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Purzelkater
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Joined: 14 Jan 2017
Posts: 33
Location: Germany
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 Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:02 pm Post subject: Live Point system |
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D6 can be a deadly system. Best way to be alive is not to be hit, you know. Well my group comes from Shadowrun 4 and it's a big change you can be dead by just one shot. 
To ease this, we are using a live point system, based on OpenD6 and inspired by Shadowrun. It's a combination of the D6 wound classes and hit points.
Based on the live points a character have, he is incapacitated, wounded, stunnend and so on. This levels are equal for all characters, so it's easy to handle. The different is how many live points a character can have at his maximum (full live points). This is based on the strength of the character.
As you can see on the chart, every NPC starts with 20 LP, PCs with 23 (because strength 1D is the minimum). So if a character suffers damage, he lost live points. But with a full healed NPC/PC you can take some little damage without negative effects. Injured characters have the same problems, no matter if PC or NPC. The different is, a PC has more maximum live points - call it the "hero bonus".
SW D6 Live Point chart (PDF, 103KB) |
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Ning Leihrec
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 211
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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| It's true that d6 can be a more lethal system, but that's one of the things I've always liked about it. That being said I do use a house rule allowing characters to roll stamina (up to their species' str max) to resist damage. |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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Joined: 07 Apr 2017
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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Why not just be more generous with Character Points?
That way, you don't have to bring in rules from outside the game. PCs will have a hard time dying, or even being hurt, if they've got a bigger pool of CPs to use in their defense.
Award a few CPs at the end of every game session, instead of at the end of an adventure. That should do it.
Be careful, though. I fell into a trap once being too generous with CPs. The players loved it, though. They were doing all sorts of heroic things. |
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Purzelkater
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Joined: 14 Jan 2017
Posts: 33
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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Well, we have played L5R before Shadowrun and so I know, to die every adventure is not the way, my players like. ^^
And yes, they could use CP for better damage resist but I know they wouldn't use it for this ("You could use CP for your roll..." - "Yeah, but... well, I think I will save my CP." - "You are dead." - "Uops...").
I have to say, we are new at SW D6 at all. |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
Commodore
Joined: 07 Apr 2017
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Purzelkater wrote: | And yes, they could use CP for better damage resist but I know they wouldn't use it for this ("You could use CP for your roll..." - "Yeah, but... well, I think I will save my CP." - "You are dead." - "Uops...").
I have to say, we are new at SW D6 at all. |
Interesting. When I over-awarded CP, the players always saved some to protect them from a blast or two.
Again, you designate some of the player's CP as your "Live Points". They would work the same as CPs, but you can only use LPs for defense.
In doing this, you're just tweaking the rules that are already part of the game--not bringing in new rules.
Maybe, a the end of each session, you award Live Points--that is, CPs that can only be used for defense.
At the end of the adventure, you award standard Character Points and replenish/award Force Points. |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
Commodore
Joined: 07 Apr 2017
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Purzelkater wrote: | | Well, we have played L5R before Shadowrun and so I know, to die every adventure is not the way, my players like. ^^ |
I never played those games, but I do know Star Wars D6 intimately. I prefer rough and gritty First Edition, but I've spent a lot of time with R&E, too.
The D6 system is very flexible. I can be very deadly and gritty. It can also be an extremely heroic, cinematic system.
One of the best controls on this is the amount of Character Points that the GM awards--and how often he awards them.
To give you an example of how heroic a game can get just by using these tools, we had a situation where a Scout Walker cornered the players on foot. In First Edition, this might have been a total party kill. But, this happened when I was running the super heroic game where I awarded CPs at the end of each game session.
Nobody got hurt!
The Scout Walker started blasting away, but the PCs had enough CPs to use on their Dodges that they didn't get hit.
The Wookiee in the group blew a Force Point, ran up to the Walker, and tore one of its legs off!
The Scout Walker went down.
And, the PC made mince-meat of the crew.
Trust me. If you just want to make the game less deadly and more heroic, all you need to do is award more Character Points. The players will use them for everything--try to remind them to keep some for defense--and yoru game will be very heroic with little chance of any of the PCs getting killed. |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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Another option is to allow pcs to get 'hero points' in addition to Cp. BUT hero points are ONLY spent on bonus dice. CP can be spent on dice OR skill improvements. Everyone get's say 5 hero points EACH session and any not used, are wiped back up to 5 at the start of the next session...
BUT usually i don't like doing these sorts of tweaks to the damage rules..
