Fortune Points: Giving the players control

Somewhat over a year ago I discovered a really interesting post apocalypse RPG called Atomic Highway. I can't remember exactly how I came across it but I know that I first used to to run a modern day cops scenario for some new role players which went really well. It's a very simple, rules light system that I thoroughly recommend you check out. It's also free in PDF form. :-)

Anyhow, although I love the system in it's entirety there's one part that I've ported over to other RPGs, especially Pathfinder, because it's such a good mechanic. It's called Fortune Points and there are similarities with bennies in Savage Worlds, fate points in WFRP and, of course, Hero Points in Pathfinder. I always felt that Hero Points were a bit fiddly and limited so I never actually used them.  Anyhow, whilst it's not an original mechanic per se it's the best implementation of it that I've personally come across.  I shan't outline the original mechanics here; Atomic Highway is well worth a read if you're interested in the original, instead I'm just going to talk about how I converted them to use in Pathfinder.

Fortune Points in Pathfinder RPG

I start with about 20 Fortune Points (FPs) divided amongst all the players, so depending on how many people there are, players get between three and five each. I sometimes give out  extra ones during play if someone does something particularly cool or funny but usually just two or three over a four hour session.  I always have physical counters that people can pick up and pass around, somehow it's just better than making them another number on the character sheet.

If you want to just test out the mechanic in your game you might try giving one to each player to start with.

Using Fortune Points

You can use Fortune Points in the following ways:

• You can spend one FP to change one d20 roll to a natural 20. You can't score critical hits from doing this but that's the only limit. You can use one to confirm a critical. You can only affect d20 rolls so damage cannot be affect.
• You can spend two FPs to create a plot tweak, a small change in the plot that you want to see happen.
• You can spend more plot points, typically five, to create a plot twist which is a more major change in the plot.
• Players may spend points on other players if they wish. They may also club together to buy plot twists and tweaks.

How this changes the game... in my experience.

Naturally this mechanic creates a few changes in the game dynamics but my group has found them really positive. The other members of the group who GM use them as well now. Your mileage may vary of course. Below I talk about the changes I've seen in about 15 months of using them in weekly games as both a player and a GM.  In general, being able to buy a roll of 20 when you really want one speeds up combat and mitigates the bad dice rolls that afflict some players.  Buying plot twists and tweaks allow the player to influence the story more.

Buying a 20

Player: "Darn, I missed and I'm sure I just need one more hit to bring him down. Okay, I'll spend a Fortune Point...

Fights go quicker because players spend FPs at important moments to get a hit or confirm a critical.

Player: "I leap across the chasm... Darn, I rolled a one. I'll spend a Fortune Point. Sooo, I leap across the chasm..."

I think you also get a bit more of a cinematic feel because dramatic moments are less likely to be killed by bad dice rolls.

GM: "The dragon sends ball of fire towards you. Make a Reflex save."
Player: Rolls dice. "Agh! Okay, I'll spend my last Fortune Point that's half damage. I'm still alive - barely."

Fortune points also help out with failed saves making the characters better able to deal with spellcasters and other creatures out of their league... at least for a while. I like this because it means I can put the party up against enemies which are mechanically too tough for them but should logically be be present in a given situation. You see the heroes get out of deadly situations by the power of fate, just like in a film or a book.  Players seem to enjoy that because it makes it easier for them to do cool things. And that's a big part of why we play.

But - and here's an important point folks; yes, Fortune Points give the PCs a bit more power but they don't make them invincible. If you're running a game with a lot of deaths this will slow it down but won't stop it.

Tweaking and twisting the plot

So much for buying the rolls you want. What about these plot twists and tweaks I hear you ask? Isn't that asking for trouble? Won't the players derail my game? Speaking as a low prep GM who does a lot of improvisation anyway, no.  Personally, I take the view that a large part of GMing is thinking on your feet anyway.  If you are someone who prepares in detail and finds it tough to improvise, then this might not be so good for you.

