An idea on expendable characteristics

[JmOz]

I had an idea on how to handle Stun, End, and Body

Each character is given 6 pklastic cups, 3 clear, 3 colored(Blue, red, green)

In the clear cups each character is given a number of beads equal to Stun (Blue), End (green), and Body (red)

Everytime a character uses end or takes damage the beads are removed from the clear cups and placed in the colored ones in the appropriate cup.

This will make it so that everyone can see how you are doing, but not knowing exactly how it is going (you can see that GROD is hurt and tired because of the low stun and end left, but you don't know his stun or endurance total)

Thoughts? ANything I am overlooking?

[prestidigitator]

Originally posted by JmOz
Thoughts? ANything I am overlooking?
Sounds like a cool idea. Just maybe a lot of bead counting rather than a little subtraction. You might put the beads in the colored cups to begin with, so you don't have to go hunting and pecking for the right colors. Then you could even just use white beads, and only count on the colors of the cups (at least if you had transparent colored cups--they do exist, but I don't know how easy they are to find). :)

[prestidigitator]

You could alternately use a few d100, d30 or d20s, depending on the characters' maximum values. Of course, this kinda takes away from the whole qualitative feel.

[JmOz]

I found the beads at wall mart the other day for $3 a pack of 650, that is what gave me the idea...

[Bartman]

I like the idea in concept, but it seems too fiddly to actually do in an already long combat. I can subtract 17 from 43 far faster than I cancount 17 beads. Besides my gaming table is too small to add a couple dozen cups to it as well.

[Fuzzy Gnome]

I think that's a nifty idea! Instead of beads maybe you can use army counters from Risk. They have different denominations and they're easy to count.

[badger3k]

Just don't use m & m's! (Patty's Perps reference)

[zornwil]

Originally posted by Bartman
I like the idea in concept, but it seems too fiddly to actually do in an already long combat. I can subtract 17 from 43 far faster than I cancount 17 beads. Besides my gaming table is too small to add a couple dozen cups to it as well.

This is how I feel - and especially in a high-powered game, that's where my concern is. Also, if you do it for NPCs (agent-level ones which you might have lots of) it would be even slower.

But I do really like the concept, so I wouldn't give up on it. Will think some more about it. It is also a good way for the GM to see that the players keep up with their usages. I just can't do that without it taking too much time, so I leave them to it. At least this way I could mention it if they aren't clearly making at least the action, regardless of whether they get the math right.

It's not in the same spirit, but maybe some number cards on the table they just change.

[Killer Shrike]

Use three different colors of beads for 1's, 5's and 10's -- that will speed up the counting (much like in RISK). Dice will do in a pinch -- most gamers have some d4's, d8's, d10's, d12's and d20's lying around -- might as well get some use out of them.

<table style="Border-collapse: collapse;width=50mm;"><caption align="left">METHOD 1: Heroic</caption> <tr><td>d4</td><td>1's</td></tr> <tr><td>d8</td><td>3's</td></tr> <tr><td>d10</td><td>5's</td></tr> <tr><td>d12</td><td>10's</td></tr> <tr><td>d20</td><td>20's</td></tr> </table>

<table style="Border-collapse: collapse;width=50mm;"><caption align="left">METHOD 2: Superheroic</caption> <tr><td>d4</td><td>1's</td></tr> <tr><td>d8</td><td>5's</td></tr> <tr><td>d10</td><td>10's</td></tr> <tr><td>d12</td><td>25's</td></tr> <tr><td>d20</td><td>50's</td></tr> </table>

Instead of using 6 cups, use 3 per player and dont use colord cups, just use clear tumblers (so the colored beads are discernable) -- just label them with a whiteboard marker or something similar. The cups hold their totals. Remove beads from the cups when they take damage/use END.

I wouldnt recommend trying this system with NPCs however -- just players. GMs already have enough to keep track of....

[JmOz]

My general plan was to use it for NPC Characters, but not "mooks", the idea of multiple types for 5's and 10's is intriguing