Let's Talk About Character Resources To Power Abilities

[Micah Sweet]

Why change anything, we have DMs for a reason. Make the call, move on and getting the game rolling.

Precedent. One you make the call, it becomes a rule for that circumstance. Like science. For consistency you have to write it down.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't understand. If there's no rule that defines how Int 5 has to be presented, then how is there a disconnect between roleplaying and mechanics if somebody interprets it in a surprising way?

I get that in your opinion a 5 Int has a certain meaning, but that makes the disconnect between your expectations and the player's, not between the roleplaying and the rules.

In other words, maybe it just bugs you, and you don't want that at your table because it interferes with your conception of how things should be. That's fine. But I think you're interpreting your own opinion as objective, as something that's defined by the game.

I've never had a player decide to portray an ability score in a way that made no sense to me, so I don't know what to tell you. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a "surprising" interpretation in yours or anyone else's game, but in my game it has to make sense to me. I've had folks explain their reasoning to me in the past, as that's been fine so long as I can make setting logic out of whatever they're trying to do.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I've never had a player decide to portray an ability score in a way that made no sense to me, so I don't know what to tell you. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a "surprising" interpretation in yours or anyone else's game, but in my game it has to make sense to me. I've had folks explain their reasoning to me in the past, as that's been fine so long as I can make setting logic out of whatever they're trying to do.

Yeah, as long as you're acknowledging the subjective aspect, I don't have a beef with what you're saying.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, as long as you're acknowledging the subjective aspect, I don't have a beef with what you're saying.

My claims are always subjective. If my rhetoric suggested otherwise, I apologize.

 

[aramis erak]

My general preference is for Spells to be spell point gated; I dislike the D&D spell slots (and always have, especially after getting RoleMaster).
I don't mind unlimited but rolled for uses

That is super interesting. How common is it for the characters and the scenes to be aligned?

I wouldn't know, but it isn't relevant. You choose whichever is most severe to determine what status you use.

It's fairly common for one or two PCs to be a step below the scene, sometimes 2 (which oft means scene yellow PC in black/out)

You don't, IMO.

Or you have one fail = loss condition... such as savage worlds minor characters - they're up, they're down, or they're off the table. You don't have a resource to track off-table - but the numeric resource is the number of foes themselves (clearly tracked on the table). Up or down is on table tracking, so technically an expendable point.

Chess would beg to differ with both of these posts....

Not really - Pawns are expendables. Knights, Rooks, and bishops are also expendables, but of more value. Attritional play is a valid (if poor) strategy. Taken as a whole, chess is very much about expendable pieces.

- When was the last time you spent/used up a resource in game and thought "Spending that really made the scene I roleplayed better!" (Asset like in Dune, or Plot Point like in Cortex, or Spell Slot like in D&D, Vitae in vampire, etc, etc)

Last session... Player spent a drama point to defeat a xenomorph (Cinematic Mode Alien).

I've long thought that random cooldowns (e.g. you roll a die at the beginning of your turn to see if you can use an ability again) would be fun in terms of gameplay....except for keeping track of which abilities are on cooldown, and all the extra dice rolling. Advancement could be reducing the cooldown (smaller die, or wider range on the same die).

If somebody could think of a simple & elegant way to manage cooldowns...supporting each character potentially having multiple cooldowns with different odds...I'd be all over it.

Tokens on cards. WFRP3. Not as fun as it sounds but, yes, it can be fun.

I will never find it less odd that 99% of all RPG talk is really just "Wargaming". So much fuss over combat, healing, attacks, etc etc.

I came to RPGs after wargames, and for me, D&D specifically is a press your luck dungeon penetration wargame, much as described in AD&D DMG and in Moldvay Basic - actual in-character play has never been a defining part of play of D&D for me, from 1980 on. I see many dungeon fantasy games as simply wargames with linking narrative - especially Daggerheart and D&D, but also Palladium Fantasy, and WFRP 1-3 (I've not run WFRP 4 - didn't like it at the read stage - too much off-map tracking).
I prefer there be more, but linked battles alone work fine for me as enjoyable gaming. Part of why I don't see issues running Car Wars, Battlestations!, or even W40K:RT as RPGs using RAW.

It would be fun to see some kinda chart that showed just how much time was spent in combat.

Depending upon setting, for me as a GM, it varies from 30% to 90% of session. Less in L5R, Traveller, and Star trek, more in Star Wars and Daggerheart, D&D 5 was pushing 90%-95%.
Note that story progress is often much lower for combat than non-combat, so in memory, the combat feels less dominant.

 

[Umbran]

It's fairly common for one or two PCs to be a step below the scene, sometimes 2 (which oft means scene yellow PC in black/out)

I would imagine the most overall accurate answer is, "Depends on how hard you press the characters."

 

[aramis erak]

I would imagine the most overall accurate answer is, "Depends on how hard you press the characters."

It also depends heavily upon how hard the players themselves push. Taking damage from a complication in order to do a double action can really beat down a PC's condition... and is entirely upon the player for pushing and accepting the negotiation for a damage complication.

Or for using self-damaging specials, such as Rad Blaster using his blaster in (Y) Heedless Blast (attack, Does Mid to multiple targets, does mid to self), and pushing it by a complication to use max for all instead... on d10 Nuclear, d10 Ranged Combat, and D8 yellow or d10 red. Or to use mid and do a min defend to reduce his damage but advance the scene tracker while doing mid to all. When he did a heedless plus tracker for max vs all, they called it "Going Nuclear"... and it ended several scenes with finality.