My tweaks to the game.

[robert4818]

I'm getting a game together for my group. However, I'm not a big fan of "Horror" games. To that end, I've taken to tweaking AOB to fit the style of play I want to run. (Though there may be horror adventures, I've stripped the as written concept of Horror, as a primary factor of the game, out.)

That style of play is largely going to be something along the lines of Hellboy Meets Bond Meets Warehouse 13.

To facilitate that feel, I've integrated the following tweaks to the game:

Action Surge.
(Stolen from the Pinnacle Forums). A player may Spend a Benny to take a single action at any time, once per combat round. (For the purposes of this rule, free actions count as a regular action). So, a player could get shot, spend a benny before damage is rolled, and take a shot of his own at the bad guy. A player could spend a benny to move, then use his turn to aim and fire. Etc.

Narrative Control
(Stolen from Thrilling Tales) A player may spend a Benny to gain a small amount of narrative control of a situation. The Big Bad may decide to spill the beans. The 1 inept guard may walk over within range of the player to attack. The trapped players spot a Trap Door to escape through. The boxes they are hiding behind may contain just what they need to make a small homemade bomb, etc. This, of course, is subject to GM approval, and if the GM says no, no benny is spent.

Team Bennies
The players have a pool of bennies known as Team Bennies. These may be spent for any Core Rule benny use. However, Team bennies must ALWAYS be spent on behalf of another player. So Bill can't spend a Team benny to soak a wound, but Bill could spend a benny to let Tom soak a wound. Team Bennies are refilled by sacrifices from players to the Team Benny Pot.

Earning Bennies
Since there is liable to be plenty of things to spend bennies on, players may earn bennies by playing up the "James Bond" aspect of the game. Witty one-liners, or "Bond-like" actions will result in the awarding of extra benny's. Playing up hindrances will obviously result in benny's. My goal is to be fairly liberal with them, depending on the player's consumption of them.

[ghostman]

I think there are better ways to handle what you are trying to do.

Some examples:
Action Surge:
there is a single use device (Microbubble) which gives you the Quickness power.
you can apply the quickness duration to however long you want it to go for. Although, you want to use it to interrupt an action, I don't think I'd allow that in a game I would run - you have to be on hold and be planning for it. I don't like off-the-cuff instant advantages.

Narrative control:
this is just having an open line of ideas with GM and players. Although, of any of your tweaks, this is the most likely for me to think about using. Personally, I let players come up with ideas to gain this same concept, without the potential loss of control.

Team Bennies and Earning bennies:
These are house rules. you can do whatever you want. We award bennies for a great laugh (in character line), a great discovery, etc. One house rule I thought of adopting was when the GM spends a benny, it goes to the character it most impacts.

[robert4818]

I think there are better ways to handle what you are trying to do.

Some examples:
Action Surge:
there is a single use device (Microbubble) which gives you the Quickness power.
you can apply the quickness duration to however long you want it to go for. Although, you want to use it to interrupt an action, I don't think I'd allow that in a game I would run - you have to be on hold and be planning for it. I don't like off-the-cuff instant advantages.

Narrative control:
this is just having an open line of ideas with GM and players. Although, of any of your tweaks, this is the most likely for me to think about using. Personally, I let players come up with ideas to gain this same concept, without the potential loss of control.

Team Bennies and Earning bennies:
These are house rules. you can do whatever you want. We award bennies for a great laugh (in character line), a great discovery, etc. One house rule I thought of adopting was when the GM spends a benny, it goes to the character it most impacts.

Keep in mind though, I'm going for a very "Action Movie-ish" sort of feel.

[ghostman]

Then I would merely add Bennies to the game, no need for characters to spend precious edges for Bennies..

Just house rule up some bennies:
everyone gets x MORE bennies
a pool of bennies for everyone to use

having more bennies will give characters the confidence to do more exciting things.

you could also create new bennies.

like a benny that lets you re-roll damage.
or a benny that, when spent, counts as an auto ace on the skill die for that roll, and the roll you make starts out at the second tier. (if a skill is at a d10, the player spends the benny, and starts rolling as if they already rolled an ace, so the minimum result would be an 11 in this example).

I guess I what I am trying to say is that there are ways to adjust the game without a lot of extra edges to remember. Although, new benny types are new and have to be remembered..

Just some thoughts, that's all..

[robert4818]

I'm confused.

None of the tweaks I've offered require an edge to use. They are simply additional house rules.

Narrative control - Spend benny for benefit, not an edge.
Action Surge - Spend benny for surge, not an edge.
Team Benny - Spend benny's for other players (reduces benefit of common bond), increases the cohesion of the team. Not an edge.
Earning bennies - Additional ways to get bennies, also, not an edge.

[ghostman]

My Bad! I think these are great tweaks if they aren't edges.
I'd be wary of the narrative control, however. With too many bennies, it could spin out of control fairly quickly. Keeping GM veto power is important, which you mentioned.

You could use different colored bennies to do different things. Like maybe give out one red benny for narrative control.

[robert4818]

My Bad! I think these are great tweaks if they aren't edges.
I'd be wary of the narrative control, however. With too many bennies, it could spin out of control fairly quickly. Keeping GM veto power is important, which you mentioned.

You could use different colored bennies to do different things. Like maybe give out one red benny for narrative control.

Narrative control is going to be the most difficult one to control. Though, the thing to keep in mind (for my players) is that its not an "I Win" button. Its an "Lets make things interesting" button. So, hopefully they don't try to use NC during a car chase to to make the chasing cars tire blow out. That would be a Veto. Now, however, to accidentally find out that the cab they are riding in, is actually also smuggling guns.....

[J Gregory]

I've used the Action Surge idea in most of my SW games for the last year or so, and it works brilliantly well for getting that pulpy, over-the-top style of action. I found that my players started to look for longer chains of actions and unorthodox solutions to problems that the Multi Action Penalty had always put them off of.

When I introduced the Narrative Control idea to my group, I went to great pains before the start of the campaign to make sure the players and I were on the same page in terms of the kinds of things that were and weren't acceptable - once we had an understanding, I never once had to veto an idea. In fact, a few times I wound up suggesting that they push their idea even further.

Both of these House Rules have brought a lot of fun and flair to our games. GM with a fair hand and neither of them will break your game.