Resource System - Generalized

[jonrog1]

Hey all, X-posted from the Pinnacle Boards.

Really love the Resource Point system, and wanted to generalize it. This hack is tied into the great "prop" system from the Crafty MISTBORN RPG:

PC's start with 4 Resource Points, gaining 1 per Rank. So a Seasoned Character has 5 RP, a Legendary has 8, etc.

If appropriate, lifestyle/wealth increases with each Rank, with the PC being Rich at Veteran and Filthy Rich at Legendary. This implies, BTW, that the Edge RICH grants +2 RP, and the Edge FILTHY RICH grants +2 RP on top of that. Most of the Edges, both social and financial, fit right into this system.

1 RP = 4 Equipment Picks. (Those who remember the SG-1 game will remember this system). Common items are 1 EP per. Armor is 1 EP per +1 bonus, up to +3. The GM may rule some items are inherently 2 EP. It's not advised, in FFF spirit, to make the system more granular than common/uncommon, 1 EP/ 2 EP. Per AoO, weapons can have special properties added by spending EP.

1 RP = A Favor, either pre-selected from a list or to be used later.

2 RP = Equipment or training that spoofs an Edge. An Item of Power, etc.

1 RP = Single Use Item, like a potion in a Magic Fantasy setting.

The RP's reset during any long rests -- 1 week or more in between missions.

RP's for either equipment or Favors can either be spent in a pre-determined way or requested in the Field. There is a built in Benny/RP economy, but you should go see the AoO rules for how to do that.

FAVORS

Each PC starts with Influence with 1 Faction, based on his background. Depending on the Campaign, a Faction can be as broad as "Crime" or as narrow as "The Green Gang". The Connections and Obligations Edge either grant a +2 to the Persuasion roll for a Favor in a Faction the PC already has, or allows the PC Influence with a whole new Faction. A CONTACT serves as the PC's proxy in a Faction he has no influence with, is of the same rank as the PC, and making Persuasion Rolls at d6 for Novice, d8 for Veteran, and d10 for Legendary. If the Contact is in the same Faction, then he can make Cooperative rolls with the PC on his Persuasion rolls. (The Field Requisitioned "Contact" works the same way)

PC's can accumulate "Favor RP's", good for one Favor roll from a group or Faction. Once spent, that RP does not reset between missions. The GM can make a PC spend more than 1 RP if the Favor is particularly demanding. If the GM wishes to include "financial boons", it's suggested that 4 Financial RP's be spent to create one permanent RP. Otherwise, the Financial RP's should be spent on a per mission basis, for Favors and such. (NOTE: personally, I'd avoid anything but Favor RP's, and adjust lifestyle by rank)

Bribes are linked to lifestyle, with modifiers to the Persuasion roll set by the GM

The Favor Chart

Novice - Simple Favor. example: Info, Rumors.
Seasoned - Tricky Favor - borrow weapons, light duty extras, etc.
Veteran - Difficult Favor - citywide cover-up, heavy weapons, combat vehicles
Heroic - Very Difficult Favor - access to large amounts of cash, top secret documents, local laws get rewritten, etc.
Legendary - Near impossible favors - raise an invasion force, change national laws, etc.

To get a Favor from a Faction you have Influence with, roll Persuasion. Success grants you a Favor of your rank or lower. A raise allows you to get a Favor of one Rank higher, but costs another RP. (NOTE: GM's may wish to rule that RP doesn't reset until the PC's next Advance, to represent the PC "throwing his weight around")

As usual, an example is usually the best way to explain things:

Jan Kormick is a Justicar, an Undead Hunter in a steampunk low-magic fantasy game. He's Seasoned, so he has a base 5 RP. He has the Obligation "Justicar" (and therefore Influence with that Faction), and the base Faction of "Merchant Houses" based on his background. He has a Contact, Nyoko, who works the "Underworld" faction. Thanks to some work in previous adventures, the royal House diRaprezzi owes him 1 Favor RP.

He and his party are hunting down a cabal of necromancers.