However, for me it makes GMing easier because it takes some of the work away from me and gives it to the players. It also means that the players have a way of telling me what they think is cool and want to see happen within the game mechanics. Having a mechanic for this makes it much easier for me to know what they want to see happen and what they think will be fun, and saves me a lot of guesswork. You can also find out how much they want to see it happen by how many points they're willing to spend and which players are willing to contribute points to make it happen. Keep in mind you can always refuse a plot twist, although I find it's seldom necessary.

You might well be asking what the difference between a plot teak and a plot twist is. To be honest it's pretty subjective as it depends on the individual GM.  A twist is something you think should be more expensive than plot tweak. Sometimes I'll ask for three or four FPs if I think it's somewhere in the middle. Sometimes I'll make it cheaper or more expensive depending on how much I like the idea and how many FPs are left on the table.

A few examples will hopefully help illustrate the differences. All of these occurred in Pathfinder games I've run over the last year or so. 

• The party have got themselves in trouble. They're in a demon infested wasteland, are injured and pretty much surrounded. The city which offers safety is another day's ride away. It was a big group and they offer me 9 FPs for some of the Paladins from the city to appear and rescue them.  Since it avoids a likely TPK I'm quite happy to accept this.
• The party are visiting the castle of a rather unpleasant knight called Sir Leontes. The barbarian unintentionally kills him when a 'friendly' practice fight results in him doing over a 100 points of subdual damage in one hit. The party looks around at his assembled guards, who were watching the duel, and spend 7 FPs. They decide the dead knight was loathed by everyone, including his wife, liege lord and the king, and that nobody will shed any tears for him. Instead of getting into trouble they become quietly popular in the town.
• Two friendly NPCs get statted up so that they can actually be of practical assistance to the party rather than just friends. One is a Cleric and the other is a Paladin. This is quite a big change but the party need all the help they can get at the moment so 5 FPs.
• The enemy army is going to have to come through some paddy fields, slowing down their troops and giving the players an advantage. 4 FPs
• Celene, an unscrupulous bard, has met a powerful fey called the King of the Forest. The player wants her to ingratiate herself in the fey court and offers me 3 FPs. I take them knowing that although it's a big change I'll be able to use it in interesting ways later on.
• One of the players really wants a dragon as a pet and they've just met a dragon who they are talking to. She asks if she can trade a magic item to get an egg. Since the egg won't hatch until I want it to this isn't going to break the game in anyway. She gives me 2 FPs and persuades the dragon that her magic item really is better than one of it's eggs.
• The party is carving out a kingdom for themselves but know that their enemies are only a few weeks away with a big army. They want the castles they control  to be well built and defensible. That doesn't seem like a big change as I was going to assume the castles were okay anyway so I just take 2 FPs.
• One of the party's allies happens to be in town and heals them up after a recent encounter with a rival adventuring party. They don't have a cleric and it just saves them a bit of time and money so I take 2 FPs.

That's all, folks. Congratulations if you got to them end of this rather bumper post! If you try using Fortune Points in your games I'd love to hear how it works out for you. Feel free to come back and leave a comment.

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RPGs: Names and voice acting for charcters

One of my favourite things about GMing is the opportunity to play lots of different NPCs, for me they're often what make the story interesting as they interact with the Player Characters.  Over time I've picked up a couple of things which I find make life easier and bring NPCs to life more. Two of the main ones are character names and voice acting.

Names are important but easily overlooked in the midst of prepping a session.  It's unfortunate because Bob the blacksmith sounds lame. His Royal Highness Darren the Magnificent doesn't really work either and Julie the Jedi is going to be laughed at too.  Players just won't take these characters seriously.

It's good to think about names as part of your preparation for a game; always name important NPCs before the session and say the names aloud to check they don't have any unintended comedy value! It's often worth printing out a list of names to keep with you in case you need one on the fly.  YAFNAG is good source of fantasy names but there are tons of lists of baby names out there which are specific to different languages and cultures: Aztec, Roman, Spanish and a zillion others are all out there. Try to choose ones that are easy to say: Tathren'orienel may look good on paper but people will find it hard to pronounce - let alone remember.

