Rewards in WoD
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@Ganymede I think you can make a game pretty lethal without making it draconic, though. The illusion of hope ("I have a pretty powerful PC now with all that XP!") is more fun than the certainty of mediocrity.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Arkandel said:
I think you can make a game pretty lethal without making it draconic, though. The illusion of hope ("I have a pretty powerful PC now with all that XP!") is more fun than the certainty of mediocrity.
Hey. It's not draconic. It's risk-driven.
If you take more risks, and win at the end of the day, you should win more XP (and gil). So, why not? The proviso is that one should make CGen easy-as-pie. That way, if you get gacked, you can re-spawn nice and quick.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
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@Ganymede said:
The proviso is that one should make CGen easy-as-pie. That way, if you get gacked, you can re-spawn nice and quick.
Except that WoD character generation is not easy as pie.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
Everyone has a second bit already approved and in the wings waiting to step in when the first one dies. If there's going to be XP transfer from the dead on, let them just stay in Cgen almost finished until the first dies and then they can use the XP on the new and submit almost instantly. BG and stats could even get pre-approval.
Cgen will still be 'not easy as pie' but there will be no long wait to continue playing.
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@TNP said:
Everyone has a second bit already approved and in the wings waiting to step in when the first one dies. If there's going to be XP transfer from the dead on, let them just stay in Cgen almost finished until the first dies and then they can use the XP on the new and submit almost instantly. BG and stats could even get pre-approval.
Cgen will still be 'not easy as pie' but there will be no long wait to continue playing.
Or run due diligence post-CG. People pick everything automatically and staff only peeks at their stuff afterwards and/or when it's actually contested.
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@TNP said:
Everyone has a second bit already approved and in the wings waiting to step in when the first one dies. If there's going to be XP transfer from the dead on, let them just stay in Cgen almost finished until the first dies and then they can use the XP on the new and submit almost instantly. BG and stats could even get pre-approval.
Cgen will still be 'not easy as pie' but there will be no long wait to continue playing.
I would probably not allow XP transfers if I ran it. But then, I would want a truly brutal game.
But yeah, having a secondary character waiting would be cool.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@Thenomain said:
@Ganymede said:
The proviso is that one should make CGen easy-as-pie. That way, if you get gacked, you can re-spawn nice and quick.
Except that WoD character generation is not easy as pie.
Well, easier, then.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
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How about this: Pre-made templates. These are mortals, unless we delve into M+ there are somewhat limited options. So you choose a character name/sex, pick a template for stats, write their background and get on the game. Done. Very low staff overhead at CGen, even the BG is only checked later on in case it turns out you created something truly absurd. If the PC croaks, get a new one.
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I'm starting to feel the same borderline revulsion I do whenever somebody starts babbling on about E6.
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@HelloRaptor The hell is E6?
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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We can make Raptor go completely off-kilter by simply going full-on Roster System, I suspect.
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@Arkandel
Is a horrible idea where somebody created a rules set for using d20 version of D+D but with nothing going above 6th level powers.
Even me who prefers d+d at a lower level then Raptor hate it, because to be it takes a lot of the cool out of the settings. -
I like the idea of games with codified (if not coded) Influence action systems. You get a regular allowance of action points based on some stats and time or whatever. The ability to hand out more is cool, especially if they can be scoped to the domain of the plot (Underworld, Occult, Law, etc). Your actions can then be to use that influence to get a gun or a bag of money or a jar of newt blood or a speeding ticket waived later. Perhaps picking up the gun and getting rid of it earns you a favor represented as influence.
As for tangible things, giving people things they could reasonably get on their own seems sensible out of the gate. What supers don't really have a means of either breaking into a house/store/whatever and stealing a gun or "talking" someone out of the gun they have? A Ma Deuce? No. A Beretta? Sure, why not? A grand claive? Keep dreaming.
On CoH I created an object that would give whoever carried it a small stat bonus. Being ICly cursed (unbeknownst to the characters) it would randomly @pemit crazy things to the player only or to the others in the room only.
A good reward is itself a plot vehicle.
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There are generally two ways to see this.
One is the liberal 'let people have stuff'. This has the advantage of generally making for happier players and staff, since no one has to keep track of most of this crap.
The other is the restrictive 'earn what you have'. This has the advantage of making rewards mean something since having things isn't a given.
