Post by monkeylite on Feb 2, 2011 11:13:48 GMT
Hi,
Lots of issues with Story Points came up in our last session especially on combining the various uses of SPs, so I'd be interested in people's here take on things.
If you spend some SPs on 'What's that you're building,' say, then do you rule that once you've spent the SPs, then the desired function occurs, or do you still require a roll (which could still be very difficult). ie, is the underlying philosophy of the purchase that you change the actuality, or that you change the possibility, iyswim?
Needless to say, I as GM favoured the latter, and the players favoured the former. But I can see their point, because, who wants to spend a load of SPs to make, say, a Vortex manipulator interact with a computer system, and then still be left with the difficult job of reprogramming the system, and having to spend SPs to help the hacking attempt roll.
Also, it was remarked that being able to spend points on 'we only get one shot at this,' followed by points on 'That was close...' takes a lot of jeopardy away. The players felt that the decision to spend points before the roll was trivial, because it could always be mitigated afterwards. There was a suggestion that if you do spend points to add dice, then you shouldn't be allowed to nudge the result afterwards.
Another thing, my players were using points to add dice (we only get one shot at this) quite freely, whereas the wording in the rules seems to suggest that this might only be good for very special circumstances. Is that how people play it? Istm, I don't really want to get into making that sort of judgement. If the player thinks it's important enough to spend a SP, I don't want to be saying, 'well, is it really that vital?' The player's perception would seem to be key, here, right?
All in all, I'm really loving the game in general and I like the SPs thing, and I like the main system, but I do find at times, especially towards a denouement, that the underlying game changes from a dice rolling one to a Story Point economy, where the attributes/skills etc system gets left behind. Not sure this is a flaw, however, but it does feel strange, sometimes.
Lots of issues with Story Points came up in our last session especially on combining the various uses of SPs, so I'd be interested in people's here take on things.
If you spend some SPs on 'What's that you're building,' say, then do you rule that once you've spent the SPs, then the desired function occurs, or do you still require a roll (which could still be very difficult). ie, is the underlying philosophy of the purchase that you change the actuality, or that you change the possibility, iyswim?
Needless to say, I as GM favoured the latter, and the players favoured the former. But I can see their point, because, who wants to spend a load of SPs to make, say, a Vortex manipulator interact with a computer system, and then still be left with the difficult job of reprogramming the system, and having to spend SPs to help the hacking attempt roll.
Also, it was remarked that being able to spend points on 'we only get one shot at this,' followed by points on 'That was close...' takes a lot of jeopardy away. The players felt that the decision to spend points before the roll was trivial, because it could always be mitigated afterwards. There was a suggestion that if you do spend points to add dice, then you shouldn't be allowed to nudge the result afterwards.
Another thing, my players were using points to add dice (we only get one shot at this) quite freely, whereas the wording in the rules seems to suggest that this might only be good for very special circumstances. Is that how people play it? Istm, I don't really want to get into making that sort of judgement. If the player thinks it's important enough to spend a SP, I don't want to be saying, 'well, is it really that vital?' The player's perception would seem to be key, here, right?
All in all, I'm really loving the game in general and I like the SPs thing, and I like the main system, but I do find at times, especially towards a denouement, that the underlying game changes from a dice rolling one to a Story Point economy, where the attributes/skills etc system gets left behind. Not sure this is a flaw, however, but it does feel strange, sometimes.
