Topic: Do you use Fate Points or a similar game mechanic to manage random dice

[Druss_the_Legend]

Do you use Fate Points or Inspiration or something similar to help manage random dice rolls?

If you do, how exactly do they work?

[MisterK]

I used something like that in my last campaign.

The mechanism was simple : each player has one "fate point". The GM also has one.

A fate point can be used to prevent the death of a character or NPC on the scene of the action. It can be used for anyone, the player's character, another PC, an allied NPC, a bystander, or even an enemy. The character or NPC will end up alive later, and the players and the GM must work out how this is possible. While "presumed dead", the character or NPC has script immunity (they cannot be "poked just to make sure").

Once a player has spent their fate point, it goes into the GM's hand. Once the GM spends a fate point, it goes into the hand of a player, preferably either the one who was most involved in the "death" of the character that was just saved, or one who currently has no fate point if any (it's a guideline only).

And that's all.

Over a five year long campaign, I think three points were used - one by me (on an NPC), two by players (one on their own character, the other on an NPC).

[jdale]

I gave the PCs a couple fate points for rerolling criticals against them, with the same rules about using them giving them to the NPCs, but as noted elsewhere I'm starting to regret it. The PCs are now at a sufficient level they should be able to handle fatal criticals, and it takes away some sense of imminent danger. Definitely depends on your PCs' style of play, though.

[MisterK]

Definitely depends on your PCs' style of play, though.

Definitely. It also depends on you campaign style.

Me, I don't want the PCs to die (and even less die randomly). Suffer, yes. Have difficult choices to make, yes. Make friends, enemies and everything in between, yes. But I don't want them to die just because the dice rolled the wrong way.

In the last campaign, one of the PCs had a hand in sundering the kingdom he was born in and loved. Another killed almost everyone in her family in a fit of revenge and ended up having to slay her own former lover. A third was commanded by his prince to assassinate his own family head, and was struck from the rolls of citizenship and exiled from his homeland, his marriage nullified, because of it (by that same ruler) - and ended up sacrificing himself. They were wounded in combat, yes, sometimes severely, but they did not die until the end - they were there to see what their hard choices and pain earned.

Because, as someone more gifted with words than me said, an epic is made of a thousand tragedies, and you have to be alive to feel.

It's all in the campaign style

[EltonJ]

I'm using Fate Points myself in a future campaign, but I think I will name them action points.

Because we are playing in Eberron.

[jdale]

Me, I don't want the PCs to die (and even less die randomly). Suffer, yes. Have difficult choices to make, yes. Make friends, enemies and everything in between, yes. But I don't want them to die just because the dice rolled the wrong way.

My first campaign, which is more story-oriented and runs less often, I pretty much agree with you. My second campaign, which is more sandbox and about player choices and tactics, would be improved if some PCs died as a result of their bad choices. I think many (possibly all) of the players agree on that. It took me a while to reach the point of thinking that though. They are not great at working together. But, also, they aren't actually likely to die since they have Lifekeeping and pretty good healing. A more likely consequence is long-lasting injury penalties.

[intothatdarkness]

I got in the habit of using fate points based on my time with first edition Top Secret (which actually had two distinct kinds of points), although I use them far more often in my non-fantasy gaming. With RM I usually made herbs and such readily available, so there were options. When you combine non-fantasy with a solid combat system you almost have to have some sort of mechanism for fate or luck points.

[Spectre771]

I've made mention of this in several threads, so it may sound familiar.   

At PC creation, the GM rolls a D4.  1-3 the PC has 1 Fate Point. A 4 yields 2 Fate Points.  The do not regenerate and the players can use them for pretty much anything that impacts them.  No using a Fate Point to have a Mature Time Drake bonded to them.

[Druss_the_Legend]

No using a Fate Point to have a Mature Time Drake bonded to them.

haha. cool.

[Cory Magel]

Individual characters, both PC's and some NPC's (good and bad) will have Fate Points.  I'd typically give three per player.

They can only be used to prevent sure death.  That can be a critical that will kill you or an event that will almost surely result in death (missing a check jumping a deep chasm for example).
This is a flexible situation and basically the player and GM both need to agree death is imminent.

Anything (well, anything sentient) that causes something else to expend a Fate Point gets that Fate Point.

[Ecthelion]

Same as Cory above. And we're handing out a new Fate Point to all PCs after sessions where a couple of Fate Points have been used, so that on average the number of Fate Points remains at three. Personally I think that Fate Points don't take the tension out of the game (a bit perhaps) because, while Fate Points might avert fatal critical rolls, they don't help when the concussion hits in combat go down to zero. So we're quite happy with the Fate Points rule. It helps against such unlucky PC deaths like that 100 on an A-crit from an orc arrow that caused the death of our highest level character during out MERP times.

[Wolfwood]

I'm considering something like Call of Cthulhu's Luck Rolls. You basically have a Luck "Stat" that you can deduct points from to adjust any of your rolls. And you get a D10 roll at the beginning of every session to recover some of your Luck. I'm still wondering which rolls these could be used for and if they might also apply to Crit rolls made against the character...

