Another take on Frequency of Appearance

kirbwarrior · 06-24-2016, 04:26 AM

Now, this thought works best with Allies, since they are an advantage, but it should work with the others.

I've heard people not quite like the mechanics of Frequency of Appearance (FoA). Sometimes mechanical, sometimes because it doesn't work out story wise, others because it's a strange restriction. Unrelated, recently I had liked the idea of a 'slow' Modular Abilities. You spend, say, 10pts now (like an unusual background) and define a point pool (we'll go with 50 since that's the size of a 'power'). At the beginning of each session, you decide what those 50pts are accounted for. It probably has some sort of restriction, and GMs that plan ahead may ask for the choice to happen at the end instead.

What if we connected the two? Buy Allies at full price. Decide a FoA (it can actually be any number 3d can roll) and if the Ally doesn't show up, you in this session have a different, preplanned advantage (likely related to the Ally, such as Contacts or Rank could be them being helpful passively). And if the GM decided the ally can't show up, same thing. You could even forgo FoA and the GM just tells you at the beginning of each campaign which advantage you have.

Part of the inspiration for this is the part in Impulse Buys talking about horizontal growth, and adapting it into traits themselves. Any thoughts?

Varyon · 06-24-2016, 07:49 AM

It's an interesting idea. A more RAW version would mean you could have a "Constantly Available" Ally with the relevant Advantage as an Alternate Ability at 1/5th price (or if the Advantage is more powerful, the Ally is 1/5th price). Now, without the Ally having Summonable or similar you're going to have issues justifying switching them out, but having it only occur when the GM agrees it's logical would work there. The unreliable nature of which Advantage you have (if using a 3d FoA roll), and the difficulty of switching between them, could justify a further discount, but that's up to the GM.

kirbwarrior · 07-04-2016, 02:24 AM

I chose not to uses AAs since you both

1) don't choose when it happens
2) don't get to actually have two abilities

You more accurately have a form of Horizontal Growth. specified ahead of time. It might be slightly better, so I could see charging a perk for it. Actually, I think there is a quirk that uses similar rules in PU7

06-24-2016, 07:49 AM	#2
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Re: Another take on Frequency of Appearance It's an interesting idea. A more RAW version would mean you could have a "Constantly Available" Ally with the relevant Advantage as an Alternate Ability at 1/5th price (or if the Advantage is more powerful, the Ally is 1/5th price). Now, without the Ally having Summonable or similar you're going to have issues justifying switching them out, but having it only occur when the GM agrees it's logical would work there. The unreliable nature of which Advantage you have (if using a 3d FoA roll), and the difficulty of switching between them, could justify a further discount, but that's up to the GM.