Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="rjs" data-source="post: 3138205" data-attributes="member: 16164">By the RAW, one Fate Point spares one character. You're absolutely right about the downward spiral. I think this is true for any RPG though. Encounters tend to be built for X number of characters and with each death, the combat becomes one degree harder, so I don't think this is a problem unique to WFRP, nor do I think it's one with an easy answer. In my games, when a character burns a Fate Point, he's done for the encounter, spared by some incredible stroke of luck. However, the more I think about this, the less I'm convinced about its worth. As you pointed out, spending a Fate Point does nothing to assist the group, but more importantly, it tells that player to go "sit in the corner" while the rest of the action plays out. This isn't fun for two reasons: a player has nothing to do and loses interest in the encounter and the rest of the group is left a man/woman short. In one sense, this is a good lesson for players; it teaches them to run away when the chips are down, which as Joe pointed out a couple of pages back, is a good strategy for this (and any gritty) game. And because the character spent a Fate Point, he's going to survive the encounter no matter what, so odds are, he'll be able to rejoin his allies later.The problem with just letting the Fate Point blanket protect all the characters is that one of the balancing factors for elves, and to a lesser extent dwarfs, is that these characters have fewer Fate Points. If a FP expenditure can save the entire party's bacon, then these characters are not nearly as penalized as they should be. So, I don't really have a good answer, though rest assured, I'm thinking about it. Here are some variant uses you might try: One thing you might try is to let a character spend a Fate Point to negate a Critical Hit, but stay on his feet and keep fighting. Or, you could allow characters to spend a Fortune Point or Fate Point (if you're cruel like me) to instantly regain a number of Wounds equal to their TB. Or, you might dispense with Fate Points for PCs altogether and instead offer a group pool of Fate Points. Have characters roll FP as normal, but subtract 1 from their total. They add this value to the group's Fate Point pool. At any time, characters can spend Fate Points from the pool to gain some leverage with an encounter. I'd suggest that characters can build back up the pool by spending 100-200 XP per point they would add. Anyway, these are just some random thoughts. Good luck.</blockquote>

Verification