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How many CPs do you give for a single session?
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How many CPs do you give on average after a single session?
1-3
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
4-6
33%
 33%  [ 6 ]
7-10
44%
 44%  [ 8 ]
11 or more
22%
 22%  [ 4 ]
Total Votes : 18

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Vanion
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 10:53 am    Post subject: How many CPs do you give for a single session? Reply with quote

I've been playing the SW D6 game for a long time and I have still yet to find a good balanced amount and method of handing out CPs.

We only play once a week for aa many hours as we are able. As a GM AND a player, I tend to lean towards fast character advancement. I know that in the past I have been overly generous with CPs. As a GM, I like to be able to throw bigger challenges at the group... and make their general life harder. Very Happy Only a handful of weeks ago, I was giving an average of 12 or 13 Cps each session. Now that the group is bigger and some of our standards have gotten more strict, I've come up with a kind of "rating system". Four catagories: roleplaying, teamwork, goals, and atmosphere... CPs in each catagory range from 1 to 3 (minimum 4/ max 12)... 1 CP being "needs work/problem area", 2 CPs being "average", and 3 CPs being "outstanding".

One of my players was really upset at my new scale system because I gave him a 1 for roleplaing which he disagreed on greatly.

Any comments or advice would be welcome. I even made a little poll. Very Happy
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Gry Sarth
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CPs vary depending on the nature of the adventure. If it's just a quick, small mission, that doesn't really have much relevance or demands much of the players, than I'd give at most 8 CPs for a very good player, 4 to a poor one. If it's an epic end-of-campaign adventure, where the players have to really outdo themselves, think fast, roll good and all that, then I'd give as much as 20 CPs for a good player. A normal adventure will be around 10 CPs. What differentiates the amount each player gets is really commitment to the game, good roleplaying and good ideas. Success really isn't a factor. In fact, once a player completely botched a mission, bringing the whole campaign to a grinding stop, but I awarded him a lot of CPs because his course of action was totally in-character and very gutsy. Usually I won't hand to each player a CP amount that is distant from each other by more than 2-3 CPs, as I feel more than that tends to generate a bit of grief. Unless someone plays really awfully, completely disinterested in the game, I won't punish a player too much CP-wise.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with Gry. When i gm at home games, i try to follow a 5cp average for a 4 hr gaming session. 8 or so for 6 hrs, and 10-12 for a 10+ hr session. In the sparks realm, we have a set average of 7 for a module (including any situational bonuses)...
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Volar the Healer
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have two methods:

1) used for adventures primarily involving combat
1-4 difficulty of mission: easy, moderate, hard, suicide
1-3 team play: how well the individual supported the team
1-3 roleplaying: how well the actor(PC) brought the character to life
1=poor 2=average 3=good
This gives a total of 3-10 per adventure.

2) used for adventures primarily involving role play
1 per hour
On a good day, this gives 8 per session.

I consider "supporting the team" to be important. I don't like PCs working against the team. This always makes it less fun for another PC. Friendly rivalry such as name calling is OK, stealing other PC's stuff is not. Some of my games are very militaristic; In the 'Rebel Strike Team' and 'Empire invades the Earth' campaigns, it's mostly combat! The PCs must learn to function as a team or they will lose.

In both instances I award bonuses for outstanding roleplay - I stress roleplay - this is a role playing game, not a video game; players doing something cool like bringing pizza, players showing off cool artwork that supports their characters, or anything else that makes the game fun (did I mention roleplaying?). Bonus points are awarded during the game with a lot of fanfare - they are my primary way of encouraging players to do something fun.

As for a whiner who didn't get as many CPs as the guy next to him - I never say he did poorly. I always give him examples of what I'm looking for. At the end of the game session I try to point out something each PC did well - this encourages all of the PCs with ideas. I ask him to picture himself making a movie - when the little kid in the front row says "That was cool! I wanna be like him!" the whiner will get more CPs. This works most of the time.

But there is a limit to what the Director can do. Some people just aren't gamers. Maybe Doom is the best they can do.
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess it depends on how you run the system. I had a GM who disliked the pip system, so all attributes and skills were simply straight D numbers, no + anything. When we got CPs, we only got max three or four a game, but four was for totally outstanding play all night, great rolling, awesome ingenuity, that kind of thing. And we would get them after several sessions, not after each one, to reflect more time spent training the skills up. It was nice not having to deal with pips, but kinda shorted us in the long run because it left us lacking in how to generate characters from scratch for gaming with other GMs who used the pips.
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Grimace
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Boy, I guess I'm a hardcase when it comes to giving out CPs. My usual is around 4-5, with good roleplayers or inventive ideas and problem solving getting 6. A gamer who sat there and only responded to the situations as they came up usually got 3, sometimes 4. Really, really good roleplaying, or something that made me go "Wow!" might get 7, but that's rare.

And this is during 6+ hour game sessions.

