06-05-2006, 12:29 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
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Reward Costs
I'm a little unclear as to how we're supposed to deal with the point costs of rewards. For example, attunements or new rites are available as gifts from a Superior to a PC, but the rules seem to indicate that the PCs still have to pay points for them. Am I misinterpreting?
Can a PC just buy a new rite or attunement without being given it by his/her Superior? If that's sometimes possible then it explains things. |
06-05-2006, 05:00 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Atlanta GA
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Re: Reward Costs
I always do things like this on a sliding scale of how intelligent the characters have been of late. As long as they haven't done anything that would have the superior extreamly upset w/ them then they can by attunements that their superior offers w/ points, as for rites I only give them out when I feel like it but if I was going to let them be bought w/ points I would do that in the same way.
As for things that the characters are given in play by various people- as far as I can tell the core rules want the players to pay for those, but I tend to ignore that rule. |
06-05-2006, 05:02 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
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Re: Reward Costs
The points are what the player needs to earn; the Superior is how you get it.
A PC in my game wants Laurence's Hunt attunement. She has earned the character points. She pays them, and I set up a conversation with her and her Archangel near her Heart. He reviews her recent performance, notes that she's done well (i.e., she earned experience points), and it looks like this Attunement would help her do her job. He touches her Heart and she has the Attunement. Forces, attributes, and new Songs and skills are sometimes granted by Superiors but can also be picked up through hard work and personal improvement by Servitors. Reliquaries are usually purchased, though they may be issued; either method costs the usual points to bind them properly. |
06-05-2006, 06:08 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
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Re: Reward Costs
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06-05-2006, 06:12 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
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Re: Reward Costs
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Does Throikiel still have the seven points set aside for that Corporeal Force? Should I not have David give the attunement, even though it fits the story? How do I deal with this? |
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06-05-2006, 07:39 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
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Re: Reward Costs
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In GURPS IN, Throikiel would need 20 character points for Cold Touch. Suppose he had it, and were saving up for some other attunement. I would offer the character Cold Touch at a thematically appropriate moment, but spending 20 of the player's points without his permission would be wrong. The player might suggest that some time with a Songmaster and high skill with the Song of Corporeal Charm would work better. I could just hand him Cold Touch, without spending any of his unspent XP, as long as the player didn't object (he might have a reason for not wanting the attunement), but this increases the value of the character by 20 points; if he still has those unspent points, then for some reason David didn't regard this gift as counting against what he felt the character was properly owed. This would be unfair to any other players in the game. Unless I did the same for them, and then I've basically just upped the baseline point level for the game by 20 points. Fair all around, in the sense that everybody got a free lunch. |
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06-05-2006, 10:08 PM | #7 | |||||||
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
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Re: Reward Costs
Thanks for the dialogue. I'm not convinced that I'm always going to follow the core rules, but I want to make sure that at least I understand them before I go my own way.
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Throikiel has just done some big job and has been spectacularly successful. The Archangel David shows up and says "Well done, good and faithful servant. In gratitude for your work, I bestow upon you the Cold Touch distinction." Throikiel responds, "Thanks but no Thanks, Big D. Can I have an extra Corporeal Force instead?" Not only does it strike me unwise to turn down the Archangel David's gift, but it also weakens the GM's plotting. The Cold Touch distinction might be necessary for an upcoming storyline. Quote:
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Regardless, thank-you for helping me understand the rules. I think that as long as I'm playing by the IN rules instead of GURPS I'm going to worry about the role-playing and the story more than the point-balance and fairness between players. I dislike the idea of spending the players' points on their behalf, and I dislike the idea of forcing them to stand up to their Superiors if they want to have any say in how their characters develop, and I dislike the idea of never having the Superiors offer appropriate rewards. I guess this leaves me with an unbalanced game, so I suppose I'm okay with that. |
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06-06-2006, 11:33 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Atlanta GA
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Re: Reward Costs
no offence to game designers, but In Nomine isn't realy point balanced anyway. It's more set up for roleplaying which is why I run it. I've had instances where to reward players I've given one something that was worth 20 points and another player something that was worth 5 points and it worked out perfectly fine. The iteams in question fit the character and the giver- they also fit what the character would like to have. Also how useful songs attunements and artifacts are is highly based on the story you are telling in In Nomine- for example I gave one of my players the Nash Rambler- this is a 20 point artifact. The character loves his car- the character drives the car everywhere. Their has only actualy been one incident where any of the special properties ever came up- and that was because I decided it would be fun to have someone plant a car bomb on his car.
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06-06-2006, 12:35 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Madison. WI
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Re: Reward Costs
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Another way to get a new Force is to slowly raise the cooresponding stats and when you get the the next multipul of 4, they can raise the Force. It's slower, but that represents working hard on your body/mind/soul instead of the magic of a Superior just making them better.
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"[Solomon] spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five." Wanna buy one? - Radueriel, Free Lilim |
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06-06-2006, 04:06 PM | #10 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
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Re: Reward Costs
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