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Purzelkater
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Joined: 14 Jan 2017
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 3:00 am Post subject: |
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| Wajeb Deb Kaadeb wrote: | | Trust me. If you just want to make the game less deadly and more heroic, all you need to do is award more Character Points. The players will use them for everything--try to remind them to keep some for defense--and yoru game will be very heroic with little chance of any of the PCs getting killed. |
Okay, I will try it. ^^ To persuade my players to use their CP will be the most difficult.  |
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 3:19 am Post subject: |
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| Purzelkater wrote: | | Okay, I will try it. ^^ To persuade my players to use their CP will be the most difficult. |
How odd. Why would they hoard the CPs?
You could have a rule (for a while, then rescind it) where all CPs must be used every game session--or the CPs are lost.
Do that for a couple of game sessions, and I'm sure they'll start using them. 
Or, if you want to be little less draconian, just try suggesting the CP use often.
When a player wants to do something, say, "Well, the rules allow you to roll two more dice on that throw is you use two CP." They may be slow to catch on, but if you say it enough....
The other idea is to throw obstacles at them where they have to use CP in order to survive.
And, a last idea is...your players like to be heroic, right? Well, when they say that they want their characters to do X heroic feat, pour on the difficulty. Make the difficulty high so that CPs must be used in order to pull off the heroic move.
One of those ideas should work... |
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Zarn
Force Spirit
Joined: 17 Jun 2014
Posts: 698
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 5:12 am Post subject: |
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| Basically, you're looking for an equivalent of Shadowrun's Karma Pool. And the equivalent is basically Character Points and Force Points. Force Points being roughly equal to burning Karma Pool. |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Purzelkater wrote: | | Wajeb Deb Kaadeb wrote: | | Trust me. If you just want to make the game less deadly and more heroic, all you need to do is award more Character Points. The players will use them for everything--try to remind them to keep some for defense--and yoru game will be very heroic with little chance of any of the PCs getting killed. |
Okay, I will try it. ^^ To persuade my players to use their CP will be the most difficult. |
So since they don't want to use the CP to save themselves, why is it on YOU to come up with a less lethal game system?
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MrNexx
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Joined: 25 Mar 2016
Posts: 2248
Location: San Antonio
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:57 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | Another option is to allow pcs to get 'hero points' in addition to Cp. BUT hero points are ONLY spent on bonus dice. CP can be spent on dice OR skill improvements. Everyone get's say 5 hero points EACH session and any not used, are wiped back up to 5 at the start of the next session...
BUT usually i don't like doing these sorts of tweaks to the damage rules.. |
Whereas I personally prefer separating the metagame mechanics from the advancement mechanics, so something like that works well for me.
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
Commodore
Joined: 07 Apr 2017
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:25 am Post subject: |
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| MrNexx wrote: | | Whereas I personally prefer separating the metagame mechanics from the advancement mechanics, so something like that works well for me. |
I haven't actually played SW in years--decades--but back when I did, my group never used CPs for advancement. I always found that odd.
Maybe, if I ever play again, a system with Skill Points and Character Points separate is the way to go.
Or, I can award a number of CPs, then have the players decide, when they are awarded, how many of the CPs will be designated as SPs. |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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If i went that route, for say a session awarding normally 5cp.. 2 cp would be skill points, 3 would still be cha points.
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Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)
Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 10402
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Wajeb Deb Kaadeb wrote: | I haven't actually played SW in years--decades--but back when I did, my group never used CPs for advancement. I always found that odd.
Maybe, if I ever play again, a system with Skill Points and Character Points separate is the way to go.
Or, I can award a number of CPs, then have the players decide, when they are awarded, how many of the CPs will be designated as SPs. |
CPs already have the option of working both ways (to advance stats or burn for the temporary boost in play).
I have both skill points and character points. SPs are awarded as the base value for adventures, which will usually be the same for all PCs unless a PC was not in part of the adventure. SPs are only awarded at the completion of the adventure and can only be used to advance skills like they did in 1e. CPs are awarded as the bonus points for good roleplaying, etc. They can be awarded after the adventure, after a chapter, or for really exceptional cases instantaneously at any point during the adventure. Just as in RAW, CPs can be used as SPs, to improve other things besides skills, or to burn during play.
This doesn't address what the OP was going for but it does address those odd players that never improve their PCs and try to hoard all their CPs to burn during play (for luck instead of skill). The SPs can't be used that way and most PCs will get more SPs than CPs most of the time.
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