Luck points as experience

[Mr. R]

Over on RPGnet there is a thread about a game called Fabula Ultima.  It has a luck point mechanic where.... here:

 

Quote

You earn Fabula Points whenever you Fumble a roll (roll two 1s), whenever a Villain appears in a scene (even if it's a cut scene where the PCs aren't present), whenever you Surrender in combat (this earns 2 points), or whenever you invoke a Bond or Trait to deliberately fail a roll.

So it's really in the players' hands how often Fabula Points are earned, though the GM can influence that by having Villains show up more often.

One thing I love is that the system encourages you not to hoard Fabula Points. The more you spend in-game, the more XP you earn at the end of the session. You take all the Fabula Points spent at the end of the session, divide that by the number of players (always rounding down) and then that amount gets added to the XP you earn. It's pretty clever. I'm going to encourage my players to freely spend their Fabula Points.

 

So I was thinking, we have a Luck Point System (optional).  encourage the use of the luck points by tying it to PC development.  

 

What do you think?

[Christopher R Taylor]

I think that RPGs need to rethink the entire system of rewards.  XPS should be a part of the mechanic, but there needs to be other kinds of rewards and consequences to help encourage role playing as well as to make the world feel bigger and more full.  Giving people Hero points is one of those options

[Duke Bushido]

8 hours ago, Mr. R said:

 

So I was thinking, we have a Luck Point System (optional).  encourage the use of the luck points by tying it to PC development.  

 

What do you think?

 

Ar first blush, given that the current mechanic for PC developement is XP, like offerinf the chance to burn XP to re-roll a die or similar "luck" mechanic, which will ultimately stunt PC development (or perhaps "slow it down a bit," which isnt necessarily a bad thing in a heroic-level long-running campaign.

 

Alternatively, it means double-develooment rewards by providing both XP and "luck points" for the same in-game benchmarks and achievements.

 

Which, as I understand it, isnt too terribly far from the Hero Points thing that is already extant for 6e.

 

Overall- at least for the Hero Points thing- I personally am not a fan: I rather enjoy having to cope with the whims of the dice as a representative model for a fickle universe, but there are a lot of folks here who welcomed the shoehorning in of the mechanic.

 

 

[Hugh Neilson]

I don't think they have to be used to modify die rolls.  For a Champions game, one might be able to spend a point to modify a power based on its SFX (those one-time stunts we see in the comics pretty routinely).  M&M allows that, I believe.  Perhaps the cost of a Power Stunt escalates if it's used for the same stunt more than once (if you want a readily accessible power, shell out the points).

 

These could replace xp awarded for good role playing, and be awarded at every instance of good role playing, making those rewards both more tangible and more immediate.