Following on from character names is one my favourite techniques: voice acting.  Apart from the obvious benefit that it aids to immersion in the game there are a couple of more subtle advantages. When I voice a character I've noticed that players seem to listen more. I suspect part of this is due to the novelty factor since they're probably used to my normal speaking voice, but I think they also assume I'm saying something important because an NPC is speaking.  It certainly seems to help with keeping their attention.

Voicing characters differently also makes it easier for players to recognise who they are talking to, which is very helpful when they are interacting with several NPCs at once.  It can be confusing to talk to several NPCs who all share the GM's normal voice as it isn't always easy to follow who has said what.

However, even beyond these, the main reason for voice acting is to aid characterisation.  There are a couple of ways to achieve this.  An obvious thing to try are accents.  Some people are natural mimics and others are not, but it's always worth trying even if the thought makes your blood run cold at first! If your game is set in the real world then trying to do appropriate  accents is nice; the players will feel more like they are in Paris if everyone they meet speaks with a French accent.  In a fantasy world you can also associate different races with real world accents. The most notorious example is the Scottish Dwarf which has become so clichéd that it just irritates some people. Personally I quite enjoy doing dwarves with a Russian accent.  Like helping players to identify individual NPCs, this can also help players to quickly identify where a new character is from.

A word of warning however: do not do an accent that strains your voice! Or at least not for a prolonged period as you risk ending up with a sore throat.

Other things to try are varying your tone of voice and the speed of delivery  Soften your tone of voice for speaking the gentle Lady Allena and make it louder and brasher for the drunken barbarian in the tavern. Speak slowly and deliberately for the wise old monk giving them advice and quickly for the rogue who is trying to talk his way out of a failed con.  With non human characters, think about how they might speak or what other sounds they might make. For example, anything reptilian I tend to give a sibilant voice whereas giants and ogres usually get a deep voice.

Pet topics and catch phrases are also good and don't require any ear for accents.  They can be anything appropriate to the character and the setting and serve the same function as accents.  They can also lead to some fine comic moments!  A few examples include:

• "I love the marine corps!"
• "Are you still carrying that Colt? The Smith and Weston is so much better.."
• "I suppose you can't help it, you are an Elf..."
• "What you really need is a horse and lance..."
• "Have you heard the teachings of Isis?"

How to put all this together then?  Easy - it's all about practice! Pick a character who you want to voice and try out some of the ideas above until you are satisfied with it. I often do this when I'm driving as it helps to pass the time.  You'll probably feel silly to start with but practicing will help you to get over it.  You'll also find that in the midst of a session, when you've got five players and your plot to think about, that it's much easier to do a voice you are familiar with.  With a bit of practice you can build up a repertoire of voices to work with.

Practising voices before the session also gives you a chance to consider some of the things your NPCs might say and gives you an excellent chance to get a feel for their personality. You don't want to learn a script and it doesn't matter if you don't say the things you were practising in the actual session; the main thing really is getting a feel for the character and how they speak.  Even if you don't do any voice acting as such, time spent 'rehearsing your lines' is always well spent in my view.

A few final words of advice. If you're not sure about all of this then start small. Think of a minor character like a barman or shopkeeper and try one or two of these techniques. You can then work your way up to doing major villains of your campaign as you confidence grows.  Don't worry about getting the voices perfect, and don't be afraid to ham it up a bit.  No one is going to get an Oscar for this kind of thing and it's unlikely your players could do any better! Remember, the important thing is to make the characters interesting and memorable and above all, have fun!

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Preparing your campaign: The Elevator Pitch

So you want to run a campaign. You tell your gaming group that it's going to be a sci fi adventure using Savage Worlds and they should make up some novice level characters. You meet for the first session and they enthusiastically describe their characters to you. Bob has a tough colonial marine type, Fred is playing a pacifist Vulcan scientist and Jane is playing a Jedi with no light sabre but a stack of magical powers. How, you wonder, will this work with hard sci fi Apollo 13 style scenario that you had planned? 

The problem here was that everyone has a different idea of sci fi.  All four people are referencing different bits of the genre and you've got ideas that are likely to conflict with each other. This is perhaps a slightly extreme example but many GMs just tell their players a genre and a ruleset and find that they run into difficulties later on because the game they want to play is not the same as the ones their players want.

