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Originally Posted by frogspawner
But IMO they shouldn't be able to make shooting the bad guys even easier just by spending Hero Points. Ditto fleecing, girlfriend-stealing and whatever they should do on their own, I'd say. (Maybe in Bond it's ok - I guess that's more like story-telling).
The "do this or we die" thing is defensive, though, so that's fine. Just like Luke's Death Star shot...
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Often the do or die thing isn't defensive. Hero Points do work out fine in Bond, but yeah that's Bond. Allowing the players to use them to improve rolls also adds to the fun. It adds to the tension too, since a PC can be tempted to "waste" them on things that they might want to do, but don't need to do. So if you spend all your points looking cool in the 'teaser" you may not have any left for the end when you storm the bad guy's HQ.
The other thing is that Survival Points/defensive spending can only be done to rolls made against the NPCs, not rolls that they make themselves. So the way that game works, Luke couldn't use survival points to "blow up" the Death Star. He would need Hero Points for that. Same for a character who falls off a cliff and tries to grab onto a ledge, or a character bitten by a poisonous snake who has to make a roll to resist the poison. Or for a character to keep his Aston Martin from smacking into a tractor-trailer who involved in a high speed chase on the motorway.
And there are even a few other uses for them. Like using them to slighter alter the game world in a believable way. For instance, if a PC is escaping from a castle, he might be able to convince the GM to let him find a saber or mace on the wall over the fireplace by spending a Hero Point.
That is part of how the game restricts them. There are so many neat ways to use them that it takes a little self-discipline not to waste them. You don;t get a lot. Plus, unlike most other games that use them, they don't get refreshed after each adventure. So players never feel like they got them to spare.
I've played quite a few games that have hero points in some fashion, Bond, Star Wars D6, Star Wars D20, TImelords, FATE, Star Trek (LUG), Top Secret, Spirit of the Century, CORPS, Star Trek (Decipher), EABA, HeroQuest, L5R, DC Heroes, and several others. The Bond systems method is my favorite. It is also the most "stand on you own two legs" version of them. While the BOnd game gives the PCs a few edges, it also dumps things right on the PCs shoulders. No high level characters to come along and bail the PCs out, or do their work for them (well, there is an exception for if the PCs screw up really badly and the world is about to be destroyed, simply so the GM can keep a campaign running).
Even a lot of the things that you can do with the points but shouldn't have thier own drawbacks. Killing people is sometimes necessary, but frowned upon, and has a few in game drawbacks. Getting sent to jail is one. Escalation from a rival sevice is another. And then there is always the risk of raising your Fame total and making it more difficult to keep a cover.
And the Villians' Survival points do help to offset the PCs Hero Points. If PC spends a few points to up the quality of his shot and the villain spends a few to drop the quality back down, the PC has just spent valuable points for no effect. And those points are gone for good.
Plus you get a lot of those shoot the bad guy before he launches the nuke type of endings.