Criticism for my Plot Point System? Please.

[RedMattis]

I've created a Fate Points system for my current campaign. Basically in the campaign I've got two types of characters. High Points "Specialists" and Lower Point "Heroes". (Compare to White-hats and Champions in the Buffy RPG)
Specialists get more Character Points per meeting, while Heroes have more Fate Points to spend during the session.

Heroes are 150 points, specialists 250 points initially, and if they role-play equally well the ratio will remain unchanged.

Heroes get 5 Fate Points per meeting, of these one per meeting can be hoarded letting heroes save up any amount of Fate Points.
Specialists get 1 fate point per meeting, and can have a max of 2

Character Points can be spent Fate Points.
These things can be done with the Fate Points:

See post 32: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=48011&page=4
Fate Point Spending

Heroic Feats

Heroic Effort (1)
Make one dice roll at +10. This must be decided before you roll the dice

Lucky Shot (1, Cumulative)
Improve the result of a roll by +5. If the result gets a margin of success above at 10 or above by this method it is considered a critical success. Critical Failures are also removed

Fury (3 to 2)
At the cost of 3 plot points the character can release his or her fury and get the following bonuses for the fight/scene:
+3 to all attack rolls
+2 to damage, or +1 per dice whichever is better
+1 to defense rolls
This ability can only be used after some form of provocation, and must be role-played. Very ‘good’ provocation decreases the cost to 2 plot points.
Rename Heroic Fury, Tranquil Fury, or anything else befitting the character.

Aegis of the Plot

Flesh wound (1)
Reduce the injury from one incident to ¼ of its original value (rounded up). This must be done before death or unconscious rolls.

Not Quite Dead (1)
At the cost of a plot point a player can fudge a death roll and stabilize the character, avoiding death. This does not protect against further injury though, and if several death rolls are failed the player may have to spend several plot points.
If the character still dies the plot points spent here counts for “Back from the Grave” should the player want so

Deus ex Machina (3 to 6)
At the point the character fails an unconsciousness roll the player may spend 3 Plot Points to guarantee that the character will survive until he or she has returned to consciousness. Beyond that it offers no protection.
Another alternative is for a conscious character to spend six Plot Points to guarantee that he or she will not be permanently killed at any point during the rest of the gaming session. Beyond not dying it offers no protection.

Back from the Grave (5 or more)
By spending five plot points the character can return from the dead in some form. This can take any form, and might take time in game depending on what form. Exactly what kind of creature the character returns as is up to the Game Master. At 5 points the GM will likely be quite sadistic concerning how exactly this works out. At 10 points the GM will be more generous, and make the ride a bit less bumpy. At 15 Plot Points the GM will explain alternatives and allow the Player to pick.
Back from the Grave costs twice as much if bought via Character Points

Plots Twists

Serendipity (1 or more)
The player can request one lucky occurrence of moderately improbably event, such as a taxi being waiting just outside the building he or she escaped from, the guard at the nightclub being an old associate, or your friends coming to save you in the nick of time.
Very unlikely or downright ridiculous cases of serendipity cost more points.

Gizmo (1 or more)
The character has some useful, but possibly very unlikely object which just happens to be what is needed to solve the task at hand. This Plot Twist allows a character who just minutes ago went through a metal detector to pull a gun, or a character to just have happened to collect some blood of that Thing Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know when they last encountered it.
The more unlikely the “gizmo”, the more costly, but in general this Plot Twist is more powerful than the Gizmo Advantage.

Obviously inspired by the Buffy RPG ;)

[vicky_molokh]

Basically nice, but IMO it's a play on a very old idea, layd out on this forum many times before.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Molokh

Basically nice, but IMO it's a play on a very old idea, layd out on this forum many times before.

Doesn't mean that it is a bad idea though, just old.
I'm hoping to get some comments on the Fate Point System, to find out if I screwed up or left something too useful/useless.

[Randover]

Nope its fine. The problem might be with players. Last few sessions of the other game I have attended did show me that players like that they don't have any choice at all.

I just wonder how does plot points interact with magic...

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Randover

Nope its fine. The problem might be with players. Last few sessions of the other game I have attended did show me that players like that they don't have any choice at all.

That they couldn't affect the plot in a meta-way you mean?

I just wonder how does plot points interact with magic...

Uh, sorry, I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean there?

