in front of them may help them make their decisions
faster.

Travis Hall