Reworking Dailies into something more Inspired

[eriktheguy]

Hey, at least its not a new point tracking system. Personally, I'm not a fan of systems that take the form 'gains points on this condition, spend x points for y benefit'.

 

[weem]

Great thread, some good ideas here.

My brother particularly has mentioned his dislike for dailies as they are - why can I only use this attack that I have learned, once a day etc (as has been mentioned).

That "inspired" stuff gave me some inspiration!

When you create your guy you give him a couple of drives/goals. Pretty simple things, whatever he wants to achieve for himself.

Each one of these would have a line that says when he gets "Inspired". When he's inspired he gains access to a Daily power (no matter if he's used it that day or not).

I'm imagining these as something like Keys from the Shadow of Yesterday (google it, it's free). "Glittering Gold: I wants the cash. Inspired: when you can see some loot that's above your level." "Vengeance: You have a hated foe or race. Inspired: when you are bloodied by your foe." "Brothers in Arms: We merry few, we band of brothers. Inspired: when your brother in arms is dropped to 0 or less HP."

This is a really cool idea!

 

[Garthanos]

Garathos, as long as we are messing up daily powers, why should we make them daily in any way at all? Would it be fair to stop refreshing daily powers on a daily basis, and instead require the players to become 'inspired' to regain their inspired powers? Hey, you said you wanted something new!

Now you are getting it... it was part of my initial premise... daily is now just a n earmark for frequency as it stands now.

Lets say that extended rests no longer recover every daily power. Only ending an adventure and resting in town for a longer time offers this sort of recovery. Players start each new adventure with their 'inspired powers' refreshed. Rather than action points and daily powers being daily resources, action points and inspired powers are resources to be used throughout an entire adventure.

My brother dug up some old 'Werewolf, the Apocalypse' books of his that dealt with a statistic called Willpower. Willpower was a pool of points you could use to gain a bonus to any roll. The pool only refreshed when you
-end an adventure
-achieve special success
-fulfill something important to your character
I think we are going for something similar to this.

That latter bit is certainly the allow refresh based on an aspect in action isnt it.

Since inspired powers need to be a bit more available to characters than Willpower in Werewolf, a system for inspired powers would have to offer more options to recover spells. So far we have:
-Start a new adventure: reset action points to 1 and completely refresh inspired powers
-Extended rest: all players gain an action point if they have none, and roll to refresh inspired powers on a 5 or higher
-Peaceful rest (find an unusually fun, peaceful or secure place for a short rest): all present players gain an action point and roll to refresh inspired powers on a 5 or higher
-Morale boost (achieve a major quest goal or succeed at a triumphant act): all present players gain an action point and roll to refresh inspired powers on a 4 or higher
-Personal inspiration (find, realize, or do something highly relevant to your character): affected players gain an action point and roll to refresh inspirational powers on a 4 or higher

If we stop refreshing dailies completely when players sleep, they have more incentive to push for longer adventuring days. If we don't force players with saved up action points to 'refresh' when they sleep, the adventure seems more like one continuous story during which players can save up resources for the final confrontation.
I should mention that I allow multiple action points per combat (one bonus action per round limit)

I am thinking I want the action points in a more integrated form... *(alah move them in as part of a FATE point economy ... an extra action is about the potency of a Fate point.

 

[Garthanos]

That "inspired" stuff gave me some inspiration!

When you create your guy you give him a couple of drives/goals. Pretty simple things, whatever he wants to achieve for himself.

Each one of these would have a line that says when he gets "Inspired". When he's inspired he gains access to a Daily power (no matter if he's used it that day or not).

I'm imagining these as something like Keys from the Shadow of Yesterday (google it, it's free). "Glittering Gold: I wants the cash. Inspired: when you can see some loot that's above your level." "Vengeance: You have a hated foe or race. Inspired: when you are bloodied by your foe." "Brothers in Arms: We merry few, we band of brothers. Inspired: when your brother in arms is dropped to 0 or less HP."

It could indeed be made explicit... and reference well defined game states this makes it rather D&D ;-)
It also makes me think of something I heard about TROS (where your character fights best when the battle is about what your character cares about)

 

[Garthanos]

Great thread, some good ideas here.

My brother particularly has mentioned his dislike for dailies as they are - why can I only use this attack that I have learned, once a day etc (as has been mentioned).

These Inspired Powers are still much the same limited relatively infrequent resource that everyone needs to manage (we arent actually removing that).

Having inspiration points (alah places and events - not measured pip) dm strewn or even spontaneously occurring throughout the adventure rocks.

Having personalized events which may result in inspiration rocks too. If the personalized event was really rare making it reliable (recover one inspired power) would be ok. This is very like an aspect but could be done independent of if you want to use fate points or not.

Recognizing inspiration is also what leaders do and allow that sometimes they unlock the heros deeper inspired powers... not just shore up the will to continue the fight (morale embedded in hp).

An extended rest can still be a reasonable time for the mind to recover some inspiration (but there is no reason it ought to 1 be the dominant way and 2 totallly predicatable ...)

Maybe higher tier/level characters get higher chances of recovery instead of making a recovery roll for all spent Inspired powers (varies by recovery method)

Basically multiple recovery methods with some noteable unpredictability sounds fun.

 

[Garthanos]

Yeah, I was thinking of Werewolf because you had similar character traits that you chose at character creation which would allow you to recharge willpower.

Yeah, Werewolf/WoD has some very predefined personality aspects.... that they use in a similar fashion. I have no problem with personalities evolving assuming a fair amount of time in the process (I used to be very introverted).