Spending plot points

[gordox1797]

Hi all,

Most of the rules on Plot Points are easy for me to understand, and they're illustrated with great examples, but there's one I really can't get my head around for some reason, and that's the "Doing something remarkable" option. It's implied that this is a spend of Plot Points to achieve something, but does that mean it's just an automatically successful action? I spend 12 plot points and I get to fly the Pandorica right into the exploding TARDIS and reboot the universe, simple as at the end of an adventure? Or is there something more to it, is it that I'm given a pool of Plot Points to use in order to stack the deck in my favour for any actions I take at the end of the episode? 

I'm leaning towards the former rather than the latter, especially for situations like Rose absorbing the Time Vortex, that feels like the level of Deus Ex Machina that doesn't involve any role, but I'm unsure. The lack of an actual play example makes me uncertain.

Sorry for the ramble, just looking for clarification. 

[tampahawke]

Are plot points the 2nd Ed version of story points? If so they work like second example mostly

[gordox1797]

Are there differences between 2nd Ed and 1st Ed story points? I thought they were virtually identical in function.

[misterharry]

Story Points are still Story Points in 2e - I think "Plot Points" were mentioned in error. They're very similar in the two editions though with a few differences in detail. In general, spending Story Points gives you a bonus to succeed (or extra dice to roll, or a Skill which you don't normally have, etc, etc) rather than automatic success. An exception is described in the section titled "Doing something remarkable!" (page 104 of 1e, page 83 of 2e), which is along the lines of spending a lot of Story Points to fly the Pandorica into the TARDIS to reboot the Universe, or to allow Rose to absorb the power of the Vortex to destroy the Dalek fleet. This type of major bending of the plot can be automatic if the GM agrees to it, but they should come up with an exciting narrative to allow it to happen, rather than just saying "Yep, you succeed."

[gordox1797]

Sorry, you're right. I'd been reading a different book that had Plot Points as a meta currency, so I got my names confused. Thanks so much, it certainly makes the situation a lot more concrete for me. The average Who episode isn't gonna use the "Doing Something Remarkable" option, but when you want to break a Fixed Point or destroy an army of Daleks with a press of a button in a finale, that's when you do it, I figure?

[misterharry]

Dec 26, 2023 13:09:53 GMT gordox1797 said:

Sorry, you're right. I'd been reading a different book that had Plot Points as a meta currency, so I got my names confused. Thanks so much, it certainly makes the situation a lot more concrete for me. The average Who episode isn't gonna use the "Doing Something Remarkable" option, but when you want to break a Fixed Point or destroy an army of Daleks with a press of a button in a finale, that's when you do it, I figure?

Yeah, that sounds about right - season finales when everything is at stake, that sort of thing.

[thewarchief]

Dec 26, 2023 13:09:53 GMT gordox1797 said:

Sorry, you're right. I'd been reading a different book that had Plot Points as a meta currency, so I got my names confused. Thanks so much, it certainly makes the situation a lot more concrete for me. The average Who episode isn't gonna use the "Doing Something Remarkable" option, but when you want to break a Fixed Point or destroy an army of Daleks with a press of a button in a finale, that's when you do it, I figure?

I think that might also depend on the consequences of failing. Yeah, the new series tends to build up for big multipart finales where something big has to happen, but there are probably a lot of "minor" episodes where the fate of a planet of some such might be on the line that could lead to somebody "Doing Something Remarkable", even if it doesn't appear so on the surface.

For example in the Aliens in London/World War Three story, the Doctor comes up with the Slitheen being vulnerable to vinegar because it could be used to dissolve rocks-although not at the rate which it works on the Slitheen. Also, the Doctor gives Mickey a backdoor password into UNIT that lets him launch a missile, despite the fact that the password is a 7 letter word that is dangerous unsecured for such a organization.

THe Doctor being able to shrug off radiator by transferring it into his shoe in Smith & Jones could be another example, since Timelords are generally allowed to pull off wield bilogical stuff with story points (apparently the trick either wouldn't work for the tenth at the End of Time or he had used up all his story points.

But in all of those cases look at what would have happened if somebody didn't do something remarkable.


So in game terms there may be story points being used for "Doing Something Remarkable" that we might not even notice because of all the obviously remarkable things we are seeing on screen. They are just not the "save up your story points for something really big" examples.