Impulse Points and Common Sense

[Anders]

Pay 1 Impulse Point to have the GM evaluate your plan (honestly).

Originally the thought was to replace Common Sense, but there's a place for it after all.

What do you think?

[sir_pudding]

Common Sense (Costs CPx1/5) would be [2]

Personally I think the passive nature of common sense is where it's most useful. I have a few players, who always take it, that wouldn't spend points actively to evaluate plans. They want it so they don't accidentally set themselves on fire by forgetting they are standing in a vat of fuel or commit social faux pas or forget to buy the thing they came to town for, none of which is helped by a GM plan check.

[Aldric]

Not sure what the problem is, so no idea if and how this would fix it. But I'm not really a fan of spending CP permanently in general.

[whswhs]

I don't think it works. Common Sense is specifically the ability to have the GM tell you when you're about to have your character do something imprudent. If the player had the common sense to think that they needed to ask the GM, then they wouldn't need the Common Sense advantage for their character!

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Anders

I'm thinking of replacing Common Sense with Impulse Points (which will also replace Luck and Serendipity). Pay 1 Impulse Point to have the GM evaluate your plan (honestly).

What do you think?

That's a great idea, but you'd pay 1 IP for one use of Common Sense with Conscious on it to make it worth the while.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

That's a great idea, but you'd pay 1 IP for one use of Common Sense with Conscious on it to make it worth the while.

What if you don't put Conscious on it? You don't get to ask the GM for advice; the GM decides that your character has done something that's not prudent, and rolls vs. their IQ to see if they should ask you, "Do you want to think about that?" or something of the sort. So then does the GM just decide to take away 1 character point any time they think you're being imprudent or impulsive? Or do they ask you, "Do you want to spend a character point?" and by doing so, give it away to you that your character is being foolish?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by whswhs

What if you don't put Conscious on it? You don't get to ask the GM for advice; the GM decides that your character has done something that's not prudent, and rolls vs. their IQ to see if they should ask you, "Do you want to think about that?" or something of the sort. So then does the GM just decide to take away 1 character point any time they think you're being imprudent or impulsive? Or do they ask you, "Do you want to spend a character point?" and by doing so, give it away to you that your character is being foolish?

That's not how Impulse Points work, Bill. They are strictly voluntary. What Anders is proposing is essentially rubberducking the RPG in a meta way by asking if their idea, plan of action, etc. is good. They spend the point then the GM gives them an honest answer. With Conscious, the GM is obligated to give them a smart answer that fills in any gaps in a particular course of action. Not all players are good at coming up with sound tactical choices for things and being able to spend a Impulse Point (or character point) to essentially "double check" is a great option to have at the table.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Anders

Impulse Points (which will also replace Luck and Serendipity).

What happens if you use an Impulse Point as a substitute for Luck/Serendipity?

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by Anders

I'm thinking of replacing Common Sense with Impulse Points (which will also replace Luck and Serendipity). Pay 1 Impulse Point to have the GM evaluate your plan (honestly).

What do you think?

Well, if you're going to take away those, I think you should let the player buy renewable IPs, or a IP Pool, by 5 CP each, with 1 IP restored per session. Spending permanent points is unpleasing for the players that feel to be sacrificing their future and is bad because will weaken your players, particularly related to others. That may seem too cheap but it isnt, it means that for a player to change critical failure to critical success needs 5 IP, or 25 CP, and he will unable to replicate it for 5 sessions.

Additionally, let the player restore an amount of points per session by increasing by 100% for each extra point. For example, 2 IPs per session would cost 10 CP per level (min 2), 3 IPs/session cost 15 CP/lvl (min 3) and so on.

That way, for a player to have 5 reliable IPs that fully replenish at each new game session, he will have to buy 5 lvls of "IP Pool" by 25 CP each = totallying 125 CP, which is MORE expensive than Super Luck and confer a lot less uses, but is more malleable.

Turning that into this "Fate Power", let the player set 1 IP aside for the purpose of "Common Sense" only - or you could automatically ask for the player to spend one of these renewable IPs each time that you have to advice him (no need for him to ask for it).

[Varyon]

Personally, I'm inclined to essentially give characters a variant of Common Sense for free - if a player has their character do something (I feel is) stupid, and their character has the skills to know better*, I'll probably have them roll against said skill (or secretly roll it myself, depending on the group) and, on a success, tell them their character would know not to do that, and why... then let them decide for themselves if they want to go through with it.

*Me: "You enter a room filled with red barrels" - previously established as exploding if shot, as in innumerous FPS's. "You see the villain crouched at the other end of the room and he-"

Player: "I shoot him in the face!"

Me: "Um, okay. That's a -4 for Range, -2 for darkness, and -5 for Face - you're aiming specifically for the Face, right?"

Player: "Yep!" *player picks up dice*

Me: "Alright, first roll against Demolitions."

Player: :0

(A success would tell the player that the character realizes if he misses, the entire room will go up, taking out the villain in exchange for a TPK. The player could still decide it's worth the risk, of course. On a failure, well, he already declared his action, so he'd be beholden to go through with it.)


That aside, however, I think the proposal - spend on Impulse Point for an honest GM assessment of your planned course of action - is a great idea. If I ever opt to use Impulse Points, I think I'll include that option as well.