Story Points and regeneration?

[simonf]

Given that no one wants a Disastrous regeneration result that causes a Time Lord PC to die, what's the view on using Story Points to get a Success or better on the roll?
I know it appears that Story Points can be used to bump up any roll but it feels like regeneration should be a slightly special case.

[misterharry]

I don't see a problem in allowing characters to use Story Points for the regeneration roll itself. The subsequent Aspect rolls are still random, so they could still end up with worse stats overall.

Personal preference of the GM, of course.

[simonf]

Apr 28, 2019 19:49:23 GMT misterharry said:

I don't see a problem in allowing characters to use Story Points for the regeneration roll itself. The subsequent Aspect rolls are still random, so they could still end up with worse stats overall.

Personal preference of the GM, of course.

That seems fair. One other thing, about changing Traits using the Time Traveller's Companion rules. Wherever it says to replace D3 or D6 Traits, I assume that the die roll determines how many Character Points' worth get changed, rounded up if it's a D3. So if I roll D3 and get 5 or 2.5 rounded up to 3, I could change 3 Minor Traits, 1 Major and 1 Minor, or 1 Special Trait costing 3 Character Points?

[misterharry]

No, not quite. The results in the Traits table state that you must replace (e.g.) "D3 Traits with Traits of equal value".

So, if the result is an Unstable Regeneration and your D3 roll comes up with 2, you must swap out two traits, Minor Good for Minor Bad, Major Good for Major Bad, and/or Special Good for Special Bad, the latter for equal (but negative) cost.

The total cost of the traits swapped doesn't matter - you could swap two Minor traits (total 2 points), two Major traits (4 points), or 2 Special traits (which could be 6 or more points), or any mix of these.

[simonf]

Apr 30, 2019 7:04:35 GMT misterharry said:

No, not quite. The results in the Traits table state that you must replace (e.g.) "D3 Traits with Traits of equal value".

So, if the result is an Unstable Regeneration and your D3 roll comes up with 2, you must swap out two traits, Minor Good for Minor Bad, Major Good for Major Bad, and/or Special Good for Special Bad, the latter for equal (but negative) cost.

The total cost of the traits swapped doesn't matter - you could swap two Minor traits (total 2 points), two Major traits (4 points), or 2 Special traits (which could be 6 or more points), or any mix of these.

Right... but that seems overly generous if your roll gives you a Positive Renewal as you can opt to replace D3 Major Bad Traits with Major Good ones. Conversely, if you do get the Unstable Regeneration result you can opt to minimise the damage by swapping only Minor Good Traits for Bad. So it looks to me like the best possible result can be amazingly amazing, whereas the worst could be... well, not all that bad really. 

[SoulDragon298]

Apr 30, 2019 14:37:19 GMT simonf said:

Apr 30, 2019 7:04:35 GMT misterharry said:

No, not quite. The results in the Traits table state that you must replace (e.g.) "D3 Traits with Traits of equal value".

So, if the result is an Unstable Regeneration and your D3 roll comes up with 2, you must swap out two traits, Minor Good for Minor Bad, Major Good for Major Bad, and/or Special Good for Special Bad, the latter for equal (but negative) cost.

The total cost of the traits swapped doesn't matter - you could swap two Minor traits (total 2 points), two Major traits (4 points), or 2 Special traits (which could be 6 or more points), or any mix of these.

Right... but that seems overly generous if your roll gives you a Positive Renewal as you can opt to replace D3 Major Bad Traits with Major Good ones. Conversely, if you do get the Unstable Regeneration result you can opt to minimise the damage by swapping only Minor Good Traits for Bad. So it looks to me like the best possible result can be amazingly amazing, whereas the worst could be... well, not all that bad really. 

As the show says, regeneration is a lottery. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. The TTC even has a whole page dedicated to explaining how you can make a bad regeneration work. It's a fun read.

[simonf]

Apr 30, 2019 19:41:14 GMT SoulDragon298 said:

Apr 30, 2019 14:37:19 GMT simonf said:

Right... but that seems overly generous if your roll gives you a Positive Renewal as you can opt to replace D3 Major Bad Traits with Major Good ones. Conversely, if you do get the Unstable Regeneration result you can opt to minimise the damage by swapping only Minor Good Traits for Bad. So it looks to me like the best possible result can be amazingly amazing, whereas the worst could be... well, not all that bad really. 

As the show says, regeneration is a lottery. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. The TTC even has a whole page dedicated to explaining how you can make a bad regeneration work. It's a fun read.

I know exactly which place in the book you're referring to, but if I can roll a die and swap any Trait or Traits I like it looks as if I can make the bad regeneration not so bad. I mean, if I end up with an Unstable Regeneration and get a 1 on the D3, I can opt to swap only one Minor Good Trait for a Bad one. Whereas it appears that I could get a Positive Renewal, roll a 1 and swap a Special Bad Trait for a Good one. I think I would want to balance that out a bit more.

[misterharry]

Apr 30, 2019 22:27:04 GMT simonf said:

I know exactly which place in the book you're referring to, but if I can roll a die and swap any Trait or Traits I like it looks as if I can make the bad regeneration not so bad. I mean, if I end up with an Unstable Regeneration and get a 1 on the D3, I can opt to swap only one Minor Good Trait for a Bad one. Whereas it appears that I could get a Positive Renewal, roll a 1 and swap a Special Bad Trait for a Good one. I think I would want to balance that out a bit more.

Well, I think a Time Lord's progress through their regenerations should be skewed towards it being positive, and I'd guess that most players wouldn't want to end up with a crap character after regeneration.

To an extent, it depends on if the GM trusts the players to play by the spirit of the rules and have an interesting character to roleplay, rather than just try to maximise their points. If they're of the latter persuasion, then your suggestion of making dice roll determine the number of points, not the number of traits, makes sense.