He spends 2 RP at the beginning of the mission to gear up with 8 Equipment picks, including his Warhammer and Chain Armor. That leaves 3 RP in general and 1 Favor RP from the diRaprezzis.

The party discovers that there's an assassination contract out on one of the group. Jan contacts Nyoko, who acts as his proxy in the Faction of Underworld. Jan spends 1 RP to have Nyoko make a Persuasion roll, where she gains a success with no raise. As she's the same rank as Jan, she can do Tricky favors. The GM rules killing an assassination contract is a higher level favor, but grants that the killers will not be a problem for a while, as they haggle over price, etc. He now has 2 RP and 1 Favor RP from the House diRaprezzi.

Later, Jan discovers that the necromancers are smuggling artifacts through the docks. He spends 1 RP to get a Favor from his Merchant Connections, and rolls high enough to get Info -- the Necromancers will be at a society party that night, looking for victims. (NOTE: The GM may either not make the PC roll if he's asking for a Favor well below his Rank, or not make him spend the RP. Still working on this.)

Access to society Party seems like a Favor from the House diRaprezzi. Jan spends that Favor RP, makes his Persuasion roll. He now has access to the party, and the diRaprezzis consider their debt paid. Knowing he'll be facing Undead, he spends his last RP getting Single Use device from the Justicars -- an Undead Ward. He could have instead gotten a squad of Justicar Extras to help him out.

So that's the system, with a few things left out to keep from poaching Reality Blurs copyright. Any comments or questions?

[ghostman]

Cool.. I like it.

I don't think that this works real well in a fantasy setting, though. It only works on a mission-based game. I am not saying you can't have a fantasy mission based game, but typically adventurer's are independent - something that doesn't work too well for modern games. Good work, I like the generalization.


I also like abstracting money using a wealth system - d20 modern did it. You don't have 8 dollars, you have a lifestyle that 8 dollars a week can support.. or 800, or 8000.. or whatever. it was interesting. You basically had items in brackets, and anything in lower brackets were available, and anything in the same or higher brackets, cost you levels of wealth.

[jonrog1]

To tell you the truth, I like INcome Levels too, but the RP system screamed for expansion. The idea that characters in fiction tend to have certain "props" is very,very nice game design on the part of Crafty.

[razorwise]

To tell you the truth, I like INcome Levels too, but the RP system screamed for expansion. The idea that characters in fiction tend to have certain "props" is very,very nice game design on the part of Crafty.

First off, thank you for digging the Resource System. It was something I struggled with for quite a long time. The feedback initially came back about how it worked, but it was a sticking point with me because it slowed things down more than I cared for. Your observation on keeping things from getting too granular is astute. The aforementioned earlier iteration was guilty of such offenses. What we ended up with was far more playable merely by sacrificing some of the finer points on the shrine of simplicity.

Nice work, John! It's interesting how you mention Favors here, because that's something I've woven into the fabric of Echo of Dead Leaves. Are you peeking at my design documents? I like the way you broke it out into a broader scope. In all honesty, I was so focused on accomplishing certain end goals, this never occurred to me, but now seems quite obvious. If you want to shoot a copy of your generalized resource doc my way (with the missing Reality Blurs bits), I'd love to lay it out, and make it available for download.

Best,

Sean

P.S. The original post on the Pinnacle site must've gone up while I was out of pocket at Genghis Con. I have yet to track it down, so if you could provide a link, that'd be great. I haven't read Mistborn yet. I suppose I need to get on that.

[jonrog1]

Glad you dug it, Sean.

Crafty is actually a frustrating design house -- easily some of the best guys out there, but for a while they were chasing the "ultimate configurability" prize by chasing ultimate granularity. Kind of Paizo's style. Apparently there's a new SPYCRAFT coming out eventually, and based on MISTBORN I'm excited to see how this style change -- an embrace of FATE/SAVAGE WORLDS style playing -- flavors that doc.

I'll kick you the completed "Generalized Resource Points" system sometime soon.