Author Topic: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?  (Read 4449 times)

Offline tetrasodium

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 150
    • View Profile
has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« on: October 30, 2011, 12:07:35 AM »
The milestone concept is a nice one, and I like it... but I find myself wanting for an experience/karma type of addition to the game to reward things like good roleplaying or contributions to the campaign website in minor but bankable ways.  Lets face it, fate points are cool and all, but I'd like to have something a little bit more fine grained & less immediate for stuff that would normally get a few % extra experience/karma in a d&d/shadowrun type game. I worry about the possibility of too many fate points floating around over time with using fate points.

does anyone have any thoughts on the idea, or even better a system they tried that worked well/comments on what failed with their attempt?

Offline Selrach

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 199
  • You'll never guess
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2011, 12:52:40 AM »
Have you looked at Skill points? I mean at some levels of refresh there are up to 5 skill points between levels of refresh. So either skill points are being handed out like candy at your game or they are getting skipped over...
Apparently I would much rather post than sleep.

Offline tetrasodium

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 150
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2011, 01:00:08 AM »
Have you looked at Skill points? I mean at some levels of refresh there are up to 5 skill points between levels of refresh. So either skill points are being handed out like candy at your game or they are getting skipped over...
Significant milestones (+1 skillpoint+minor milestone) aren't forgotten or overdone, I was just hoping for something a bit more minor

Offline EdgeOfDreams

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 332
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2011, 01:02:55 AM »
My group prefers to keep all players at equal numbers of skill points and base refresh as each other in order to maintain balance within the party.  However, our GM hands out a new skill point (a Moderate milestone) every few sessions, and a new point of refresh (Major milestone) at the end of each story arc.  So far we've gone from 6 Refresh/20 Skill Points to 9 Refresh/32 Skill Points in the course of maybe 9 months play time. (Not sure about exactly how long the game's been running, plus there's been breaks and such as well).

XP really isn't fate's style, but you could do something like that if you wanted.  Maybe have a stack of "awesome points" that are different from the fate points your group uses.  Do something awesome? GM gives you an awesome point.  Party defeats a big monster? Everyone gets an awesome point.  Five or ten awesome points could be traded in for a skill point.

The problem I have with that sort of system is it has the potential for the party to get out of whack, with the more creative or active players getting ahead on skills or refresh (or both).  This has a "winners keep on winning" effect where those who earn points are more powerful, so they've got more ability to pull off cool stuff, which gets them more points, etc. etc.

Offline Silverblaze

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1150
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2011, 02:24:26 AM »
I think the advancement system is fine.

That said, I think smarter more creative people should excel more in roleplaying games.  Stronger people are better at some sports, faster ones are too.  Some skills and mindsets are advantagous in CCG's (collectible card games) and chess.  They still maintain a large following and ability to be fun hobbies.  There's no reason more creative people shouldn't have an advantage in a roleplaying game.

Offline zenten

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 376
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2011, 02:36:44 AM »
I think the advancement system is fine.

That said, I think smarter more creative people should excel more in roleplaying games.  Stronger people are better at some sports, faster ones are too.  Some skills and mindsets are advantagous in CCG's (collectible card games) and chess.  They still maintain a large following and ability to be fun hobbies.  There's no reason more creative people shouldn't have an advantage in a roleplaying game.

But they do in Dresden Files.  They're going to rock at Declarations, for instance.

Offline Silverblaze

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1150
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2011, 02:50:55 AM »
I know, was just stating the opinion that there is nothing wrong with it.

As for me being fine with the advancement system...I meant hte curretn RAW one, unmodified.

Offline Magickal_Grenadier

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 79
  • Oh, what fresh hell is this?
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2011, 06:06:22 AM »
Do something awesome? GM gives you an awesome point.

Does making a legendary (yes, I rolled Legendary) Flying Assassin's Jump from the top row of seats in a coliseum and decapitating a Ghoul infront of a huge crowd of gang members and other Ghouls count as something awesome? :P
My Dresden Files purity rating is 43%

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side and it binds the universe together

Offline sinker

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2115
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #8 on: October 30, 2011, 06:19:30 AM »
You could try rewarding your players with aspects/declarations/tags. I've done that before. As far as the current advancement system there really isn't anything between skill points and temporary advantages (I.E. Fate points or aspects). If you're trying to create something then figure out how many "awesome points" equals one skill point or one refresh (a good way of looking at it is how often do you want them to be able to trade them in?) and then do that.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2011, 06:32:37 AM by sinker »

Offline Tedronai

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2343
  • Damane
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2011, 06:21:30 AM »
Does making a legendary (yes, I rolled Legendary) Flying Assassin's Jump from the top row of seats in a coliseum and decapitating a Ghoul infront of a huge crowd of gang members and other Ghouls count as something awesome? :P

No.

But surviving to tell the tale, does.
Even Chaotic Neutral individuals have to apologize sometimes. But at least we don't have to mean it.
Slough

Offline Magickal_Grenadier

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 79
  • Oh, what fresh hell is this?
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2011, 07:02:06 AM »
No.

But surviving to tell the tale, does.

We survived that.....................and were promptly captured by an Uber Ghoul that locked our friendly neighborhood Wizard, moi, in Thorn Manacles. Once we got those pesky things off, idiot left the key to them in the room with us, we high-tailed our asses out of there.
My Dresden Files purity rating is 43%

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side and it binds the universe together

Offline The Mighty Buzzard

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1041
  • Unemployed in Greenland
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #11 on: October 30, 2011, 06:56:02 PM »
No.

But surviving to tell the tale, does.

If you do it and survive, it's heroic.  If not, it's just stupid.
Violence is like duct tape.  If it doesn't solve the problem, you didn't use enough.

My web based NPC formatter, output suitable for copy/paste to boards and wiki, can be found here.

Offline Sanctaphrax

  • White Council
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12405
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2011, 09:06:49 PM »
What sinker said.

The very simple character stats of this game work against you here. There's no improvement that can be made to a character smaller than an extra skill point.

Though I suppose you could cut points of refresh in half.

Offline Rubycon

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 184
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2011, 10:50:26 AM »
There is a german FATE-based fantasy game where they use experience points instead of milestones. Basically, you can buy yourself the effects of the different milestones for your points, 5 points for a minor milestone, 20 for a moderate milestone and 50 points for a major milestone (hope a have the numbers right). That gives the players more flexibility and has more or less the same effect than the "pure" milestone-thing.
I'm thinking about integrating this system into my game...

Offline Sanctaphrax

  • White Council
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12405
    • View Profile
Re: has anyone tried an incremental advancement houserule?
« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2011, 11:13:41 PM »
Not sure I like the idea of paying for a minor milestone. The rest seems cool.