Rules you'll import into your next GURPS Game.

[Johnny Angel]

note: I'm currently away from books and very rusty on rule due to not having played in a while, so the following might be a bit light on actual details.

I've used the Force tokens from Edge of The Empire to represent a pool from which luck, extra effort, and 'heroic narrative' can be drawn.


First, an explanation of how the tokens work in Edge of The Empire.

Edge of The Empire is based upon the Star Wars universe. Prior to each game session, the players roll the 'Force Die' to determine what the balance of the force is at the beginning of the session. The results are placed into a pool of Force Tokens.

The Force Die is a white d12 which has white and black circles on its faces to represented Light Side and Dark Side. For each white circle rolled, a white Light Side token is added (good); for each black circle rolled, a black Dark Side token is added (bad).

a picture of the Force Die http://anatolisgameroom.com/Product%...w/SAM_7863.jpg

During play, the players can spend Light Side to give themselves minor bonuses during a scene/encounter. This might take the form of coming up with a plausible (in the context of the scene/encounter & agreed upon by the gaming group -with the GM having final say) reason for an action to be granted a minor bonus. Alternatively, this might take the form of adding a minor detail to a scene/encounter (agreed upon by the group...). For example, if a fight is taking place in a cargo bay, a player might spend a Light Side to say that a pile of cargo crates is near the position they've taken and they're using those crates for cover for a defensive bonus. The GM had not declared previously that the crates were there, but it is deemed plausible given the situation and location.

The catch is that spending a Light Side turns it into a Dark Side token. The GM can use Dark Side against the players (at which time the Dark Side flips and becomes a Light Side). The mechanic gives a little bit of shared control of the narrative.


How I've used the idea in GURPS

The concept of how the tokens work in Edge is very similar (and in some cases virtually identical to) how one of the alternate rules in Campaigns presents using character points to influence success. However, the difference I have noticed is that the tokens give a physical representation to the group and -while it may just be a sort of gaming placebo effect- players seem more inclined to spend the tokens (at the risk of bad stuff later) to press their luck than they were open to the idea of spending character points for the same effect. Even when I tried giving people a pool of points to spend, they seemed reluctant to use them. So, I started using the pre-session rolling of the Force Die during GURPS games.

As said, I'm away from my gaming stuff, but (offhand) I believe the list of things the tokens could be spent* upon included the following: a Force Token could be spent in place of a FP for extra effort options; a Force Token could be spent to influence success (as described** for spending CP to influence success in Campaigns); a Force Token could be spent to add +1 to effect skill; a Force Token could be spent to add a minor narrative element (as described previously,) and/or two tokens could be spent to re-roll as described for the Luck advantage.

*when spending a token, the player had to describe in-narrative what was happening to grant the bonus.

**I did not allow buying critical success. You could spent tokens to avoid critical failure, and you could spend tokens to turn a fail into a success, but buying critical success was not allowed.

This may not fit for every game.

For me, I found that it worked best in games such as Supers, fantasy, and etc in which the grittiness of GURPS might sometimes clash with genre expectations. It gives a mechanism via which players can push the envelope of cinematic realism, but it does so in a which which is tangibly and visibly limited -meaning that they can push the envelope and do cool things, but there is still an underlying limit to what they can do; they can push their luck, but can also see that doing so too often might lead to more difficulty later. I've found that including the mechanic is one which does not change the underlying GURPS system in any way, while providing a nice shared-narrative balance to GURPS' "real" underpinnings without sacrificing those underpinnings the benefits I like having from them.

Anecdotally, it has also been my experience that requiring a narrative explanation to the bonus gives some small extra piece of ownership over the story and game world. Inviting them in to help me to tell the story on occasion has lead to more invested players.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

I've used the Force tokens from Edge of The Empire to represent a pool from which luck, extra effort, and 'heroic narrative' can be drawn.

Yeah, Impulse Points from Power-Ups 5 Impulse Buys, in token form (an option in PU5)... the twist being that as the PCs use them they are replaced by 'Dark' IP the GM can use... and when the GM uses the Dark IP they turn Light for the PCs.

