Re: [HOE] Fate Chips and Bounty

[Matt Crawford <matt@severian.chi.il.us>]

> I'd like to ask you a question regarding Fate Chips and Bounty.  From 
> my experience running HoE, I find that players don't usually end up 
> with many chips for their character to convert to Bounty.  They tend to 
> spend it to try and survive whatever horror I send their way.

Coincidently, I just raised this issue with the DL group, where I'm a
player.  We got through Canyon o' Doom in nine (!) sessions and wound
up with little or no net gain in bounty+chips per character.
Everyone does usually buy off every single wound as long as the chips
hold out.  In some cases, it's because we've learned that the wound
penalties to actions really bite.

In the HOE group, where I'm on the other side of the screen, things
are somewhat the same.  Players have seen bad consequences derive
from distinctly non-fatal damage and so play it pretty "safe".

On the other hand, in both games I recall times past when the chips
piled high and had to be cashed in in great numbers.  (SOMEhow I
accumulated the 36 bounty points to raise a character's Spirit to
7d10!)

One player has resolved to cash in every chip at the end of each
session and start each time with just the three.  An interesting
approach; we'll see how long he lives.  Everyone else might do the
same just to avoid the onus of having to save his sorry ass at a
2-for-1 cost.  (Can we say ass on this list? :-)

In the last HOE session I did quietly manage to shame the main
chip-tightwad into spending everything he had, including a legend
chip, to cure the last innocent townsperson of a mutated virus.