[Voriig Kye]

Players start with 2 fate points, maximum is 3.
They get one after relevant moments in the campaign, low key adventures never yield fate points.
Important NPCs sometimes get 1 fate point. Campaign final bosses normally have 3.
They can use 1 fate point to:
- Roll d100OE and add it to another roll just made
- Roll d100OE and subtract it from a roll made against them
- Re-roll a critical/non open-ended roll they made
- Have the GM re-roll a critical/non open-ended roll made against them
- Some almost never scenarios where using a fate point might improve something happening in the story if the player deems it important

Also, in case a player is out of fate points, all other players can decide to burn 1 fate point each, to create one for that player and spend it immediately.

[pastaav]

Individual characters, both PC's and some NPC's (good and bad) will have Fate Points.  I'd typically give three per player.

They can only be used to prevent sure death.  That can be a critical that will kill you or an event that will almost surely result in death (missing a check jumping a deep chasm for example).
This is a flexible situation and basically the player and GM both need to agree death is imminent.

Anything (well, anything sentient) that causes something else to expend a Fate Point gets that Fate Point.

I do the same.

[netbat]

Individual characters, both PC's and some NPC's (good and bad) will have Fate Points.  I'd typically give three per player.

They can only be used to prevent sure death.  That can be a critical that will kill you or an event that will almost surely result in death (missing a check jumping a deep chasm for example).
This is a flexible situation and basically the player and GM both need to agree death is imminent.

Anything (well, anything sentient) that causes something else to expend a Fate Point gets that Fate Point.

I do the same.

Same here.

[Hurin]

I gave the PCs a couple fate points for rerolling criticals against them, with the same rules about using them giving them to the NPCs, but as noted elsewhere I'm starting to regret it. The PCs are now at a sufficient level they should be able to handle fatal criticals, and it takes away some sense of imminent danger. Definitely depends on your PCs' style of play, though.

I don't use fate points, for this specific reason.

[Cory Magel]

I gave the PCs a couple fate points for rerolling criticals against them, with the same rules about using them giving them to the NPCs, but as noted elsewhere I'm starting to regret it. The PCs are now at a sufficient level they should be able to handle fatal criticals, and it takes away some sense of imminent danger. Definitely depends on your PCs' style of play, though.

Two thoughts on this, from my perspective.

Firstly, if you don't replenish Fate Points somehow, the players will tend to run out of them if they make it to 'higher' levels (although 'higher' is defined differently among RM users - some think that's 8th level, some 20th, some 50+).

Secondly, the entire reason I use Fate Points is because I don't want a random lucky die roll ruining the fun.  How often do GM's let their players characters die for no real reason and how often, even if they do, would they make that player start a new character at a significantly different power level?  Considering those factors, character deaths really just suck up a lot of time that my players would rather spend playing - not creating a new character.  It also allows me, as a GM, to prevent the death of a non-playing character that might be vital to the games future.  Yes, I could just replace them, but same story as above.  In reality it's just almost just a clone of the old one... and running NPC's tend to make for good memories.

[Finwe]

I use my own system of reward cards, which I give out for good interpretation, or for very good dice rolls. Also by successfully completing a mission.
Then, they randomly draw a card (designed specifically for the campaign, they are like inspirations or "blessings of the gods"), and in these they can get temporary bonuses to actions, permanent bonuses to abilities, possibility of rerolling... or even (although this is rarer), nullify a critical received.
However, they have a maximum of possible card slots, starting at 3, currently 5.

[Druss_the_Legend]

I use my own system of reward cards, which I give out for good interpretation, or for very good dice rolls. Also by successfully completing a mission.
Then, they randomly draw a card (designed specifically for the campaign, they are like inspirations or "blessings of the gods"), and in these they can get temporary bonuses to actions, permanent bonuses to abilities, possibility of rerolling... or even (although this is rarer), nullify a critical received.
However, they have a maximum of possible card slots, starting at 3, currently 5.

pretty cool idea. i may borrow this

[Spectre771]

I don't let the Fate Points replenish.  We're all grown ups now and <ahem> mature enough to handle the death of a PC.  However, a RM PC takes a good amount of time to make, even more so if I start them at level 5.  But the draw of RM is the deadliness of the game and the fun crits.  A few players absolutely LOVED the way their PCs died based on the crit result and were totally happy with the result.  "That sucks!  But man what an AWESOME way to go!"

I didn't want the game to become a video game with infinite lives and no consequences for actions.  I've had a few players over the years who just didn't care how their actions impacted their PC or the party and would just go headlong into everything and would jeopardize the party with the other PCs paying the price.  Players/PCs like that deserve the result of a nice crit roll with no chance of re-rolling.*

The players do have a caveat.  They can reroll and still roll an equally disastrous result and they have to keep it.  No using a Fate Point to Fix a Fate Point.


* - Read that any way you want