Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Jeff Carlsen]

*Update*
Just letting everyone know that the article is up. It's split between two posts:

Part 1 - Player Advice
Part 2 - GM Advice and House Rules

Feel free to give me any additional advice that you'd like added to the primers.

*Original Post*

I'm working on a post about bennies for Apathy Games, and I wanted to get peoples ideas before I set anything down.

I've discovered that new players get frustrated with the "Shaken" result until they figure out that bennies are an intrinsic part of the power of a Wild Card. But the only way to get them to loosen up and actually spend this resource is to make sure they see a regular flow of bennies being given to them for their actions.

So I ask a few questions:

* First, how often do you think players should be given bennies?

* What is a wise method for players managing this resource (i.e. do I always keep 1 bennie to soak?)?

* And for what actions do you give bennies?

I know that I've had combats where the dice went completely against the party and they blew through their entire load of bennies. I replaced them at the end of combat, but I told them why I was doing it, so that they knew this wasn't always going to happen.

Anyway, what are your thoughts? I want this article to be fairly comprehensive.[url][/url]
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Apathy Games
Zero Compromise Roleplaying.

[philth]

* First, how often do you think players should be given bennies?

When I feel they deserve them, though sometimes I'm looser than others, like when I'm introducing a new player or the players are having extreme bad luck.

* What is a wise method for players managing this resource (i.e. do I always keep 1 bennie to soak?)?

I always suggest saving at least one for a soak. Seems like whenever they have none is when I hit them hard. I don't hide my die roles, thou sometimes I wish I did.

* And for what actions do you give bennies?

I like to have a mix of rp and action in my games. I use the rp segment to give them a good opportunity to gain xp for playing up hindrances and good rp in general.

Sometimes thou Roleplaying segments can be scarce , ie. in a dungeon crawl that lasts multi sessions for instance. So I have other ways they can get bennies, by drawing my battlemaps, fetching my beer, looking up there own rules questions, reshuffling the deck when a joker is drawn, or just making me laugh.

[Amaril]

I have always liked the idea of rewarding bennies for playing to a character's hindrances. I feel not enough GMs do that. Hindrances are an important part of a character's composition, and players should be rewarded with bennies for acknowledging those hindrances and reflecting them in-game for the sake of their characters' stories.
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[Jordan Peacock]

I get the impression that I may be "overly" generous with bennies compared to how some GMs dish them out - but I think my players are usually happy, and that's what matters.

1) I try to make sure to give a player a benny if one of his Hindrances comes into play during a session - either in a way that it actually serves as a drawback to his character's success (his Phobia is invoked, or his Heroism prompts him to charge into harm's way to save an "unimportant" Extra), or it serves as a roleplay opportunity (he has a "Quirk" that he plays out). I try to limit this to "per session" rather than "per instance" - so charging into the fray to save 5 Extras doesn't equal 5 bennies.

2) If a player has chosen to go with a character who has a distinctive accent or other mannerisms that she plays out (and which aren't disruptive to the gameplay experience), I try to make sure to give out a benny for that. This usually happens early on in the game session.

3) If the players enter into a combat situation and anyone is OUT of bennies, I may pass out a benny all around to anyone participating. I don't want my players to "hoard" bennies, and I don't want them to enter a combat without at least one chance to Soak.

4) After a particularly dire encounter (one that ended up burning, as a rule of thumb, at least one benny per PC or thereabouts), I may pass out a benny all around to anyone involved.

5) After a particularly bad moment when it seems like the universe is just out to get a particular player (two or more critical fails in a row, target of a massively Aced damage roll, etc.), I may occasionally offer a "pity benny." This is a rarity, though. Mishaps happen often enough that it has to be pretty outstanding to merit special attention anymore.

6) When characters make punchy lines, witty remarks, snappy comebacks, clever tricks, inventive solutions (that may or may not actually work), etc., that in my unprofessional opinion add to the "story" element of the game, I'll toss out a benny. It has to be IN CHARACTER, though. Out-of-character wisecracks don't count. There are more of enough of those already.

Point #6 is the really messy point. If someone plays a character who's a mute or recluse, it may be entirely in-character for him NOT to be contributing in-character witticisms. Characters in the spotlight tend to get more bennies according to #6 ... and one may argue that getting to be in the spotlight is its own reward. I try to be fair and not to overdo it. I tend to be biased toward being more generous toward someone who has 1 or no bennies, and to hold off if someone's got a stack of them already.

It is not unheard-of for a character in the game to end up with a stack of 8 bennies at some point in the game - especially after a purely roleplay portion of the game. These tend to be burned away fairly quickly in combat anyway, and it's not as if my players end up striding in and thinking of themselves as invincible. Besides if we get to that point, it's only because I felt that there was some awesome roleplaying going on. I feel that in a cinematic or storytelling sense, the character with story presence deserves a certain amount of "plot insurance" to survive the character, moreso than a near-lifeless combat monster.

