My PCs have been burning through CPs to just stay alive!

[DougRed4]

My last two sessions have been pretty brutal. On Saturday night I nearly had a TPK, though one of the group was doing fine in his own ship (so I guess it wouldn't have been a total party kill!)

We've talked about the issuing of Character Points before. I go with the standard amount as recommended in the 2R&E rules, which means my players usually get 15 CP after a couple of sessions (about 5 hours each).

But these last two sessions have been brutal for my PCs. And the Star Destroyers challenged their much smaller ship significantly, nearly wiping them out entirely.

If anything, my campaign up until Episode IV (the one we're currently playing) has been pretty easy for them. Nobody had even spent a Force Point, and I don't believe a single person was ever injured.

So I turned up the heat and ramped up the danger. In the attack by Shadowtroopers, the Jedi was actually incapacitated, and the Barabel barely fought them off, being wounded significantly.

Then they fled into space, and the pilot of their capital ship burned through 26 CPs just to keep them alive!!! The Jedi also jumped into a co-pilot's seat and probably spent at least a half dozen more besides (we have a house rule for other pilots to help with ship's hull rolls when soaking damage).

Whereas nobody had popped FPs before, during the Shadowtrooper ambush the Barabel used one, and during this escape the Jedi and hotshot pilot each spent one, and the pilot dropped two! I plan on rewarding each of those four with a new FP (in addition to replenishing the ones spent).

Does anyone think it would be fair to give more than the standard amount of CPs, especially to the character who spent so much?
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[griff]

Yes. I have rewarded an extra CP or two for taking damage or being injured. And I an usually more generours with my CP rewards anyway. I usually start with a base of 15 plus an extra for great play, 1 for two sixes in in a row on the wild die. 1 if a player says their characters quote. Plus the before mentioned for taking damage or injury. I have a cap.of 21 co per gaming session.
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[aegisflashfire]

I never award CP's for dice rolls. I award them for mission completion, roleplaying, clever ideas, figuring out the plot, humor, that sort of thing. Occasionally I'll do it for stuff outside the game sessions. (I awarded a CP for writing a song for my Diva for example)
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[garhkal]

26 all at once? What was he doing with banking it all?

As for your question, i award 7 for an ave 4 hr game session, plus RP awards (voted on by other players, top 3 picks, highest gets +3, 2nd gets +2, and the third highest gets +1). Just cause they spent a lot should not mean you need to give more than normal, just to compensate.
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[Whill]

Doug, it sounds like you need to scale back the difficulty level of your adventures. I would do that before giving them extra CPs just for doing poorly.
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[Esoomian]

[DougRed4]

[garhkal]

I've saved up to the 30 mark before, always with a specific intent (boost str, dex or some other attribute at 3D through 3d+2 up one pip) but never just kept that many without a purpose.

As to your situation, perhaps the imperials get called off BY the inquisitor team, just leaving 1 ISD (no interdictor) and 2-3 squadrons of ties, while HIS forces take the lead to track the party.?
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[lurker]

[DougRed4]

I think I've had players save up more than 75 before.

It's not like they can spend more than 5 on any one roll (and that many only on defensive rolls).
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[garhkal]

True, but what about raising skills?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DougRed4]

Raising skills is mostly what my players have used CPs for. A big part of why this guy had even 26 saved is because he'd not paid attention to email that told him he'd earned 15 from a previous session.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[shootingwomprats]

I have been watching this thread with great interest. Character Point awards are always difficult for GMs and I am not exception. RAW says that CP are only awarded at the end of an adventure not the session and that awards are typically 10-15 per person.

Sometimes I award a few CP at the end of a session if everyone was having a good time, players did a good job with their characters or to help balance things out if the players had some rolls. During the game I will award CP if someone roleplayed really well or did something outstanding.

Players shouldn't expect to be able to do everything without failure but to find that balance where they have CP they can use but so many extra that it becomes a CP Auction.
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[Lane Arroway]

I tend to follow the RAW on awarding cps. Like the book suggests, in a long adventure I give out some cps in between. For example, my last adventure lasted 6 sessions and I gave out cps after the second, fourth and finally the sixth. My current adventure is going to last 4 sessions and I gave cps after the second and will in the end.
Something else I do, if a player does something awesome or makes me, or all of us laugh, I give a cp on the spot.

Regarding difficulty, one thing you could do is have a copy of the player's characters and play though your adventure alone. I have a mixed power level group so I have to tweak things sometimes. That said, I usually let logic and the villian's motives do the work. Think about it, even Han Solo ran away when it called for it.
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[DougRed4]

I tend to award after every two sessions (usually) as well, Lane, which pretty well synchs up with RAW.

While in the past I have actually played through some things, in this campaign it's a little more difficult, mainly due to how I'm running things.

In this game, I'm going much more for a "sandbox" approach. In other words, it's about as opposite from railroad/scripted as possible. I give the PCs a bunch of rumors (to their information broker), and they choose what missions or adventures they want to tackle. In some cases, due to the order of ones they've chosen, by the time they want to look into one of them after they've already taken care of others, that particular mission might not be available anymore (in other words, it got resolved by somebody else).

So this rough patch they've had lately is more the natural (Imperial) reactions and consequences for their actions. That might be a bit harsh, as in general they've tried to remain somewhat low-key. But they've used lightsabers on populated worlds, and word of that would spread back to the Empire (and the Inquisitor hunting them).

So - although it's much more difficult to plan for - I've tried to let them really steer the course of where they're going and what happens next. In this last one, I made up the ice planet they found on the spot (as they were fleeing the Star Destroyers) as a place for them to flee to.

Now I'll try to take it a little easier on them, being as they've been so relentlessly pursued lately (and been so overwhelmed). Generally speaking, they've mostly run when confronted with massively superior firepower.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green