The way to avoid this is to be clear about what you want to do from the start. This is where the elevator pitch comes in.  For me, this is the first and most critical stage in preparing a campaign. It's also helpful, although perhaps less vital, in creating a one shot adventure.  In case you haven't heard the term before, the idea of an elevator pitch is that you are in an elevator with someone important and have 30 seconds to sell them your idea, whatever that happens to be. The pitch needs to be clear concise and intriguing  So in terms of organising a campaign, it's a short description that gives the listener a good idea of what it's going to be about.  Sometimes a single sentence is enough. Some examples from campaigns I've run might include:

• "Star Trek meets Ridley Scott's Aliens."
• "Become a knight and rule a barony in the service of the king or the church."
• "Hard-bitten LAPD detectives take on cybernetically enhanced criminals in the near future."
• "A Game of Thrones with Elves and Dwarves and you need to put a member of your House on the throne."
• "Drive out the Dragon from the Elven homeland so they can return from their exile."
• "Star Wars before the Rebel Alliance appeared."

And a couple of example from one-shot games I've run:

• "It's Firefly and you're doing a job for Mr Niska."
• "You're ministers in the British government who uncover Cthulhu secrets, go mad and die."

Why is this helpful? Several reasons. One, you need to get clear in your mind about what kind of campaign you want to run. After all, if you don't know what you want to do in your campaign, how will the players know? It also allows you to establish the tone of the game; I find TV, film and book references helpful for this as they give people common points of reference. Keep in mind that if you're using a well established setting then players will expect certain things. For example, in Star Wars I would expect space fights, lightsaber duels and smugglers.  In Star Trek I would be anticipating more investigation and ethical dilemmas.  Both are sci fi but they are pretty different in tone and style.

Your pitch will probably also suggest how linear or sandboxy your campaign will be.  Some people have a strong preference for one or the other so it's wise to think about this early on.  You'll see that some of the above examples have a specific objective, others don't and in my experience both types of game can be good fun. Sandbox style games need plenty of interesting things for the players to do otherwise they end up drifting and people get bored. A more linear game with a specific objectives gives the player characters a goal to work towards and a sense of accomplishment when they achieve it, but they need to feel that they are actively shaping the story and are not simply puppets in the GM's pre-written novel.

An elevator pitch has another important task: it helps you find out if your players are interested in playing the game you want to run before you start prepping.  Yes, you could just announce that you're going to run that awesome My Little Pony RPG you bought last week but your players might not want to play it.  If they're your friends they may start the campaign for your sake but you'll likely run into problems.  People may start skipping sessions or the ponies might turn out to rather more violent than normal in the genre... 

Role playing is a cooperative hobby and it makes sense to find a game that everyone wants to play before you invest your time and energy in planning the campaign.  Just because you have a cool idea for a campaign doesn't mean it's going to work with your particular group of players at that particular moment. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea but it may simply  not catch their enthusiasm.  Sometimes the reasons for this are obvious, after all, if your group has just finished a long Pathfinder campaign they may not want to play another epic fantasy campaign right away, regardless of how neat the idea is. Sometimes people are just not interested and the reason why isn't really clear.

What I find best is to have a couple of ideas to put to my players before I do any serious prepping for the game.  I do this in a pretty informal way, usually chatting in the pub after the game. I talk about ideas I have for future games and see what people latch on to and also what they don't think will be fun.  I'm sure I've avoided some serious flops by doing this. For example, when I watched the first season of Sons of Anarchy on DVD I really wanted to run a campaign based on it.  Unfortunately none of my players were interested in motorcycle clubs or the TV show itself.  I also struggled to work out how to translate the TV show into an RPG, I just couldn't work out what I wanted to do in the campaign.  Happily I had other ideas, one of which grabbed the others interest and we did that instead.  We had a blast.

Keep in mind that one of the secrets to being a good GM is avoiding the obvious mistakes! Role-playing games run on the enthusiasm of the people involved.  Always find a campaign that both you and your players all want to play before you start and you're already halfway to running a fun game.

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