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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bilharzia" data-source="post: 8075650" data-attributes="member: 6970322">Luck Points can work well in a system that is typically lethal, but you're right that the balance is delicate. Older RuneQuest had the reputation of being ridiculously lethal where limbs would go flying every fight, while this might be fairly realistic it could be grim for players. The game got around this by having powerful magic, from magical armour to healing spells which could re-attach limbs, this is the approach RuneQuest in Glorantha takes, which does not have luck points. This is ok for highly magical campaign settings, not so great for other settings. RQ6/Mythras luck points in my experience have worked. They are useful enough to alleviate the potential lethality of dangerous combats but not make the game so easy players are blase. This can vary from group to group though since you might decide to let luck points regenerate between adventure or between sessions, or allow group luck points and not just PC luck points. The Mythras game Odd Soot has the interesting idea of using 'negative' luck points which a player can call on if they run out of luck points, going into negative luck means the GM gains luck points of their own to use at a later time.There's an interesting twist with Mythras luck points in the way they can manipulate the dice. Since it's a d100 system you can use luck points to reverse a roll so that a roll of 60 can be reversed into a 06, which could make it into a critical depending on the PC's skill. This is in addition to using points to re-roll or save a character from a lethal wound, or take a heroic extra action.This is certainly very close to my thoughts. I much prefer a style where the outbreak of combat is rare and where the detail counts. If you're used to dungeon bashes and several melees in a single game session you are going to find detailed combat a real pain, people who prefer abstraction and speed can accommodate a lot more fighting than if they are playing a detailed system. It comes down to whether you care about whether that bandit helmet will fit you, it's the right size? oh great, I'm scavenging that, or whether you are in range to throw that hatchet and choose where it hits, should I shift my shield ward to cover my wounded leg, is it worth learning to use a javelin to disable shields or can I find a teacher to learn to use a 2h axe? In more high-powered or high-magic style games my sense is that detailed combat becomes less important because other things take over, whether it is superpower-like abilities, or equipment or the existence of the dominance of magic, it's likely the smaller tactical nuances are going to be lost or treated as unnecessary detail.</blockquote>

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