Post by The Fiendish Dr. Samsara on Sept 5, 2007 19:47:40 GMT -5
The Rules are here: let’s change ‘em!
My next topic: Weaknesses and Luck.
I’m a fellow who played Champions and then HERO exclusively for several years and once thought the idea of Disadvantages was really, really wonderful. However, I have, in recent years, become a full-throttle convert to the mechanic of Complications instead. The problem with Disads, to me, is that the player usually takes them, hoping that they won’t come up in play. They encourage a kind of tactical CharGen I dislike, as well as other Gamist attitudes (such as the Alcoholic character who makes a point of avoiding all alcohol so he won’t be badgered into “role-playing properly”). With Complications, the player is hoping the opposite, that his issue will come up, because he gets goodies (meta-game resources) when they do (I’ve discovered with some satisfaction than Steve Kenson seems to be paralleling my train of thought between 1st and 2nd ed Mutants & Masterminds).
So, I don’t really like Weaknesses as presented in the rules. Admittedly, they are far better in ZEFRS than in HERO because you would only take one or two (as opposed to the long strings of Disads in the latter game). But still, I don’t like giving extra CP’s for ‘em.
Similarly, although I think the idea of PC’s having an unknown stash of Luck Points has some genre flavor, ultimately I find it a bad idea. My experiences with unknown resources in play is that players either A)get conservative and never use anything or B)figure they’ll never know when they’ll run out and so just use them up as soon as possible. Neither is very satisfying to me. So I’d rather not hide the Luck Points.
Taking these two ideas, I would convert the Weaknesses into a form of Complication and say that they do not generate CP’s at CharGen; rather, whenever they come up and notably make the character’s life harder, the character earns a Luck Point. Now, instead of the anomalously abstinent drunkard, the player has a mechanically supported reason to go out and get stupid drunk and wind up in the Overlord’s bed’s with his twin daughters: Luck Points (which he probably has to use to escape from the angry Overlord. Such is the life of an S&S hero).
Going further, I’m thinking that ZEFRS might be a good place to try out an idea I had a long time ago, which I called “tactical metagaming” or “choosing when to lose”. I couldn’t quite figure this out when I initially played with it, but the whole concept of Complications has clarified it for me and FATE made it even sharper. In ZEFRS, I think it might be called “Calling your Fate” or “Spinning the Wheel (of Fortune)”. In essence, a player who finds himself in need of Luck Points (which maybe should be called Fate Points or Doom Points or Wyrd Points), asks the GM to give him some. In exchange, one or more of his Weaknesses are “activated”. This would be rather like a player asking for a Compel in FATE.
In other words, rather than letting the GM decide when to screw you with a Complication, the player has the agency. He calls for Luck to do something he wants to do, with full knowledge that it will cause his trouble later. To me, anyway, this really takes the sting out of getting hit with a Complication because I asked for it.
In this second revision, I would say that the Luck Pool should remain very small most of the time, in order to encourage Calling your Fate. Maybe the Pool starts at 0 at the beginning of every game. If the player really feels the need to build up a big pool…well, have fun, Elric (who might need some new Weaknesses to represent killing everyone and everything he loves ).
Thoughts?
My next topic: Weaknesses and Luck.
I’m a fellow who played Champions and then HERO exclusively for several years and once thought the idea of Disadvantages was really, really wonderful. However, I have, in recent years, become a full-throttle convert to the mechanic of Complications instead. The problem with Disads, to me, is that the player usually takes them, hoping that they won’t come up in play. They encourage a kind of tactical CharGen I dislike, as well as other Gamist attitudes (such as the Alcoholic character who makes a point of avoiding all alcohol so he won’t be badgered into “role-playing properly”). With Complications, the player is hoping the opposite, that his issue will come up, because he gets goodies (meta-game resources) when they do (I’ve discovered with some satisfaction than Steve Kenson seems to be paralleling my train of thought between 1st and 2nd ed Mutants & Masterminds).
So, I don’t really like Weaknesses as presented in the rules. Admittedly, they are far better in ZEFRS than in HERO because you would only take one or two (as opposed to the long strings of Disads in the latter game). But still, I don’t like giving extra CP’s for ‘em.
Similarly, although I think the idea of PC’s having an unknown stash of Luck Points has some genre flavor, ultimately I find it a bad idea. My experiences with unknown resources in play is that players either A)get conservative and never use anything or B)figure they’ll never know when they’ll run out and so just use them up as soon as possible. Neither is very satisfying to me. So I’d rather not hide the Luck Points.
Taking these two ideas, I would convert the Weaknesses into a form of Complication and say that they do not generate CP’s at CharGen; rather, whenever they come up and notably make the character’s life harder, the character earns a Luck Point. Now, instead of the anomalously abstinent drunkard, the player has a mechanically supported reason to go out and get stupid drunk and wind up in the Overlord’s bed’s with his twin daughters: Luck Points (which he probably has to use to escape from the angry Overlord. Such is the life of an S&S hero).
Going further, I’m thinking that ZEFRS might be a good place to try out an idea I had a long time ago, which I called “tactical metagaming” or “choosing when to lose”. I couldn’t quite figure this out when I initially played with it, but the whole concept of Complications has clarified it for me and FATE made it even sharper. In ZEFRS, I think it might be called “Calling your Fate” or “Spinning the Wheel (of Fortune)”. In essence, a player who finds himself in need of Luck Points (which maybe should be called Fate Points or Doom Points or Wyrd Points), asks the GM to give him some. In exchange, one or more of his Weaknesses are “activated”. This would be rather like a player asking for a Compel in FATE.
In other words, rather than letting the GM decide when to screw you with a Complication, the player has the agency. He calls for Luck to do something he wants to do, with full knowledge that it will cause his trouble later. To me, anyway, this really takes the sting out of getting hit with a Complication because I asked for it.
In this second revision, I would say that the Luck Pool should remain very small most of the time, in order to encourage Calling your Fate. Maybe the Pool starts at 0 at the beginning of every game. If the player really feels the need to build up a big pool…well, have fun, Elric (who might need some new Weaknesses to represent killing everyone and everything he loves ).
Thoughts?