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Originally Posted by Simlasa

How would you determine when something was 'significant'?

I'd think that would be the player's call. A classic exmaple would be.
Spend a point to get a better result when selling your airspeeder? No.
Spend a Point to make sure your proton torpedoes blow up the Death Star. YES!!

If the player wastes the points to improve every die roll then it's thier own fault if they run out.

Originally Posted by Simlasa

That's one reason I've been resistant towards the idea of fate/hero points... specifically when they involved revisionist re-rolls. It's too 'meta game' feeling for my taste... to have something happen and then reverse it.

Boy, you must hate BRP then. That's it's entire combat system. A guy get's attacked and then he rolls to parry and reverse the hit. Since most people don't run "statement of intent phase" and most versions of BRP allow for multiple parries, it is essentially the same thing.

Originally Posted by Simlasa

I'm much more favorably inclined towards some sort of proactive 'luck pool' that can be used (and used up) prior to an important roll... 'I'm about to jump my sailboard off this cliff into the raging sea to escape the villainous hoodlums... I'll dump three luck points into that to help me pull it off'
Kind of knowing a head of time what moves are bombastic and likely to fail, as well as which ones are of dramatic import and will look really dumb if you miss and trip over your sword.

Yes but the problem with that is that it sort of negates the major reason for the luck pool. That is saving your bacon. "Oh, I should have spent the Luck point before the sniper ambushed me and shot me dead? How was I supposed to know there was a sniper?" Ditto you example about looking really dumb. Generally speaking it isn't the hard moves that make you look dumb. It is when you are doing something easy when you trip over your sword and embarrass yourself. Also, since you don't know when you are likely to trip over your sword, spending in advance basically means not spending the points and being caught with egg on your face.

There are a few of options other than a "reroll."

First is to spend the points when you would parry or dodge. For instance, rather than using a point to reroll or make a Luck save, you could just use a point to improve the result of your next dodge or parry roll. Either the point would give you a bump up in success level, or just a flat bonus to your success chance. For instance 1 point could up a success chance by 10 or 20%. Personally I like the bump up, since that way the player will always get some benefit from spending a point (you could have a critical count as a refund of the luck point). That way, an unskilled but heroic PC could defend himself a few turns by spending luck.


Another option would be to spend the points after the hit to adjust the damage roll before it is made. For instance maybe a point turns a hit into minimum damage, or downgrades a special or critical down a grade. So that way a guy who take a critical hit from a spear and "knows" the other guy will be getting max impale damage could spend a point to downgrade the effect to only an impale, giving him a chance to survive the roll. Two could could turn the hit into a normal damage, and three would just result in minimum damage.
Again the key thing is to apply the effects before the roll. Make sure you give the player the chance to spend the points, but if they pass they don't get to go back. That way you are never going back and reversing anything.

Originally Posted by Simlasa

Tying it to Power somehow makes intuitive sense to me... I'd think that James Bond and Captain Blood were characters with high Power stats.

Well, if it is Luck then POW is the right stat. In the Bond RPG, he did have a high number of Hero Points, 13, in a game where the average PC has about half that. But he gets away with a lot.