Resource Pool Questions

[Alverant]

Sorry if these have been asked before but I have questions about Resource Pools.

 

1) How does a GM keep players from exceeding their armory points? It's one thing to say "you have a 90 point limit" but what reason does the character have for staying within the limit? If there's physical room in his armory (say a footlocker) to hold 5 pistols of 20 pts each (giving him an armory of 100 pts) why should the character throw one of the guns away?

 

2) What happens if a character finds equipment that exceeds his/her "improved equipment" level? Say a Fed Up Normal (standard equipment) stumbles on an arms shipment and decides to take some SMGs before calling the police.

 

3) If a character captures a unique item through game play, does he/she loose the resource points when the item is lost/used up? Like some of the unique items in the Arsenal villain group? They paid character points for it, the PCs didn't so what happens?

 

4) How does the Contact Pool work? Do the PCs have to find and befriend the contacts or are they automatic?

[Rapier]

Re: Resource Pool Questions

 

Sorry if these have been asked before but I have questions about Resource Pools.

 

1) How does a GM keep players from exceeding their armory points? It's one thing to say "you have a 90 point limit" but what reason does the character have for staying within the limit? If there's physical room in his armory (say a footlocker) to hold 5 pistols of 20 pts each (giving him an armory of 100 pts) why should the character throw one of the guns away?

 

For the same reason that they can't throw a 100 AP power in an 80 AP MultiPower. Them's the rules. Yes, it is a meta-game/game balance type of reason, but those are the breaks.

 

The 'Armory' doesn't necessarily have to refer to a footlocker, the trunk of a car or a building in a house. It's an expression of the availability of a certain amount of Points.

 

2) What happens if a character finds equipment that exceeds his/her "improved equipment" level? Say a Fed Up Normal (standard equipment) stumbles on an arms shipment and decides to take some SMGs before calling the police.

 

Same as always, they can use it until the end of the session/adventure/story arc. If they want to keep it past that point they have to pay the points for it. This goes more towards availability of the contents of the Armory, not to how they are assigned. If the character wanted to put an RPG in his Armory, but doesn't have a contact that can supply one, he obviously can't have one in his Armory.

 

3) If a character captures a unique item through game play' date=' does he/she loose the resource points when the item is lost/used up? Like some of the unique items in the Arsenal villain group? They paid character points for it, the PCs didn't so what happens?[/quote']

 

Depends a lot. The GM could require the character to actually spend Character Points to keep the item, or allow the character to use Resource Points. But as above, to keep the item past the current story arc/session/night/adventure requires the expenditure of some kind of points.

 

4) How does the Contact Pool work? Do the PCs have to find and befriend the contacts or are they automatic?

 

It can work either way. The point of these Pools is that they are fluid. You can split them up as X points in this Contact/Resource and X points in that Contact/Resource one game and then change them out the next.

 

If a character has a background as an ex-FBI Agent, it would make sense to give them a contact (or three) with the FBI for free upon creation. All Contacts after that point should be developed within the plot. These Contacts could come from something as simple as bumping into someone in the grocery store to the infiltration of a corporation or some deep-undercover work or simply having the Mayor say "I want you to call Larry here if you need anything."

[MisterBaldy]

Re: Resource Pool Questions

 

For the same reason that they can't throw a 100 AP power in an 80 AP MultiPower. Them's the rules. Yes, it is a meta-game/game balance type of reason, but those are the breaks.

 

The 'Armory' doesn't necessarily have to refer to a footlocker, the trunk of a car or a building in a house. It's an expression of the availability of a certain amount of Points.

 

 

 

Same as always, they can use it until the end of the session/adventure/story arc. If they want to keep it past that point they have to pay the points for it. This goes more towards availability of the contents of the Armory, not to how they are assigned. If the character wanted to put an RPG in his Armory, but doesn't have a contact that can supply one, he obviously can't have one in his Armory.

 

 

 

Depends a lot. The GM could require the character to actually spend Character Points to keep the item, or allow the character to use Resource Points. But as above, to keep the item past the current story arc/session/night/adventure requires the expenditure of some kind of points.

 

 

 

It can work either way. The point of these Pools is that they are fluid. You can split them up as X points in this Contact/Resource and X points in that Contact/Resource one game and then change them out the next.

 

If a character has a background as an ex-FBI Agent, it would make sense to give them a contact (or three) with the FBI for free upon creation. All Contacts after that point should be developed within the plot. These Contacts could come from something as simple as bumping into someone in the grocery store to the infiltration of a corporation or some deep-undercover work or simply having the Mayor say "I want you to call Larry here if you need anything."

Rapier makes very solid suggestions here. It's actually some great gaming and game system advice.

 

Well stated... and "REPPED" accordingly, Rapier!!!

[Netzilla]

Re: Resource Pool Questions

 

Sorry if these have been asked before but I have questions about Resource Pools.

 

1) How does a GM keep players from exceeding their armory points? It's one thing to say "you have a 90 point limit" but what reason does the character have for staying within the limit? If there's physical room in his armory (say a footlocker) to hold 5 pistols of 20 pts each (giving him an armory of 100 pts) why should the character throw one of the guns away?

 

As I understand the rules, you don't. The armory grows and shrinks "organically" and is whatever size it is based upon equipment gained (found, gifted, etc). The main limiting factor is the 'carried' equipment. You start with a 60pt pool and a 90 pt armory. Your pool can't get any larger without you spending experience on it. The armory has no such limitations. So, assuming the above character already had 90 points of equipment in their armory, their new armory is now 190 points. Of course, they can still only carry 60 points worth of equipment at a time.

 

2) What happens if a character finds equipment that exceeds his/her "improved equipment" level? Say a Fed Up Normal (standard equipment) stumbles on an arms shipment and decides to take some SMGs before calling the police.

 

He can place it in his equipment pool no problem. Where the limitation comes in is in his ability to replace said items. If that crate of SMGs gets stolen out of his armory or he just plain runs out of ammo, he can't just run to the store and get more.

 

3) If a character captures a unique item through game play, does he/she loose the resource points when the item is lost/used up? Like some of the unique items in the Arsenal villain group? They paid character points for it, the PCs didn't so what happens?

 

Yes, the points are lost. However, this isn't a big deal because once the unique item was found, the armory grew by that same amount. Basically it's the same as finding then losing an Independent (-2) item that wasn't on your original character sheet.

 

4) How does the Contact Pool work? Do the PCs have to find and befriend the contacts or are they automatic?

 

The way I work the Contact Pool is that your character knows all of the contacts in the "armory", however, they can only attempt to contact/use as many points worth of contacts as they have in their pool. For example, if a character has a 10 pt contact pool (15 point armory) with 3 5pt contacts in it, they can only attempt to use 2 of those 3 contacts per "episode". They can choose which 2 they roll for, but they can only roll for 2. If they try to contact the 3rd, the roll automatically fails.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Resource Pool Questions

 

First, the pool BEGINS capped at 1.5; if you read further down, you'll see that after the game begins, you can store a rocket launcher in there -- you just can't carry it around. the real question is how do you keep people from exceeding their armories after they step onto the field?

 

Answer: you don't, really, you just assume that they won't abuse it, and require them to justify anything they pick up. There's usually no use for a thug's cheap firearm; there IS a reason to pick up the BBEG's highly polished and refined firearm. So there's that.

 

My mechanics are: "A gun, a car, and a best friend." In other words, you get enough Equipment to holster a piece and some body armor; enough vehicle points to have a ride, and enough contact points to buy one decent contact. All of those things are free.

 

After that, the PC spends any available points to improve those pools so they can, through RP, justify expanding their options.