[vicky_molokh]

I suggest compating the price of Extra Life to Back From the Grave.

[ravenfish]

I see no problem with 'em. I like the principle, and you seem to have thought things out.

Do Heroic Effort and Lucky Shot work on defense rolls? If so, I might foresee Flesh Wound being underused, since one could usually just bump up defenses so that one defends.

My only major issue is with a "per game session" point allotment. If each session has a similar number of challenges, all very well, but otherwise.... long game sessions become generally harder for the PCs, as the players must ration their points to a greater degree. Don't most GURPS meta-level advantages function "every X hours or minutes"? Just a thought, I'm no expert in game design, and I think what you have here looks workable as stands.

EDIT: Regarding Molokh's point on Extra life: Extra life guarantees that that you come back unchanged, whereas, if I read aright, Back From The Grave guarantees some transition issues. Of course, even the 15 point version would be a -40% limitation, if Fate Points and Character points scale one to one (perhaps a bad assumption), which seems a bit steep a discount.

[RapGangsta_G]

I like this rules, because they give the players more power over the plot and something of savety line when throwing them self in the line of fire.

But rule wise werent this something like a modular ability spoken in gurps rules? The cost point seem to be 100cp granting you the ability to, benchmarked at extra life, use 15cp in one time abilitys from a pre assembled list.

You could easily use this for any cinematic setting, you may even could make different list for different character types. But I am not sure how well balanced it would be, it would give you for an example two rounds(or even fights) bullet time via alterated time rate(90%cp for one time only abilitys).
Something like a one time talent would be even more unbalanced, able to nearly force a sucess for nearly any roll, who would need specialists at all when every Jo Everybody could succeed in any task once, with enough party members say 4 chars can ignore 8 skill checks.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Do Heroic Effort and Lucky Shot work on defense rolls? If so, I might foresee Flesh Wound being underused, since one could usually just bump up defenses so that one defends.

They do.

I doubt Heroic Effort could get overused since you have to pick before you roll. Lucky Shot definitely works though, but sometimes:
a) Players Assume/Hope that it won't do much damage
b) Characters don't see the attack coming, or cannot dodge it (area effect for example)

My only major issue is with a "per game session" point allotment. If each session has a similar number of challenges, all very well, but otherwise.... long game sessions become generally harder for the PCs, as the players must ration their points to a greater degree. Don't most GURPS meta-level advantages function "every X hours or minutes"? Just a thought, I'm no expert in game design, and I think what you have here looks workable as stands.

The number of Fate Points per meeting could of course be adjusted for short or long meeting, but I'd personally rather handle that as a "This session has been a long and tough one, Heroes get two extra Fate Points" than as a straight mechanic.
Still, cutting of two fate points for short meeting, or adding two or three extra at the middle of a long one makes sense.

EDIT: Regarding Molokh's point on Extra life: Extra life guarantees that that you come back unchanged, whereas, if I read aright, Back From The Grave guarantees some transition issues. Of course, even the 15 point version would be a -40% limitation, if Fate Points and Character points scale one to one (perhaps a bad assumption), which seems a bit steep a discount.

One to consider is that actually having the Fate Points to make use of your "Extra Life" forces you to hoard plot points unless you wish to spend character points to return from the dead (which costs 2x the parenthesis as noted if you use Character Points). Most of the time a player not suspecting he might die will probably spend most of his Fate Points dodging bullets, making mighty attacks and getting flesh wounds.

Finally, if that is not enough I'd consider "Back From the Grave" to be something of an unwritten advantage for the Heroes, they have an easier time than Specialists (who get a max of 2 Fate Points) getting back from the dead (compare to levels of Unkillable). One of the advantages they get in return for not getting the 60% Character Point bonus Specialists get.

Uh, yeah, and the whole Bumpy Ride stuff. The heroes are NOT getting out of death without scars.

[Huyderman]

IMHO this pretty much just sounds like the "specialists" have most of their points put into skills, while the heroes have greater-than-life advantages with a Costs Plot points limitation.
We could build a plot point as Energy Reserve (Slow Recharge, -60%; Abilities only, -10%; Real Time, +0%) [1], and call it Plot Points for brevity. They recharge one point per hour of real time, and can only be used to power Plot Abilities.
Plot abilities have the limitations "Can only use Plot Points, -5%" and one or more "Costs Plot Points, -5%".