Luck and examples of luck.

[Herolover]

Hello all....

 

I am looking for some examples of luck. Not the power itself but the effects of the power.

 

What would be an in game example of 1 point of luck?

What would be an in game example of 2 points of luck?

3 points or over seems well defined. It is pretty much anything completely amazing.

 

So, if your player rolled 1 or 2 points of luck what could you have happen. Give me an example.

 

thanks in advance

[ghost-angel]

Re: Luck and examples of luck.

 

Here's an actual game example...

 

Had a character being chased down by Very Big Things (dreadnaught airships) as they feld the scene of a fight. The character was invisible, they were using AoE attacks. The good news? If I could make it to our own dreadnaught airship and get inside I'd be safe (we invested in a lot of armor. a lot.) There's our ship, floating where we parked it (anti-grav) and here comes little old me running like hell to get to it. I know about the bottom hatch so I'm going to dive under the thing in a last effort to not get splattered by the now incoming missiles.

 

I make the Dive For Cover - good acrobatics, so I only needed to roll halfway decent. I dive. I miss by just a smidged. GM rolls the Luck dice and I get Lucky. GM turns the near miss into A Real Close Call as I roll under the thing taking some minor cuts and bruises from a bad landing instead of being blown under by incoming fire.

[Trained Chicken]

Re: Luck and examples of luck.

 

What a swell GM!

[Sean Waters]

Re: Luck and examples of luck.

 

Luck is always something that is difficult to quantify. You can come up with rules, of course. You COULD say that 1 point of luck allows you to avoid a certain amount of damage - say (campaign average DC/2), for example.

 

I mean, if you think about it, 1d6 luck costs 5 points and activates 1 time in 6, so you could treat it as a sort of GM controlled VPP to get you out of trouble.

 

Doing it that way, it would activate 1 time in 6, which is activation on 7 or less, or (following the progression on the table) -2 1/2.

 

In addition we have no conscious control, except to activate, which is -1, so we have at least -3 1/2 in limtiations, which, applying in reverse to the 5 points is 22 points worth power. If you devoted that to a VPP (I know the logic is a bit spurious, but bear with me) that would mean a 15 point power with normal control cost.

 

So, arguably, on a points balancing excercise, the GM could (as a guide) apply an ad-hoc 15 point power for each point rolled as needed when a luck roll activates.

 

That's probably more work than you need to be honest, but it is not a bad guideline.

 

Of course you can just wing luck:

 

1 point will allow you to avoid a single bad consequence (an attack, a guard making a PER roll as you sneak past, even a disadvantage activating at an inconvenient point)

 

2 points will allow you to gain a minor advantage (not only does the attack miss, but it misses because the attacker slipped over, so they are prone and at a disadvantage, the guard missed the PER roll because his radio came on and he got orders to report to his Captain immediately, leaving the door unguarded...

 

3 points will allow a substantial advantage, or allow your luck to 'cover' others at a lower level

 

4 points and up will allow your luck to effect non-combat situations (the TV cameras happen to pick up your dramatic rescue of a child thus scuppering a local newspaper's smear campaign against you, a detective about to uncover your secret ID is kidnapped by VIPER and you rescue her - she is so grateful she helps keep your secret, etc, etc, etc....)

[Dust Raven]

Re: Luck and examples of luck.

 

Not a bad system Sean. I'd work the math a little differently however.

 

Since a 1 in 6 is roughly equal to a 7- chance, I'd go with an Activation Roll example as you did, but stick with the value for 8- simply because it's the lowest listed (and it's easier for the math). That gives a value of 15. 15 points is how much it would cost for a 10 point Cosmic VPP with No Conscious Control (at the -2 level). So I'd benchmark each point of Luck equivilant to a 10 point Power.

 

10 points can to a lot for a character though. It can get you moved about 5" in any direction, modify a Skill by +2 (assuming 5 point levels), provide temporary Life Support of any kind, provide up to 10 points of any kind of DEF, etc. These seem like a bit too much for a single point of Luck though.

 

Working from the chart given in the rulebook, I'd go with some of the following for examples of what can happen (few of which involves a spontaneous power of some kind):

 

1 point:

 

Your opponent is delayed for a Phase for some reason. He may drop his weapon or be out of ammo, get distracted by something or just stupidly boast about how great he is while you can use your action to save your butt.

 

Free PER Roll to locate something. Instead of rolling for a PER Roll (or even after you've failed one), you get a second chance ans succeed, but only barely.

 

You contact is out of town and you've no way to reach him, but his dim witted brother is there and offers to help instead.

 

The border patrol decides not to inspect your car while crossing the border.

 

The out of order vending machine you find while starving turns out only to be unplugged (and operates as if enough money were entered for one purchase).

 

You are late for your plane, but your plane had minor engine trouble and was delayed a few minutes (just long enough for you to make it).

 

2 points:

 

Your opponent drops his weapon into an inaccesible location or it breaks.

 

When you take knockback from the big nasty dude's punch, you miss the concrete wall and go through a window instead.

 

While searching for something (or not even looking) you just happen to pick up what you need absent mindedly or otherwise stumble across the clue you need.

 

As you speed through the intersection to get away, you cause a minor accident that completely blocks pursuit.

 

As you chase a fleeing enemy, he happens to run down a dead end alley.

 

Your story reminds the Mayor of a childhood dream he once had and drops the charges against you (for a violations such as theft, or property damage).

 

The cop arresting you turns out to be your cousin, and he lets you off "just this once."

 

3 points:

 

Evil Villian Man has you pinned to the ground and his Almighty Gun Of Hero Slaying pointed right at your head. As he cackles in triumph and shoots, the floor gives way throwing his aim off and freeing you.

 

After searching far and wide for Evil Villain Man, you get a good look at your postman and, guess what?

 

After getting tossed out the air lock, you are miraculously pickup in seconds by another ship (requires 4 points if your friend Athur Dent is saved too).

 

When all is lost and the world is destroyed and the villain has killed all your friends, you wake up to realize it was all just a kooky virtual reality training program... but now you know what Evil Villian Man's weakness is so you can stop him if it really happens.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Luck and examples of luck.

 

Kudos (and rep!) to both Sean & DR! I'd never thought of it that way (let alone done the math) but a 10-15 point "get out of trouble" VPP is a good way to think of it.

 

I've always swagged it much more generally: 1 point will turn barely-hit-you into just-missed-you. 2 points will turn a solid hit into just-missed-you. 3 points, anything goes. 4 points, the audience cries out "Oh get real!" and reaches for the remote control.

 

The only specific example I can call to mind was from my very first Fantasy Hero game way back when. I was playing a gambler-rogue character (sortof a fantasy version of Brett Maverick) who had 3d6 of luck. At one point, the Big Bad I'd been trying to avoid had finally caught up with me and was going to mash me into a pulp. I got in a lucky leg shot (his legs were the only place where his armor was light enough for me to penetrate), but it wasn't quite enough for an impairing wound. But I rolled (I think) 2 points of luck, so the DM ruled it was an impairing wound after all. I then kept circling around to his right, forcing him to put weight on his injured leg - DM ruled that put him at enough of a disadvantage to give him a DCV penalty (and maybe even an OCV penalty, I can't remember), which gave me just enough of an edge to win.

 

 

bigdamnhero

“Why should I trust you?â€

“Because I have the gun!â€

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Luck and examples of luck.

 

Some very nice ideas! I hadn't tried to quantify luck like that before, but is intriguing. I can almost see making a character with an actual luck vpp this way. Hmm, my head hurts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, wait, that's an idea...