permanent/temporary score changes

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CapnZapp
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permanent/temporary score changes

Post by CapnZapp »

If you lose points/take damage from an ability score, it heals back each night, yes. Okay, so you need to keep track of your original (or "maximum") score. Otherwise rest would just increase every score to 18 (or whatever the maximum is). Got it.

But then, when you lose and gain Luck, I'm led to believe this works differently. You burn luck, and your score is permanently reduced. The Judge gives some luck, your score is permanently increased. No need to keep track of your original score.

But Thieves and Halflings "heal" Luck. So for them, you need to keep track of the temporary score separate from the maximum score, right?

But what happens then if a Thief is awarded some new Luck points?

If the score just randomly happens to be very low for the moment, getting a few points of Luck back is next to worthless. All this does is speed up "healing" a couple of nights. But if the score happens to be right next to the maximum, you suddenly increase your class ability immensely, since this would push up the maximum permanently?

What gives here?

Questions:

1) should you keep track of your maximum (or permanent) and current (or temporary) ability score values separately?
2) does this work the same for all scores?
3) does this work the same for all classes?

If any question has a "no" answer, please specify how things do work. Best regards
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GnomeBoy
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Re: permanent/temporary score changes

Post by GnomeBoy »

1) Yes.
2) Yes, but Luck is the exception. Most Classes just track where they are *right now* for Luck.
3) No, Thief and Halfling Luck recovery/gain is different.

...how is it different? Different groups will handle it differently. My answer is that for those two Classes, an award at the end of an adventure may only get them back to full faster OR it may raise their "max" score to a new max score. When it raises their total faster than their healing would, that's not worthless, unless you consistently consider that there are weeks of time between adventures. If instead, the end of one adventure dumps you into the next adventure, that award is very valuable. And if the award is greater than what they've spent in the course of the adventure, then they have a new maximum to keep track of... I cap all Ability Scores at 18, unless there is something *extra* going on, so that means eventually a Thief or Halfling could get to a score of 18. In practice, I haven't had this happen -- and off the top of my head, I'm not sure I've seen very much max Luck increase going on. It's one of those things that sounds scary ("Oh, no! They'll both get 18s!!"), but in practice it's been a non-issue.
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CapnZapp
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Re: permanent/temporary score changes

Post by CapnZapp »

Okay, so essentially you're saying is: if you're lucky enough to be at, say, 13 out of 15 Luck when the Judge awards everybody in the party 3 Luck points each, then yes, your new permanent or maximum score is 16.

If you happen to only have 10 points right now, your score remains capped at 15 (with your current score at 10+3=13).

This way the your-current-value-heals-up-to-this-but-no-further score will eventually* reach the maximum.
*) for a value slightly faster than the heat death of the universe... or the death of your character if that happens sooner ;)

Perhaps more practically, it means playing a Thief or Halfling with a low starting Luck score perhaps isn't the hopeless endeavor it might first look like (in contrast to the experience of playing an Intelligence 3 Wizard, say).

Am I understanding you correctly?
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Re: permanent/temporary score changes

Post by BanjoJohn »

I have a house rule for thief's and halflings where they get "double" the bonus they would normally get if they burn a permanent point of luck.
So for most classes you just track what your "current" luck score is.
For Thiefs and Halflings you track your "current" luck score and your "maximum" luck score. Temporary burn one point of luck to gain the normal benefit (roll one luck die for thief, get +2 for self or +1 for party members for halfling) , or burn one point of permanent luck and gain (thief gets to roll two luck dice, halfling gets +4 for self rolls, +2 for party member rolls), I've also allowed them to burn a permanent luck point for some other bonuses as well.

For luck recovery, they regain their "current" luck score on a daily basis(one point per level per day). But I do let them increase their "maximum" luck at the end of adventures even if they have a reduced "current luck" because I give them reasons and benefits for burning permanent luck points.
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GnomeBoy
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Re: permanent/temporary score changes

Post by GnomeBoy »

I'd say that's accurate to my approach.

I'd also say that that Int 3 Wizard isn't hopeless either, if a Judge is responsive to the players. "Quest for it" is one of the beating hearts of the game, so why can't that character aspire to become better in a world full of transformations, transmutations, wonders hidden deep within dangers... if they can find a way, they could become the mightiest wizard ever. It may kill them in the attempt, they may or may not like the price they have to pay, but the opportunity should be there...
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CapnZapp
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Re: permanent/temporary score changes

Post by CapnZapp »

Thank you.

I see this is repeatedly asked, so perhaps a suggestion would be to improve the rulebook language for the next edition.

Cheers
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GnomeBoy
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Re: permanent/temporary score changes

Post by GnomeBoy »

You're welcome.

And asking questions of the text is how we arrive at running it our own way -- feature, not a bug, IMO.
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Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

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