What do people think of the idea of using Experience Points to serve as fate points/luck points?

That is, as well as being able to spend XP onc haracter development, the player can spend them to improve a dice roll.

It becomes a reason to not spend them unless the alternative is PC death/dismemberment. I.e. players would not spend them to do cool stuff, only to avoid horrible stuff.

It punishes characters who take chances.

Deadlands Classic did something like this, and the PCs that tried to be heroic or take chances lagged waaaaaaaaaay behind the guys that sat in sniper nests out of harm's way.

Tommy and Apparition nailed it in one. Unless you want to penalize risk takers above and beyond the risk itself, not a good idea.

-clash

These problems occur in systems where XP is the only means of advancement. In systems with a seperate per-use skill advancement mechanic for example, it once again becomes a viable option. With that said generally I wouldn't encourage players to use 'hero points' within the system anyway, either keep them limited in number/effect or give them a chance of backfiring horribly. As many others in these parts have said, the game should bring the awesome without needing regular deus ex machinas to expedite solutions.

Thanks for the answers. I had an inkling there was something off about it, but i couldn't work out what. Certainly won't use that idea.

What about using it as a means of acquiring resources: a mixture of the way Profit Factor works in Rogue Trader (a numerical resource rolled against to acquire stuff increased by roguish trading in game) and general currency.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;659294Thanks for the answers. I had an inkling there was something off about it, but i couldn't work out what. Certainly won't use that idea.

What about using it as a means of acquiring resources: a mixture of the way Profit Factor works in Rogue Trader (a numerical resource rolled against to acquire stuff increased by roguish trading in game) and general currency.

See, THAT can work because, in some games, acquiring more stuff is just another form of character advancement. So, yeah, spending XP for gear can work, while spending XP as luck points can be crippling.

Now, if you have both cash and XP, I think you're looking at a problem, unless you're spending XP on Unique Gear and cash can only buy mundane gear, if any of that makes any sense.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;659302See, THAT can work because, in some games, acquiring more stuff is just another form of character advancement. So, yeah, spending XP for gear can work, while spending XP as luck points can be crippling.

Now, if you have both cash and XP, I think you're looking at a problem, unless you're spending XP on Unique Gear and cash can only buy mundane gear, if any of that makes any sense.

No cash at all. I simply prefer a more abstract wealth system in games. Rolling up characters, for example, and pouring over the inventiory with your starting gp always struck me as tedious.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;659303No cash at all. I simply prefer a more abstract wealth system in games. Rolling up characters, for example, and pouring over the inventiory with your starting gp always struck me as tedious.

I don't disagree. So, yeah, if Gear = Character Upgrades and you don't have a cash system in place, XP for Gear works fine. Lots of supers games have done it.

What if you allowed xp to be spent as x points, but still counted spent points toward levelling up?

Then, if I read your meaning correctly, everyone would be spending all their XP always (since their "shadow XP" would remain for leveling up anyway). But then, wouldn't it be simpler to just give them the in-game currency and goods they would otherwise spend their spendable XP on?

Then everyone will use all of their XP for both X points and XP.  

You could count them together, but if so, it makes it a bit of an accounting nightmare.  The easiest way is to make them 1=1 (so you need 10 XP to level and that equates to 10 Luck Points), but you still have to account for spent Luck Points and unspent luck points.

Ie, if you have 8 XP toward your next level of experience, you need to know how many of those have been used for Luck rolls (or more importantly, how many remain available for use).

It's easier to just have separate advancement.  

What I usually recommend is that instead of 'hoarding XP', just level-up when you feel it is appropriate.  The GM tries to maintain everyone at the same general level of advancement.  This works best if 'killed' characters are allowed to come back at the same level.  

Then you only have the 'Luck' points to manage, and all players will use them all for 're-rolls'.  To avoid hoarding, you may want to set it up so they 'refresh' every level-gain (so unspent points are effectively lost).

I used to use a similar Fate Point concept, characters gained 1 point per level gained to modify their rolls, but once the points were used they were gone and couldn't be restored (unless the GM said otherwise). I no longer use this method however.

I DO have a suggestion more closely fitting the XP spend that you are suggesting. Treat XP like casino currency. The XP they spend to modify their rolls has an upper limit, perhaps, no more than 25% of the dice they roll? (+1 on a D4, +1 on a D6, +2 on a D8, +2 on a D10, +3 on a D12, +5 on a D20, +25 on a D100) This means their spent points won't guarantee a success.

If they do succeed, they win their points back plus a certain percentage of winnings based on the amount spent.

If they fail the action in spite of having spent points, the XP spent is gone.

If it's a critical success, they may even double their XP return, but if it's a critical failure, they lose double.