Poker Chips

[Steve]

I've recently been considering using poker chips as counters when running Hero, and I was wondering if others have tried this.

 

It seemed like a good idea for tracking Heroic Action Points, Stun damage and maybe also Endurance.

[Hyper-Man]

It's an idea worth considering for heroic action points for sure.

 

For tracking STUN and END I would probably use extra percentile dice pairs for less clutter though. Most folks can come up with 2 matched sets of those in a pinch.

 

HM

[bluesguy]

For Champions I have often taken some grid paper and marked it up to help me track Stun, END and Body.  Then I put the sheet into a plastic protection sheet and use a dry erase marker to mark changes in Stun, END and Body.

[bigdamnhero]

For convention games and such I use Pente stones for Hero Points an such. I've seen poker chips used - they seem to be popular with the Savage Worlds crowd. Plus of course Deadlands.

[Altair]

I'm becoming increasingly pleased with physical props of this sort. I used Sentinels of the Multiverse damage tokens for Champions, and I've since picked up various poker chips for tracking different things across different games. 

 

Speaking as someone who loves character sheets/spreadsheets on my laptop, and tends to go all-digital more often than not, there's something deeply satisfying about tangible representation. I like poker chips, because they've got a solid heft to them, and it can be very gratifying to plop down a stack of chips at dramatically appropriate moments.

 

Which makes sense, given their origin. They should make you feel like a badass when you confidently thump them down; that's how casinos make money

[Steve]

For my Champions game, I'm thinking of using five colors: one for Heroic Action Points, two for STUN (in 5 point and 1 point increments) and two for END.

 

Looking over character sheets, it shouldn't take a lot of chips for each player, I don't think, and Amazon has some pretty good deals on daVinci 11.5g chips.

[bigdamnhero]

So does the player keep a stack of chips equal to their Characteristic, and they hand them in or something when they take damage or whatever? Or does the GM hand them them chips when they take damage, and they hand them back when they recover? I can see the former working for END, but it seems like the latter would work better for STUN & BODY.

[Steve]

I was going to give each player stacks of chips, from which they can toss their losses into a couple of bowls on the table as they lose STUN and END. They can then take them back when they get recoveries.

 

It's an experiment, since half of the table is new to the system. I thought it might make combat a bit more involving.

 

Handing them chips as "negatives" is an idea I'd not previously considered. My plan was to treat the stacks of chips in front of each player like status bars in a computer game. This would let everyone at the table know how healthy they were.

[Lucius]

I'm becoming increasingly pleased with physical props of this sort. I used Sentinels of the Multiverse damage tokens for Champions, and I've since picked up various poker chips for tracking different things across different games.

I bought some of those Sentinals Tokens for exactly that purpose. I use poker chips for Fortune Points (like Action Points but more flexible in things you can do with them.)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And a token palindromedary

[bigdamnhero]

So how would you handle negative STUN/BODY? Not trying to be argumentative - I like the idea, I'm just trying to visualize how it would work.

[Steve]

Perhaps negative Stun could simply be done with an additional color. When recovering, the player discards negative STUN chips instead of retrieving STUN chips from the bowl.

 

Body loss is easy enough to track without chips, since we are playing four-color Champions.

[Christopher R Taylor]

They're a bit awkward for stats, because where do you put them when they get "spent"?  Or go negative?  Then you need 6 colors (10's and 1's for STN, BOD, END).  

 

But for Hero points and stuff like charges, yeah.  Nice density, size, and durability.

[Surrealone]

I was going to give each player stacks of chips, from which they can toss their losses into a couple of bowls on the table as they lose STUN and END. They can then take them back when they get recoveries.

 

Be careful, because someone will invariably want to know how they can win the pot(s)!