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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="VHawkwinter" data-source="post: 9877562" data-attributes="member: 7040136">Sounds good. These are fun. I like them so long as they make sense from an in-character perspective. Willpower as a cognitive strain / split focus tracker against dopamine reserves, for instance.Or a Qi pool in a dantian.Or spell slots if those slots are constructed metaphysical pockets in your body or soul in which you store prepared spells so you can release them on demand.Or, something like Ancient Magus Bride could work, where his spells are crafted and stored in physical talisman on a chain which he breaks to use.Or Shadowrun's general strain system where you roll to not accumulate strain and the odds of failure are based on your current capabilities and the power of the spell / ability you're activating.I also appreciate 'ability functions with a chance of real repercussions'. GURPS Powerups: Limitations has some of these, and the Rolemaster and Buffy miscast tables are kind-of like that. It also kind-of mirrors the thing you see in shonen anime like Bleach, where Ichigo powers up when he's losing, but it leaves him unconscious for days after or bed-bound for weeks, during which time he is dependent on his friends taking care of and saving him. But the Badstuff could be anything. A chance of debilitating injury, attracting attention chance of misfire, etc.I don't normally care for cooldowns unless it's like a literal plasma cannon which needs to actually cool down before you fire it again. Or maybe a gun that needs to charge up before you can fire it. But I like logical in world recharge conditions. Your phone needs to have the battery recharged, your lunar powers might require the light of the full moon to recharge, you might need to be in an appropriate environment to recharge your mana or qi or whatever. You could well need to take appropriate actings in game to charge them.I prefer that more powerful or game bending abilities be limited in some way, but lesser abilities can be at-will.Well, I am okay with tracking resources. If you want to avoid that, a single shared resource pool where you activate abilities with a chance of subdual damage / cumulative penalties like Shadowrun's is probably best, and you could combine that with big stuff having "chance of Bad stuff" like the Buffy miscast tables or the like as described above.These threads are fun. Thanks for making them.</blockquote>

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