D&D 5E Plot points

[77IM]

As an aside, I read "Plot Points" before opening the thread and thought, "Yes, a Savage World style sandbox campaign is a great way to play D&D."

Lost Mine of Phandelver and Princes of the Apocalypse are both very much in the style of a plot-point campaign.

 

[Agamon]

Lost Mine of Phandelver and Princes of the Apocalypse are both very much in the style of a plot-point campaign.

I haven't read LMoP yet, but I'm impressed with PotA so far.

 

[diaglo]

how far back do you want to go? Dragonlance had them for 1edADnD circa 1985. they weren't called "plot points". but they pretty much did the same thing. when you are trying to keep the characters on the same storyline as the novels and release of future modules/adventures they help.

edit: Dragonlance plot points had to do with major NPCs and PCs getting back into the action after a bad scenario.

 

[diaglo]

if you want to go further back. the 1edADnD Conan modules had action points for the PCs and the BBEG.

 

[Tony Vargas]

edit: Dragonlance (1985) plot points had to do with major NPCs and PCs getting back into the action after a bad scenario.

If we want to take it down to 'get out of death' cards, Champions had the 'extra life' about that time, and Top Secret 'Fame & Fortune' points were rather poorly doing so in 1980.

 

[aramis erak]

Has anyone used the plot points options from the DMG? If so, how was the experience? I'm intrigued. It's one of the only truly original and innovative ideas I've seen in RPG's.

They've been around since the mid 80's. Just not in D&D.

WFRP 1E had them in (IIRC) 1984; in WFRP 1, they permit one's character to escape whatever ill fate happened to befall them.

A couple other games, nowhere nearly as well known, had similar "save your bacon" type points as well.

 

[diaglo]

If we want to take it down to 'get out of death' cards, Champions had the 'extra life' about that time, and Top Secret 'Fame & Fortune' points were rather poorly doing so in 1980.

truth.
Bushido had something similar in 1982.
i wasn't sure from the original thread question how far back he wanted to go into the origin of what is happening now.

we use the all the time in Old School Hack (an ENnies winner)

 

[cthulhu42]

Ah, fair enough. I'll just say that they're new to me. I'm familiar with mechanics that allow a player to bend the rules or even break them, but the ability for a player to actually steer the plot via a game mechanic is a first for me.

I wish more people had examples of use.

 

[Frank Robert Hall]

Plot point

Yes I've personally used a plot point during a battle with a young black dragon my group was fighting. We we're being thrashed rather hard so I used it to cause the cave we were fighting in to partially collapse. This caused the dragon to be injured and run into her underwater cave. It's saved the team from death but we did not get the XP for a win over her. It was originally supposed to be a complete kill or our death.

 

[ccs]

I suppose I used them the other week.

The player of the parties wizard discovered the joy of using contact other plane as a ritual. And thus did it repeatedly & annoyingly.
Eventually I just looked at the player on my right & told him to tell the wiz player who/what he was talking to this time.
The anser: A salmon.

So I rolled a die & told a different player to RP the salmon.

And thus our game aquired a Salmon god.
Repeated contacts & different people playing the salmon saw the wizard bartering for more power.
Until he accidentally multi-classedb himself into becoming a Warlock.

(He doesn't realize it yet, but his new patron is a bit possessive. It will NOT go well for him if he ever takes another lv of wizard.... )