Re: [DL] Charting Survival vs. Fate Chips

["Daphne Brunelle" <dbrune4@po-box.mcgill.ca>]

> My point:  Players don't have as much fun if their characters are dying, or
> aren't advancing.   Remember, you can always give bounty points instead of
> chips.  Maybe work out a balance of both, so that characters have chips in
> hand when the baddies approach, and have points for a new skill at the end
> of the day.

My two cents on the matter: I think that this is probably a good idea,
although straight-out Bounty Points should be given sparingly. We only got
them once, when our posse defeated a Greater Manitou and restored an Old One
to life after a retooled version of Canyon o' Doom.

>>     I'd say you're probably just giving away too many chips.  I haven't had
>> a character die in my Hell on Earth campaign yet, but I regularly beat the
>> hell out of them and make them use up most, if not all, of their chips.  On
>> average, I'd think that a player should have 2-6 Bounty Points worth of
>> chips left at the end of a session for advancement.  Sometimes a character
>> will have more, sometimes less.

Chip attrition is one of our Marshal's specialties. We've kind of wised up
to his evil tricks so far: "Would you care to chip that roll?" after we've
rolled a nine or an eleven is usually a tip-off that he's trying to con us
out of a chip. Or when the information we're looking for isn't that vital.

Of course, then he just brings out the big guns and thwacks the chips out of
us. ;-)

>>     Generally, I give a Red Chip and one or two White Chips out after a
>> combat, or a Blue Chip and some lesser chips if it was a particularly tough
>> fight.  I give out the occasional White or even Red Chip for roleplaying
>> Hindrances and doing something inventive during a game, but that's the
>> extent of it.  It has to be something pretty impressive for a character to
>> get a Blue Chip, but that's the way it should be.

Our Marshal gives out mostly Red Chips after an encounter, usually one each.
When there was a particularly difficult or evil thing to defeat, we get a
Blue Chip.

On one occasion, when our MiB heroically put himself between my character
and a Diablo (the Marshal was particularly evil that day and decided he was
vulnerable as long as he was in physical contact with either of the two
characters with 5 points o' grit), the Marshal rewarded him for his
stupidity and dumb luck with a Legend Chip.

White Chips are an entirely different matter. We get those mostly for smart
quips during the game (and man, are we good at that!), and less for
roleplaying  our Hindrances. Hell, if we got one every time our Hindrances
came up, we'd be drowning in the things, so our Marshal has been sparing
with them.

As a last note, our Marshal also likes to encourage player participation
outside of gaming time as well, so we get chips for write-ups, for bribery
(our Marshal has a penchant for cactus juice, of all things), and lately for
ordering PEG stuff directly from the website. Colour of chip depends on
quality, quantity, and the Marshal's mood. ;-) Basically, whatever we come
up with that's above and beyond.

Okay, that was more like a dollar's worth, but since it's Canadian, I figure
it all evens out. :-)

Daphné
--
"I don't know about you, Scully, but I am feeling the great need to blast
the crap out of something."
        -Fox Mulder

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