Alternate crit/fumble rules

[LeperColony]

While I am pleased overall with the Revised Edition's changes, I find myself unsatisfied with the crit and fumble rules. Rolling a Threat die (to use D&D's terminology) is very 2003. For my FS game, I plan to use the following rule:

When the player rolls a crit qualifier, they may spend a Wyrd to double their victory points. When they fumble, they may spend a Wyrd to avoid catastrophe.

I feel this system has several benefits over the official rules:

1) It very slightly "nerfs" psychics and theurges by producing another demand on Wyrd points.
2) It eliminates a not-very-interesting roll mechanic.
3) It gives players a little more control over crits and fumbles.

Comments?

[Angelman]

I like that a lot. More uses for Wyrd is a cause I champion It also gives players more control, which they tend to like.
I will probably use this in my own games.

[LeperColony]

I also think that Wyrd should be more useful than it currently is. If you look at other RPG lines with a "specialness" mechanic (Void in L5R, Fate points in the Cortex system, Void in FFG's Games Workshop RPGs, Karma Pool from previous Shadowrun editions, etc), there are several effects that naturally suggest themselves:

1) Increasing Defense
2) Increasing Initiative
3) Modifying the plot in small ways (as in "you said there was a butcher in town? [spend a Wyrd] My cousin is a butcher on Sutek...")
4) Inciting other people's curses
5) Suppressing your own afflictions or curses, or activating your blessings

Of course you don't want so many effects that they simply overwhelm players, but at the same time, Wyrd should mean more to non-psychic/theurgic characters than it presently does.

[Gannok]

I disagree with the nerf element to psychics. Previously, unless you were a psychic/theurge, you had nothing to spend Wyrd on. It was a useless stat that just sat there and did nothing. Only psychics really got to use it any.

With the new rule set, people have a legitimate use for Wyrd now. It's not something to be ignored any more. Personally, I just do crit confirmation by making them roll the same roll again and just succeeding (and the reverse for fumbles, fail again), and don't make them pay wyrd to confirm. Plus, psychics are still way much more likely to buy up their wyrd pool anyways. So while a PC may have a wyrd pool of 3-5, a psychic is likely to have a starting pool of 8.

Personally, I've been working on some new rules for wyrd/psychics. To enhance it, not to change it. It's tied in to how things like Urge and the Dark Half work. As it is, it's REALLY hard for the Dark Half to ever awaken. I don't think I've ever been aware of it happening. It seems like so much wasted potential. So I've been working on a system to awaken it a bit more. Such as:

1. The Dark Half pays the Wyrd cost for psychic power activation (it spends 1 Wyrd only). This automatically awakens your Dark Half. If you do this while it is already awake, you now have to roll to see if you gain more Urge (Presence + Self Control). You're making a deal with the devil so to speak and usually those don't work in your favor.

2. I want to include Aiming for psychic powers. You spend a turn in concentration to get a +1 to the roll, up to +3 max. This would only benefit attack powers and short term powers (the ones that only last a couple of turns). While you are doing this, your Stigma is active the whole time you are aiming, just like when you use your powers normally. So it'll be pretty obvious you're using your psychic powers.

3. Whenever a player gains Urge, the Dark Half awakens. It's bolstered by it's gains and wants to have a merry little jaunt now.

Obviously you'll have to change psychic for theurge, and Urge with Hubris, but I think you get the point. These are currently unimplemented ideas, but I'm going to be probably trying them out soon. I have 3 players who are psychics, of both varieties, so I should have a good test bed.

[Bogie]

Wow. Such a simple thing. I LOVE it.

New uses for Wyrd are always a good thing. Up against the original deadline we really wanted to add a lot more things but we didn't have enough time for testing. I really like all of these ideas, let me know if you get a chance to try them in game and how they work for you.

[treorai]

By the rules as written, all of my players, whether their characters are occult positive or not, chew through Wyrd for rerolls alone. So I don't really need to implement any additional Wyrd tax in my group. I think they all got used to Unisystem Drama Points, Earthdawn Karma, and Savage World Bennies, because they don't even hesitate to spend Wyrd. Especially since you get to chose the better of the two rolls, they spend it pretty freely, even if they just want to see if they can squeeze out one or two extra VP.

[Bogie]