Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Armmeggedon]

I'm working on a little something, and I'm wondering about others experiences with using both types of AB in the same game.
Do the power point users seem like they run out often, while the no pp ones can keep going?
Any other things to watch for?
_________________
When the world is mine, your death will be swift and painless.

[Drue]

I leave the choice to my players, not as a group, but individually -- take an AB, decide if you want to use points or not for it. So far, everyone has elected to use points. Sometimes they run out, but the backlash on the no points option can be pretty harsh.

If I was more of a stickler for record-keeping and time-tracking, I might get different choices. The Triple Ace pulp rules (points recharge after a fight) works well enough and tracks with expectations for folks coming from computer RPG -- mana charge rates tend to be dramatically higher out of combat.

[catalac]

hmm yes it has been done successfully. deadlands reloaded is an official example of how it works. the thing about no power points is that people tend to have nasty effects for failure and often a penalty to their rolls to boot. so they are often sorta balanced.

[77IM]

At higher levels -- particularly Legendary when you can get the Professional and Expert edges -- the no power points option really shines. You can basically start tossing bolt and blast all day long. And instead of spending 4-5 edges on Power Points, you can buy Luck, Great Luck, Elan, and Combat Reflexes, which all have utility beyond just spellcasting. But at lower levels, using power points option seems better, because even if your skill isn't that great you can still reliably cast a combat's worth of spells without lighting yourself on fire. So the two options seem roughly balanced to me.

-- 77IM
_________________
Stuff I made: Arcane Abilities · Talent Edge · Savage Fading Suns · Savage Wuxia!

[Mylon]

The fact that a dedicated caster doesn't need to buy the Power Points edge makes powerpoints-less casting seem too good.

[77IM]

Yeah but he's taking a penalty on all his casting checks and on any failure he Shakens himself and drops all maintained spells. So that kind of sucks. This penalty effectively means the no-power-points guy has a weaker spellcasting skill.

Consider a beginning mage with Spellcasting d8 trying to cast invisibility:

• The guy with power points will succeed about 80% of the time. On a failure, he's basically fine.
• The guy with no power points will only succeed 50% of the time (due to the -2 penalty) and on a failure he is Shaken and sad.

The guy with no power points might not need to buy the Power Points edge but he is going to be spending his advances dealing with that penalty and the Shaken. He's going to have to max his spellcasting die much sooner, and for less benefit (because of the penalty). He'll probably want to pick up Luck, Great Luck and Elan.

I've never tested the two casting styles against each other in a campaign, but on paper they look roughly balanced (each has its pros and cons, and each seems powerful enough to be worth having).

-- 77IM
_________________
Stuff I made: Arcane Abilities · Talent Edge · Savage Fading Suns · Savage Wuxia!

[Armmeggedon]

All good points...basically I'm working on a Fading Suns conversion, with a creamy layer of 40k, and some Burning Empires and Firefly sprinkled on top.
I think Psi works better as a power point using ability, while Theurgy is better without. Weird Science, of course, is also mandatory, because it's awesome, and will also stay PP using.
_________________
When the world is mine, your death will be swift and painless.