Core materials: Action Points and Insider

[Geron Raveneye]

So, would realism be chocolate, and fun is peanut butter? Or is it realism is peanut butter, and fun is chocolate? I always get confused by these food metaphors.

And if one is peanut butter, is it the chunky or the smooth kind?

 

[hong]

"You got your chunky peanut butter in my smooth peanut butter!"

Hmm. It'll never work.

 

[SavageRobby]

I'm an old school guy an abhorred the idea of Action Points when I first read about them. Then I played Savage Worlds, with its sister-mechanic Bennies. In Savage Worlds you can use them to Soak damage (avoid some or all wounds from blows), to un-Shake (a wound condition similar to stunned), and to reroll certain rolls (skills, attacks, etc). We also use them to add a flat bonus to rolls - a bigger bonus if you declare the Benny use prior to the roll, a smaller bonus if you choose to use it afterwards.

As both a player and a DM, I think Bennies rock. My players do cool, heroic things they might not try otherwise, because they have a small safety net they can use to weigh the odds in their favor when trying them. Makes the game more fun.

Heck, I imported the mechanic into C&C, and will import it or something similar into most any game system I ever run.

 

[DonTadow]

I am not sure I like the implication that action points are core. I do not like action points. I do not find them useful for the game. I have used them in other system and found they just added mechanical mess with no real, positive effect on the game other than to shield players from bad choices or bad rolls. I hope that it will be eaiser to excise them from the game.

I also do not like the implication that D&D Insider is core. There is a reason that some DMs prefer to limit the amount of material in their game. I do not consider this a DM-friendly move. I can already hear players demanding items in their game because "Wizards" says that it is core. I find this highly annoying. DMs run the games that sell products. Why make our lives more difficult?

Eh, don't use them then. I have had nothing but positive effects from action points, but I don't want to retread about a dozen arguments we've all had here about action points. A brief history on action point discussions
Benefits
- Allows players to escape bouts of extremely bad luck
- Allows for player to perform extreme heroic actions
- Players are less likely to die.

Negatives
- an additional resource to manage
- players are less likely to die