Just had a wacky idea about "Luck"

[finarvyn]

It's probably way too late for this, but a thought popped into my head and I thought I'd share it here.

One thing that frustrates me about Luck is the fact that you burn it up and it's gone. In a life-or-death situation burning Luck is a worthwhile expenditure of resources, but for a simple +1 on a die roll Luck is too valuable to spend most of the time. While there may be ways to restore it, this makes Luck a very expensive currency and not a big impact on the game most of the time.

What if it was more fluid? I'm thinking of making Luck for all characters similar in some ways to the way it's done for Halflings, where you recover Luck after every adventure (not every day).

Think about this: a character has a Luck score, which provides a Luck modifier. Suppose that Luck modifier became more like the "action point" where a character had that many re-rolls or do-overs in a single adventure, then they would reset before the next adventure. A lucky character would stay lucky.

For example, suppose a lucky person has a +3 modifier and this could become a three re-rolls in a critical time of the adventure.

On the other hand, an unlucky person has a -3 modifier and this could become three unlucky re-rolls in the adventure. (You made the roll, now try again. ) I'm thinking that the Game Master would control when the bad re-rolls had to happen, and certainly if the character rolls well enough he might succeed anyway. The GM would have to do his best to use those negative re-rolls and not let the action finish first. I suppose a kind GM might have the character fail at things early while a mean GM might force several re-rolls at the pivital point in the adventure.

Anyway, probably too late for discussion but it was in my head so I thought I'd pass it along.

[jmucchiello]

You are proposing replacing the luck modifier with what most RPGs call action points. I think that idea floated around before.

http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... 507#p42507

[finarvyn]

I knew that it was essentially Action Points, but I didn't recall that it had been mentioned before in this context. Do any RPGs deal with negative Action Points?

Anyway, thanks for the link!

[Tortog]

It's probably way too late for this, but a thought popped into my head and I thought I'd share it here.

One thing that frustrates me about Luck is the fact that you burn it up and it's gone. In a life-or-death situation burning Luck is a worthwhile expenditure of resources, but for a simple +1 on a die roll Luck is too valuable to spend most of the time. While there may be ways to restore it, this makes Luck a very expensive currency and not a big impact on the game most of the time.

What if it was more fluid? I'm thinking of making Luck for all characters similar in some ways to the way it's done for Halflings, where you recover Luck after every adventure (not every day).

Think about this: a character has a Luck score, which provides a Luck modifier. Suppose that Luck modifier became more like the "action point" where a character had that many re-rolls or do-overs in a single adventure, then they would reset before the next adventure. A lucky character would stay lucky.

For example, suppose a lucky person has a +3 modifier and this could become a three re-rolls in a critical time of the adventure.

I think it's a neat idea; but once each point is expended, does that drop their luck score to the match the new bonus?

On the other hand, an unlucky person has a -3 modifier and this could become three unlucky re-rolls in the adventure. (You made the roll, now try again. ) I'm thinking that the Game Master would control when the bad re-rolls had to happen, and certainly if the character rolls well enough he might succeed anyway. The GM would have to do his best to use those negative re-rolls and not let the action finish first. I suppose a kind GM might have the character fail at things early while a mean GM might force several re-rolls at the pivital point in the adventure.

I'm not a fan of 'taking away' a players success. I would say that the a character with a negative bonus simply has no ability to re-roll dice, or what ever else Burning the bonus directly might bring. I'm inclined towards noting which character has the lowest luck score, and having anything bad that happens starts with the unlucky one. Sort of like the antithesis of the Halfling luck charm ability.

Anyway, probably too late for discussion but it was in my head so I thought I'd pass it along.

While I agree it is probably too late for action; a good discussion is always welcome.

[Ravenheart87]

I was thinking about rerolling luck every morning/week. There are days when you're lucky, and when you're not, no matter what you do.

[finarvyn]

once each point is expended, does that drop their luck score to the match the new bonus?

My thought is that the actual stat would stay the same. The +/- modifier would just give an indication of the number of Action/Luck points to be spent.

I'm not a fan of 'taking away' a players success.

In general I agree, however if a player has bad luck he would know in advance that this was coming. Also, it wouldn't disallow success but would force the player to roll again. They might still succeed but they just would have to overcome some bad luck to do it.

I would say that the a character with a negative bonus simply has no ability to re-roll dice, or what ever else Burning the bonus directly might bring.

The problem being that a -3 modifier would be exactly the same as a 0 modifier.

I'm inclined towards noting which character has the lowest luck score, and having anything bad that happens starts with the unlucky one. Sort of like the antithesis of the Halfling luck charm ability.

Also a wonderful approach. Amber Diceless does this with "Stuff" which is a lot like luck; folks with lots of "bad Stuff" are the ones that tend to have the bad things happen to them.