Anyway, I don't really mind so much if the PCs every now and then come out of combat with nary a scratch. The characters don't jump off cliffs, try to swim through lava, or shrug off loaded guns pointed at the smalls of their backs, as they might in certain other systems where "hit points" and other "gamer insulation" mechanics grant guaranteed avoidance of any consequence. In Savage Worlds, a generous stack of bennies can stave off the fear of freak "one shot PC kills," but even a single wound and its "mere" -1 modifier can be a serious hindrance.
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[Chezzo]

[TheLoremaster]

"The GM Cheated" Benny: if the GM mis-remembers or forgets a rule and later finds out that the PC would have benefited by the actual rule, every PC involved gets a benny. Happened most recently at CotC when I forgot that my vampire hit squad couldn't actually enter the building they were supposed to be attacking ...
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The Loremaster
Organized Chaos, Inc., est 1992

[Winsling]

I aim to give about two bennies per player per session. I think the next time I run a game, I'll give them two at the start of a session instead of three and hand out more.

I treat it as pavlovian conditioning - anytime I want to encourage a player I give them a bennie. It's on a sliding scale for me - a timid player might get one just for speaking up, while a more active player needs to work a little more.

[Merlin_Sylver]

If I remarked on this matter, it would just be a repeat of what these fine gentlemen have already said. Glad to see I'm not the only one loose with the bennies

[Jordan Peacock]

I will note that there's at least one downside to my generosity with the bennies: The "Cursed" Hindrance and "Lucky" Edge don't have much punch. In my experience, only a truly novice player picks "Lucky," and many players will take "Cursed" as a Hindrance if benny-worthy Hindrances won't do. ("Heroic" and "Curious" and "Loyal" tend to be popular choices for "good guy" characters since they're great benny-magnets from the GM ... and I'm just fine with it because it encourages the sort of gameplay I'm most comfortable with.)

If bunches of bennies will be gained and lost during a game, just having one less benny at the start won't have so much of an impact. The same applies for getting an extra benny. They have far more of an impact if the GM is particular stingy, and those starting bennies represent the bulk of the supply the players will have for the session.

I haven't tried tweaking it, though - it's the sort of thing that isn't strictly "broken," so there's no need for me to go out of my way to "fix" it with another house rule.

However, if I were to institute the "2 bennies at the start of the session" house rule above, it would make Lucky and Cursed a little more important at the start of the session at least.
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[The GIT!]

I'm pretty stingy with giving bennies out. I've run a number of games where the players only have the three bennies they started with. Edges such as "Lucky" are important considerations for the players. I do give out extra bennies for good role-playing and I always give a player a bennie if he fumbles a roll (but he's not allowed to re-roll the fumble ). That said, I've also run a number of sessions where the players all had five bennies each as they entered combat - that went pretty bad for the GM (me) but I still managed to make them use up the bennies.
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[Thasmodious]

[Takeda]

Well I played SWEX first at a con ... I was playing an unwashed Dwarf warrior. When I Uber-Raised a damage roll on a goblin and was washed in their blood I just rubbed it in "So they caen't smell me coming." And didn't bathe even after some of the townspeople gagged when I was around (unwashed was a quirk) I got a benny. I wasn't playing it to the hilt for the benny as I didn't know that would happen, didn't know the system much yet ... it was cool and encouraged roleplaying.

Many of you may remember the movie: Gamers where Ambrose forgot he has deathly afraid of water and had to be reminded. No benny.

If the party spotted the river some distance away and Ambrose had dug in his deals and started panicing, really played up the Phobia that would have been Benny time. The GM just has to watch that it isn't being abused ... every 'opportunity' should present itself uniquely or it becomes ritualized crap for the sake of a free edge (Lucky).
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Supernatural Quotes

[Jordan Peacock]

[drcheckmate]

This is a great thread.

I've had an idea for a while that may have come from these forums, but I don't remember. I haven't had a chance to use this in play.

I've been thinking of letting players spend bennies on each other, and changing or adding to the bad Luck Hindrance. Such unlucky characters would not benefit from other players' Bennies.

I don't think I give out enough of them as a general rule, but then again, it's a cold day in hell when my players actually SPEND theirs.
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[77IM]

I haven't tried this in Savage Worlds yet, but in a previous system (M&M) each player got one special "golden benny" per session (in M&M, it was a "golden hero point"), which they could NOT spend themselves, but instead could give to any other player as a reward for good role-playing. This took some of the burden of distributing points off of the GM, and encouraged players to entertain each other as well.

-- 77IM

[Lord Inar]

I only occasionally give out bennies for RP. I regularly (not in the rules) give out a benny when I use a GM benny, however.

Then again, most of my SW GMing is done in two hour chunks so I want the player spending a benny to have more meaning behind the decision.

In our Deadlands game our GM gives a bonus benny to whoever handles the initiative deck.
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Lord Inar

[Jordan Peacock]

[Poor Wandering One]

[Jordan Peacock]

[77IM]