Randomly determining how many points are in the pool is another twist PU5IB doesn't do.

[Moneval]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

I've used the Force tokens from Edge of The Empire to represent a pool from which luck, extra effort, and 'heroic narrative' can be drawn.

I did something similar to this in a campaign a little while back, although I solely used it for re-roll purposes (didn't think of using it to stand in for fatigue expenditures, that's a cool idea). I found that having the tokens lined out in front of the players with a "Player Side" and "GM Side" made for some suitably dramatic moments.
Because I was very willing to use the tokens when flipped to my side, players tended to only use them in very important situations, or when a fight needed to end quickly. They knew that flipping their tokens too quickly could lead to some... difficult times for them.

Overall I think it helped give a very narrative feel to the game, and I'll definitely be doing it again. I think next time I'll allow the tokens to be used for extra effort and the like though, I like that idea a lot.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Moneval

Overall I think it helped give a very narrative feel to the game, and I'll definitely be doing it again. I think next time I'll allow the tokens to be used for extra effort and the like though, I like that idea a lot.

If you have Power-Ups 5 Impulse Buys seriously give a thought to treating them like Impulse Points. It basically works identically to the way Force Points in FFG's Star Wars.

[Johnny Angel]

The reason I disallowed buying critical success was two-fold:

1) I found that it too often turned into an "I win" button in combat. I did not mind allowing the players to boost themselves, but so easily generating critical success changed the style of play into a style I did not care for.

2) On the other side of the token, I felt that allowing the enemy to buy critical hits so easily was unfairly harsh to the players.

[AlexanderHowl]

An alternative to a critical success is giving a Luck Token. Luck Tokens tokens can increase a failure to a success, increase a critical failure to a failure, decrease an opponent's success to a failure, or decrease an opponent's failure to a critical failure. Of course, the GM gets Luck Tokens for NPC critical successes...

[Celti]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

The reason I disallowed buying critical success was two-fold:

1) I found that it too often turned into an "I win" button in combat. I did not mind allowing the players to boost themselves, but so easily generating critical success changed the style of play into a style I did not care for.

2) On the other side of the token, I felt that allowing the enemy to buy critical hits so easily was unfairly harsh to the players.

The way I've always played it, and the way both Basic Set and Impulse Buys suggest is the default, is that buying a critical success is possible, but buying a critical hit is not — that is, any purchased success that's morally equivalent to an "I win" button is forbidden. So the rules acknowledge and fully support your style of play; see "Dooming Foes" on p. 5 of Impulse Buys.

[Moneval]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

If you have Power-Ups 5 Impulse Buys seriously give a thought to treating them like Impulse Points. It basically works identically to the way Force Points in FFG's Star Wars.

I don't have that, but it sounds like I know what my next purchase is.

[AlexanderHowl]

I would not mind introducing a Virtue/Humanity system, similar to the one that exists in the Old World of Darkness, though I am not sure how it would work.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by gmillerd

How to players react to the new power of mooks being vulnerable to damage? Do they pick fights more? Do they fight more? Are there gratuitous called shots because of the benefit? Does combat tend to be the most used hammer in the tool set? Are the players a murderous scourge?

For me it's a question of Genre. In most Genres there are no Mooks. Basically because everybody is a person. In a Genre like Arthurian Romance, Swashbucklers, etc.. you need NPCs who exist mainly to establish the Hero or Heroes are special superlative warriors/fighters. I don't use Mooks unless the Genre requires their use. Although the term "Mooks" itself is from hard boiled Detective fiction, if I'm running a Gumshoe game (the genre not just the Game) a person might be called a Mook, but they're a person and there are consequences to hurting a person. If you a Scion of Zeus at the court of Louis the XIV, maybe it a whole different issue. In a historical game, the bandits would still be people, but in a fantastic swashers game, the Bandits are conventions who are there as window dressing.

If the PCs aren't supposed to be dangerous (think of the body counts Hercules and Lancelot rack up), then you don't use Mooks. Superman might meet a guy who has the job description of "Mook." But Kal-El would never reduce another human to the status of Mook.