Do you use a luck mechanic?

[wingsandsword]

A GM I used to play under back in 2nd Edition had this complicated Luck mechanic:

All PCs have a Luck ability score, it is rolled by the DM on 3d6 at character creation (+1 racial adjustment for Halflings and Kender, -1 for Dwarves), and the PC doesn't know what it is. It naturally goes up by one point at each level, to a racial limit of 18 (19 for Halflings and Kender, 17 for Dwarves).

At any time, a PC could declare that they are using their luck, and then they had to decide how much luck they were going to try and use, as expressed by a die: 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, 1d20, 1d30, 1d100. Each increment you tried to call it on lowered your luck by 1 permanently (1 for 1d4 ect) If they rolled under their luck score on that die (remember you don't know what your score is, other than knowing your racial limit, how many levels you've gone up, and how much you've spent in the past), then you got increasingly good things happen to you by DM fiat. Rolling under your luck on 1d8 would get you an automatic hit or saving throw, rolling under your luck on 1d100 would get something on the scale of direct divine intervention, stumbling into a random portal out of certain doom, or having a falling meteor instantly kill your enemy.

It wasn't very popular, since you didn't know the ability score so PC's often didn't think to invoke it, and if you failed a luck check then the DM got to screw you over on an equally big scale as utterly bad luck befalls you (automatic fail of a saving throw or attack roll, to being killed by a sphere of annihilation randomly bursting from the ground beneath your feet and consuming you).

I saw a lot of neato house rules back in my 2e days, most of which became core in 3e (or something similar), but this wasn't one of them.

Personally, Action Points in D&D or d20 Modern, and Force Points in Star Wars will do, but I'm starting to take a liking to the Hero Points from Arcana Evolved

 

[Angel Tarragon]

no.

 

[Storyteller01]

We have a Panic (ie, Get out of Jail Free) roll: If you're in a bad way (about to die, favorite car's about to take a missle, etc) make a panic roll. The result will help me determine how well the gods liked you. On a 1, the initail effect is lessened (your at -8 but stabilized, the car is salvagable, etc). A natural 20 could leave you in a better position than you started.

You get one roll per game session. Divine spell casters can, as a free action, sacrifice a spell to improve a panic roll provided they know it is being made (if someone is praying REALLY loudly, you can help them get through )

 

[Aus_Snow]

Maybe you could houserule a new ability score: luck (in addition to Str, Dex, etc.). That would emphasize that some people are lucky and others are not. A pickpocket for instance would attempt to rob the character with the lowest score. Then, if they really need luck (like having someone come out of nowhere save them from inescapable death), they could spend an Action Point plus make a Luck check. If the check is successful, something lucky happens.

I was going to do pretty much that.

Then I got the Advanced Player's Manual. . . and how about that - all done for me anyway.

There hasn't been a session using Luck just yet, but there will have been by tomorrow, so at this point I'd say I like the look of it much more than I like the look (or playing out) of Action Points for D&D, *but* I can't say for sure which will work better.

 

[Turanil]

Hum... After reading the whole thread, I think I will just go on with Action Points, but maybe adding more options to them.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Dice and action points. How much more luck does one game need?

I have to second this.

 

[MonsterMash]

I'll be looking to add Conan style Fate Points to my D&D campaign that I GM as it works well in the Conan RPG and the D&D game I'm a player in (and probably some type of reputation system too).

 

[Ry]

I give "Drama Cards" like 7th-sea Drama dice - they're numbered 11-20 (most around 17), and usually I give out 2 per player during the session, and more whenever it strikes my fancy. They're used instead of a die roll at the player's discretion, but are not replaced when played (until I say so).

 

[Evilhalfling]

I use a 3d6 roll 6's are lucky 1's unlucky
this is rolled when I (DM) have a non-DC based completely random decision to make -
never used by players.

 

[Azgulor]

We use Conan OGL Fate Points.

Azgulor