Either way the game's theme and implementation is what will make or break the system. For example a MU* like SHH where resources are supposed to be scarce could perhaps benefit from strict control of who has access to what, making even small gains valuable; a plot where the PCs gain access to a radio transmitter and a solar battery could become significant. On the other hand a game set in a modern metropolis where access to a handgun is easy would probably not gain a lot from all that oversight as the characters wouldn't view such things as something special.
I.e. before we can actually discuss this we need to know what kind of game it's being discussed for.
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Back to the original question at handz you can totally give money as a reward. Cash is a valid equipment.
I'm a rodeo clown.
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@tragedyjones And yet it's very very rare (in my experience - YMMV) to see money be important on MU*.
I've only see it make a difference in three ways: When you have none and let it affect your RP, when you have a lot and pose its trappings, or in games where you can only get certain goodies with it - such as say, TR, when you wanted a great sniping rifle.
Otherwise the impact of the difference Resources 2 and 4 makes seems negligible to me.
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@Olsson
We do this all the time in the LARP I run. It's not as crazy as people will make it out to be, at least in
my experience. We had a plot that recently ended, where a Lasombra Antitribu was posing as an Anarch Ventrue, who was posing as a Toreador of the Cam and causing all kinds of kerfluffles in order to offbalance the cam through political strife. It worked quite well; they found out about him through some really good investigation stuff. He had weapons throughout the house and when they took him into custody via staking to interrogate, a number of people took some weapons from the house. It wasn't a big deal.Like @Coin said, long equipment lists are pointless IMO.
The one thing that's required is that, if you get something that's represented by a dot such as working your way to an Ally or Retainer, you must buy it within the next month with XP or it goes away.
@Arkandel
E6 is probably a reference to original PC grinder D&D where you'd likely have to have backup PCs sitting around to deal with the massive lethality of older D&D modules and the 'player vs. GM' mentality that was part of the GM guides of that time.@Sponge
This is really why I love the OWoD MET influence systems in both versions, that kind of thing right there.ETA: Deleted the double post and added it here.
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@Coin said:
Equipment, especially long, pointless lists of what equipment a person has access to, seems ridiculous.
If I ever do another game of my own for realz, I'm just going to do with an equipment tracking system. You can have what is reasonable for you to have, and if you abuse it we will have a discussion. (e.g. Should 18-year-old college student have access to military hardware? No. Could they get a cheap handgun? Yes.)
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@Coin said:
@TNP said:
Everyone has a second bit already approved and in the wings waiting to step in when the first one dies. If there's going to be XP transfer from the dead on, let them just stay in Cgen almost finished until the first dies and then they can use the XP on the new and submit almost instantly. BG and stats could even get pre-approval.
Cgen will still be 'not easy as pie' but there will be no long wait to continue playing.
I would probably not allow XP transfers if I ran it. But then, I would want a truly brutal game.
But yeah, having a secondary character waiting would be cool.
Hmm. You know what could be cool...
Let's say the game was set a bit in the future.. Not a huge amount but enough to account for some advances in biological science and technology. What if the replacement character was a clone? Each time the character died, its brainwaves would be uploaded into a new clone. Obviously, the characters would need to belong to some kind of organization that would be willing to do this for the purpose of hunting supernaturals. But then, you might be saying, there's no downside to being outclassed and dying! Wrong.
First the obvious. All you get from your previous incarnation is the knowledge of what happened. Which is hardly a downside but it's the only benefit. Any equipment you had with you is gone, left with your body in presumably hostile territory and has likely been looted. All XP is lost as well (except perhaps for what was used for mental skills). And on top of it, the cloning process is a little more ineffective each time. Maximum stat caps are lower. Maybe every action has a chance of failure as the nervous/muscular system doesn't work as well. The possibilities are numerous and it would be worse in each successive clone.
Dying, and they're pretty much guaranteed to do so if Coin has his way, means a slow (or not so slow) degenerative spiral into a palsied, ineffective hunter who will eventually be shut off by the organization once he becomes too crippled to be useful.
So sort of a physical SAN loss to use Call of Cthulhu as an analogy. And I'm picturing a dark setting with humans as pets/slaves to supernaturals with the characters as the rebellion.
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So Eclipse Phase Versus World of Darkness.
