Another Try At the Force Point Problem

[Naaman]

Force Point House Rules

Each heroic character (18 attribute dice) begins play with at least 1 Force point and 2 Destiny points.

Force Sensitive characters begin play with 2 Force points.

When a character spends a Force point, he adds a bonus to all of his rolls that round equal to the number of Destiny points he currently has.

Normally, characters do not spend Destiny points. However, in certain circumstances, a character's Destiny cannont be averted. If the character is ever killed or otherwise significantly harmed such that continuation of the characters heroic career would be terminated, the character may spend (1? 2? all remaining?) destiny point(s) in order to narrowly escape his perilous fate. The details of the escape are left to the GM.

A character gains Force points by committing significant acts of heroism that entail great personal risk.

A character can gain Destiny points by committing significant acts of heroism (as mentioned above) at the dramatically appropriate time.

The objective here is to address the problem of "1st Force point wins." By splitting the idea of Force points into two separate characteristics, we limit the potency of a Force point without reducing the "whole round" effect that Force points were meant to have. The boost provided by a Force point is also proportionate to the "experience level" of the character, with newer adventurers having confronted Destiny far less than seasoned heroes who have saved the galaxy several times over.

Thoughts? Opinions? Have at it.

[DougRed4]

Very interesting, Naaman. I'm definitely going to consider this as I wrestle with modifying the Force point rules for my campaign.

[Naaman]

Alright, some more thoughts on this:

The idea of "destiny" points was inspired by the original three films, of course. The rationale for the house rule is based on the idea that if the "will of the Force" can be manifested in the "destiny" of heroes, then the more that a hero acts according to the will of the Force, the more the Force will come to his aid when called upon.

This of course begs the question "how does this rule interact with dark side points?" Well, I think of destiny points as the antithesis of dark side points. So, if using this rule, I would tend to come up with a mechanic that caused dark side points to conflict with destiny points (more later).

In any case, a character such as Luke, who has tremendous amounts of destiny, would receive a considerable boost when using a Force point (which he would undoubtedly need when confronting the likes of Vader or Palpatine), while a character such as Wedge Antilles (or any other X-Wing pilot) has significantly less destiny, so even though they may have spent a Force point to shoot the Deathstar (a heroic act), the boost provided wasn't enough to make the shot (not enough "destiny").

Now, as for the dark side: I'm thinking it could go something like this:

When spending a Force point, a character with dark side points must either choose to gain a bonus equal to his number of destiny points, OR equal to twice the number of dark side points he currently has (the lure of the dark side).

If the character falls to the dark side, he loses this option. The dark side instead grants the character a bonus equal to the number of dark side points the character has, but not to exceed his total number of destiny points.

So, a character that falls to the dark side early on has been seduced and controlled easily by the dark side, being of weak will or otherwise unscrupulous motives. However, a character with large amounts of destiny represents a particularly savory and monumental victory for the dark side, so it is in the dark side's "best interest" to further corrupt and entice that individual (such as Anakin), even after the fall.

Needless to say, a fallen character can no longer gain destiny points. I've also considered that a character who has achieved his/her destiny will steadily lose destiny points the longer its been since they retired from a heroic career... Yoda, for example, was well beyond his "destiny" by the time the original trilogy takes place, having just one last task (to train Luke) left for him... and given a Jedi of his stature (no irony intended), this would prove to be a rather mundane task, requiring little in the way of personal discovery, sacrifice or risk.

[atgxtg]

I'm not sold on this.

In the films, characters like Luke and Anakin are "strong with the Force". Now that would seem to translate into a higher destiny score. But, if destiny points are tied to heroic actions then characters like Luke, Anakin and any begging PC would have a fairly low Destiny score.

Furthermore, characters who have been around awhile will have had the opportunity to have done more heroic actions and thus build up a very high destiny score. Yoda,, with a 900+ year lifespan would have the opportunity to amass a destiny rating ten times that of a human. And that seems skewed to me.

Perhaps instead of the destiny rating improving with the quantity of heroic acts, it could be tied to the magnitude and frequency of such acts. That way somebody like Yoda won't get a massive edge from his long lifespan, as he would have to do a lot of heroic acts just to maintain his current rating.

[Naaman]

The other thing I was thinking was that the method for gaining destiny points and Force points could be reversed. That is, Force points are gained for dramatic heroism, while destiny points are gained for equally heroic actions that just happen to be done "whenever."

The overall effect would be that the power of a Force point would increase more, but you'd have fewer Force points to spend.

Anyway, the number of destiny points, as explained earlier, can be controlled by characters losing the ability to gain destiny points once they "retire" (I don't know if you read my second post, but is specifically addresses the issue you brought up with Yoda).

[garhkal]

My issue with tying them into the film characters happening to always do the 'destinied actions' is that they are characters SCRIPTED to do this or that, and succeed. They also get script immunity till at least after their 'destiny is fulfilled'.
An RPG character by definition of playing a game, has neither of the above.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Naaman]

Yeesh.... tough crowd :p

[atgxtg]

A couple of RPGs had a destiny perk. Basically it acted like limited script immunity. It could be used to keep a character from dying, but only once per adventure (so a PC couldn't push it). It didn't make the character immune to injury or other bad things, just that he'd survive. Eventually the destiny would pop up and the perk would go away.

What was nice about some similar uses was that a PC could invoke this for protection but at the expense of loosing the conflict, and basically winding up in a bad spot.

For example, Luke survives the encounter with Vader at Bespin, but looses his hand, lightsaber, and is left hanging (literally and in need or rescue.

I could see some sort of rule where a character could fight against destiny (the will of the Force) at the expense of a DSP. THat could make the dark side very temping.

[atgxtg]

[DougRed4]

Yeah, there are a number of RPGs that use a similar mechanic. One I liked was Top Secret, by TSR. As optional rules they had Fame and Fortune points. Both could be used as described (to keep you barely alive, but surviving an encounter). IIRC, you knew how many Fame Points your PC had (as they were correlated to your fame), but you had 1d10 Fortune Points and only the GM knew how many of those you still had. So each time you died, you'd have to check with the GM to see if you still got to somehow barely escape.

I'm not so convinced d6 SW needs a similar mechanic (if Character Points are available to help PCs out), but a limited number might not be a bad thing.

[Naaman]

Well, the PRIMARY function of a destiny point in this rule is to control the "nuclear" results of using a Force point.

The idea of "destiny" just so happens to give the GM one more way to fudge the dice, but have it cost the character something tangible.