"Ale and Whores" - looking for a more exciting action point mechanic

[Obergnom]

I'm currently researching houserules to add to our 4e gaming. after having played this game for 1.5 years without changing much, I think there are several things I would like to change.

In 3e we had an exciting rule for the acquisition of action points. Spending money on other things than combat gear gave you free action points.

We called this rule "Ale and whores" but it was also used for spending incredible amounts of money on fine clothing or building a fortress.

Any ideas out there how to handle something like that in 4e?

While writing this I had a first idea, maybe I could use the legendary boon rule for this?

 

[Dayspire]

Take a look at my Karma Points thread below. It was me looking for an alternative to Action Points that made my try and design something new. There hasn't been a lot of feedback on it unfortunately (perhaps I'm too verbose!).

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I guess the question is how would this work in practice? Most often when I need AP there isn't a convenient store nearby where I can buy stuff, lol.

 

[Eric Finley]

I'm working on something like this, but it's not fiinished yet. When it is, I'll post it here.

 

[malcolm_n]

I would expect you could do a similar method from the 3.5 campaign. When in town, you can spend extravagant amounts of money on fluff and that will translate into free action points. You're still limited to 1 action point per encounter, and gain a new action point at each milestone.

I would keep the "fluff" action points in a separate pool and let them roll over with new days, whereas the 1 point you get at the beginning of the day and for each milestone don't. To encourage continued use of action points, I'd say don't add 1 at the beginning of the day until the fluff pool is gone; but still add 1 at each milestone.

 

[Infiniti2000]

You don't need a store you just need a camp follower or two. Strangely, the characters who are two-pump chumps excel with this mechanic!

"Hold off the dragon for a round while I get me another action point!"

 

[Obergnom]

Hmm, I gave this some more thought, and I think AP just wont work without complication as a reward for sending money on random stuff in 4e. They are just to entrenched.

I really like the idea of using the alternate rewards system. Something allong the lines of: Spend lots of gold on ale (thats going to hurt ) gain this boon:



Pleased the Metal Gods

You spend all your money on ale and whores

Lvl 5 - 100gp
Lvl 10 - 400gp
Lvl 15 - 2000gp
Lvl 20 - 10000gp
Lvl 25 - 50000gp
Lvl 30 - 250000gp

You gain a dice pool. The number of dice in it depends on the level of the boon. Whenever you roll to attack, for damage or make a skill check, you may add one or more of the dice in the pool to that roll. You can only have this power once at a time, but if you spend all your dice, you can get the boon again.

Lvl 5 - 1d6
Lvl 10 - 2d6
Lvl 15 - 3d6
Lvl 20 - 4d6
Lvl 25 - 5d6
Lvl 30 - 6d6




This is a rough first draft. Of course, getting the later boons would require the characters to do more than buying ale...

 

[Cwheeler]

"You don't think my level 30 fighter could drink 250000gp worth of ale? Just you watch..."