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Originally Posted by Simlasa
How did you gain them in the James Bond game?
Did they have some sort of in-game rationale or where they purely meta?
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There was no in-game rationale at all. Spending Hero Points was not viewed as something that the character was doing, but something that was happening because he was the hero. The out of game rational was that Bond does pull off the impossible at times (along with the highly improbable) and so should be able to do so in the game from time to time, and so should the PCs.
The official way was by rolling a Quality Rating 1 result (the best possible) when doing something. This is equivalent to rolling a critical (actually a bit better since a QR1 was 1/10 the success chance) on any roll except for combat and chases (because those actions tended to call for a lot more rolls). An option to allow Hero Points for rolls in for combat and chases was mentioned and in fact in at least one of their published adventures is was strongly recommended so that the character could make it through the mission (Live & Let Die, a real nasty one). My house rule was to permit ONE hero point from any fight or chase.
There was also a big loophole in the offical rules allowing the GM to come up with other ways to earn Hero Points. The two most common ones I saw were to award point for doing heroic things (so you get points for saving the world), and allowing players to buy some with experience. The game gave out experience points that players spent to improve their characters. Buying Hero Points was sort of a mixed blessing, as XP spent on Hero Points was XP that wasn;t being spent to improve the character.
Another neat thing about them was that players could spend them, with GM permission to make minor alternations to the game world. For instance a character who is inside the villains Castle, could spent a Point to find a sword on the wall, or maybe even a loaded flintlock pistol.