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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 3760067" data-attributes="member: 54877">Exacty right.However, in your subsequent analysis, you hinted at one key option, without coming out and listing it:&nbsp; Give AP in more than one way, and at least one of them should be semi-unpredictable.&nbsp; For example, I give AP at the end every adventure (along with XP).&nbsp; I also give them at the end of any session that seems to have had a lot of activity in it (reloading for next session).&nbsp; I also hand out a few for appropriate actions.&nbsp; In 4E terms, you could easily codify an adventure reward into something expected.&nbsp; You get the XP, you get some AP too.&nbsp; These the players can expect, even if the GM is stingy.&nbsp; The per session stuff is GM Fiat, but the players have a pretty good guess what will happen.&nbsp; The &quot;appropriate action&quot; is almost pure GM Fiat.&nbsp; The overall effect is that the players want to hover enough under their cap that they aren't wasting a horde of AP.I do think another nice side effect of having an AP cap separate from the awarding of AP is that it encourages the designers to handle the &quot;we don't need no stinking AP&quot; games.&nbsp; Or similar, the &quot;GM is such a stingy rat that we might as well not have them&quot; games.&nbsp; The AP award becomes a dial, that the group can agree to roll up or down, but within design parameters than can be handled--&quot;A 5th level group of characters will have somewhere between zero and X AP each, and if played as expected will likely have somewhere in the middle at the time they reach this encounter.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 3760067, member: 54877"] Exacty right. However, in your subsequent analysis, you hinted at one key option, without coming out and listing it: Give AP in more than one way, and at least one of them should be semi-unpredictable. For example, I give AP at the end every adventure (along with XP). I also give them at the end of any session that seems to have had a lot of activity in it (reloading for next session). I also hand out a few for appropriate actions. In 4E terms, you could easily codify an adventure reward into something expected. You get the XP, you get some AP too. These the players can expect, even if the GM is stingy. The per session stuff is GM Fiat, but the players have a pretty good guess what will happen. The "appropriate action" is almost pure GM Fiat. The overall effect is that the players want to hover enough under their cap that they aren't wasting a horde of AP. I do think another nice side effect of having an AP cap separate from the awarding of AP is that it encourages the designers to handle the "we don't need no stinking AP" games. Or similar, the "GM is such a stingy rat that we might as well not have them" games. The AP award becomes a dial, that the group can agree to roll up or down, but within design parameters than can be handled--"A 5th level group of characters will have somewhere between zero and X AP each, and if played as expected will likely have somewhere in the middle at the time they reach this encounter." [/QUOTE]

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