One thing I've never had a problem with in my games is people jacking skills up to the umpteenth dice, and then doubling it with a Force Point. In my games, someone is doing good if they're rolling 8D, and are doing excellent if they're rolling 10D.
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netjedi
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 10:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I try and make a loose script to each of my sessions or adventures. I usually write an amount at the end of the adventrue for the # of CP I will issue in general. I then add some bonus points for different things they accomplish as well. as the game or session progresses I issue out CP for excellent RPing, and if warranted an additional 1 or 2 at the end also. The current Campaign I am running I have a total of 11 adventures scripted out and they range from 3 - 10 CP for the rewards to start. the longer the scripting (meaning there is more to do) the more the reward.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, in sparks many of the players like to keep 8 or so, cp in reserve, so that lessens up what they have to spend on improving stats..
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 7:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As long as the difficulty of the situations/enemies in the following adventure matches the kind of stats the players will have, they'll keep coming back. It's no fun when you keep getting itty bitty numbers of CPs but the enemies seem to be getting exponentially better, or more numerous, or what have you...
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I tend to work in multiples of 5. 5 just for showing up, and if they do badly or we only play for an hour or two that may be all they get.
10 for doing average, I hand out a lot of 10s.
15 for succeeding and doing better than just haning on for the ride.
20... most people never see a 20. I don't remember ever handing out 20. But I have a 20 ready to go for anyone who displays incredible tactical prowess, acting ability, whatever. Just plain freaking awesome for a 20.

so, average has been 12 and a half.
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wanna hear about it if you ever DO hand out a 20; I wanna know what they did to get it!
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Trusty
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wild die times 5 is how many I give out...though they can still only up one pip per skill between adventures...

If they roll a 1, they get ZERO points. Twisted Evil

But handing them out any less than that the characters would all:

1. Not survive a single adventure.
2. Fail every sngle roll difficulity I require to be realistic.
3. Always suck in general.

I want my PCs good. The better they are, the harder I can hit them. They've realized that they have to be dumping points in non-combative skills now though...so it is still balanced. I mean, it takes a lot for someone with 2D+2 knowledge to get to 6D in Culture or Planetary Systems, or Business, or Accounting, or Tactics, Value, or Streetwise, etc... They need those skills in our game...Not just piloting, shoot, dodge, gunnery type skills...

Though, if most gamers saw the amount of paperwork involved in our games..they'd freak out. Each character has about twenty different sheets themselves to keep up with concerning money, assets, ships, vehicles, guns, droids, and equipment. Though I am impressed with how little it drags our game down...it really doesn't and t really does inhance it as well.
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like you've got a group who really enjoys getting into those aspects of their characters. They are well-developed, and any of the players can tell you at a moment's notice anything you ask them concerning their characters.

That kind of paper load will turn off a lot of people, cuz all they're interested in is the blaster, dodge, piloting, etc. I'm glad you have a well-rounded group to go along with your style!
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Trusty
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jedi Skyler wrote:
Sounds like you've got a group who really enjoys getting into those aspects of their characters. They are well-developed, and any of the players can tell you at a moment's notice anything you ask them concerning their characters.

That kind of paper load will turn off a lot of people, cuz all they're interested in is the blaster, dodge, piloting, etc. I'm glad you have a well-rounded group to go along with your style!


They were pre-warned. But out tof the six or so players, 3 are experienced gamers, and three had never played a RPG game before ever...the ones who've never gamed like this as well because they like to see their characters gain (and lose) assets faster than what they hear about other people's gaming group's characters...They are actually starting to get on the net and chatingt with other gamers, or talking with their friends and they see people talking about their campaigns...They usually go something like this:

Them: "Last time our characters hauled a freight for 3500 credits and got into a fight with some pirates and pissed off some local crime boss on Tatooine".

My players: "Cool. Last time we played we were hired by a semi-corrupt Republic Senator from Fresia to assianate the Baron Administrator on Cloud City so that his constituants on Fresia, mainly Incom, can reconsolidate Bespin Motors into their company with the neccessary votes from both the Parliment and Esex, and the (soon-to-be) newly elected Baron Administrator that is in Incom's pocket that they had lined up to take the place of the eliminated BA. All this so that they can have a contact in the Republic Senate, a Bespin Motors plant and sales lot on their developing planet to attract traffic (along with casinos...etc...), and 36 Incom W-Wing starfighters to assist in their paramilitary organization who's goal is to start the galactic battle by freeing the Minos Cluster from the Imperials and persuade the Republic to once again go to war and eliminate the Empire once and for all ( in our campaign, the Republic has 40% of the Galaxy under its control, the Empire has about 40%, and the remaining 20% of the galaxy is either neutral or independent soverign governments...)".

Which sounds more fun?

I think hack and slash becomes too one-diminsional though, and every player gets bored with it after a while.

I still think a great story leads to great gaming...without a great story, there is little to keep players interested.

That is why I load the cmpaign down with details and objectives that can't always be acomplished with combat...but we have everything from tiny skirmishes to epic all out battles between all the "drama".

Plus, the sheets they have to keep up with don't bother them so much since it is their stuff and they don't complain when they compare their stacks of paper to mine. Very Happy

I can say that with all the WEG material, and other experienced gamers I've consulted with about the storylines for our "epic" campaign...and I've had much help to be sure...but I can't think of any game I've seen as big, complex, and as much fun and entertaining as ours...ever. Yeah, sounds like bragging, I know, but we play Star Wars at its finest, I think...tipping our hat to GL, but more importantly WEG for creating a universe to play in...but our "reverence", so to speak, ends there. Canon or official/semi-official storylines be damned...This is our game. Wink

I mean, "infinities" is the only way to game in my book. Take what you want from the source material and discard the rest.

In fact, I am thinking about putting together our "infinities" campaign into sourcebook and adventure book (.pdf) for D6 Star Wars for people who want to run something new and different...Depends on if I can get some of the players to help and see if there is any interest for those "lazy" GM's out there. Laughing

Anyway, if you like action, adventure, intrigue, politics, espionage, and epic campaigning that may require up to three years worth of gaming with the same characters and probably requiring players to show up at least once a week for those three+ years...this is it.
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Jedi Skyler
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That really does sound like a very fun game! You have all the details fleshed out for the players so even with the tree's worth of paper each of them has, it's still all good. And I agree that for the RPG, you should have the freedom to either follow "canon" or make it up as you go. That's why it's a GAME! So you can do whatever you want in this generic universe.
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