I always had a soft spot for the "Test your LUCK" mechanic in Fighting Fantasy, which is exactly as Vidgrip described above -- you have a LUCK score ranging from 7 to 12, and you have to roll equal to or below it on 2d6 to be Lucky, and every time you Test your LUCK your Current LUCK drops by 1.

Another interesting one was the "Whim of Fate" from Burning Wheel; if you or the GM want to see if something significant happens, roll a d6; on a 1, something happens, on anything else, nada.  I just liked the elemental simplicity of it.

And, of course, there's the Luck Spiritual Attribute from The Riddle of Steel, which provides from 1 to 5 dice that can be spent on any roll but don't refresh once spent (as opposed to the other SAs which keep their rolling bonus when used, but can only be used on specific things by SA).

The trick to keeping Luck points from being hoarded, I think, is to make them useful enough in enough other ways than simple prevention of death that the temptation to grab an immediate small-scale benefit is always there, rather than conserving them to do nothing but guard against an outlying mortal danger. There's also the rule used in Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, which says that all unused Drama Dice vanish at the end of a session, so a die not used that session is a die wasted.

The best "luck point" system I've seen doesn't involve points, at all. It's the Edge system from Marvel Saga. Basically, you have cards numbered from 1 to 10. They're distributed on a bit of a bell curve, so there are more 5s than 10s. There are four suits, associated with the 4 attributes, plus a final suit for the referee.

Characters are defined by their Edge, which is a number from 1 to 4. Beginning heroes are 1, experienced heroes (most PCs) are 2, very experienced heroes are 3, and the fucking Batman is 4. That latter almost isn't a joke -- the core set only has 3 characters with an Edge of 4 -- Doctor Doom, Captain America, and (most borderline) Magneto. Professor X doesn't qualify as a 4. Neither does Wolverine, or Doctor Strange. Nor would Superman or Wonder Woman.

Edge determines your hand size, i.e. how many cards you have to play. This means you'll be more likely to have a card with a high number, but it also means that you're more likely to be able to trump -- to play a card that matches the suit of the task you're attempting, which allows you to play another card on top. And in addition, you can also play cards of your Edge or below for free, on top of everything else. You hand also works as hit points, losing cards as you take damage.

The basic idea is that "luck", which in this case is more "badassitude", is part of normal organic play. You do spend cards, similar to points, but it's not a separate meta mechanic you have to remember to evoke in order to adjust the normal flow of mechanics. Instead, it gives you a fundamental advantage that's deeply woven into the core mechanics of play.

The Luck mechanic used in R. Talsorian Games Cyberpunk and Mekton.

Quote from: Pat on March 28, 2022, 06:26:09 PM
The best "luck point" system I've seen doesn't involve points, at all. It's the Edge system from Marvel Saga. Basically, you have cards numbered from 1 to 10. They're distributed on a bit of a bell curve, so there are more 5s than 10s. There are four suits, associated with the 4 attributes, plus a final suit for the referee.

In this game, if you play a 10 card doesn't it go into the GM's hand for him to play against you? That's sort of what I was talking about by having Luck activation cause a failure later on.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on March 28, 2022, 07:11:39 PM

Quote from: Pat on March 28, 2022, 06:26:09 PM
The best "luck point" system I've seen doesn't involve points, at all. It's the Edge system from Marvel Saga. Basically, you have cards numbered from 1 to 10. They're distributed on a bit of a bell curve, so there are more 5s than 10s. There are four suits, associated with the 4 attributes, plus a final suit for the referee.

In this game, if you play a 10 card doesn't it go into the GM's hand for him to play against you? That's sort of what I was talking about by having Luck activation cause a failure later on.

That's the main flaw of the Saga system. Comic book plots usually start with the players in the dark, and they are frequently gassed, trapped, or beaten or otherwise easily conquered by relatively low tier foes. Over the course of the comic, they start to uncover mysteries, face off successfully against foes that originally seemed very tough, and then pull it all out in a climax against a very difficult foe. In game terms, the natural flow would be for the referee's Doom deck to start full so they can set up all those situations where the players are at a disadvantage, and then empty out over the course of a game session, until the players can run roughshod over the main villain. Unfortunately, that's not how it works. In practice, it's rarely an issue with an experienced referee, who knows to use Doom cards selectively instead of using them to overwhelm the referee. And the rest of the mechanics work amazingly well. But the backward flow is a mechanical flaw, and shouldn't be emulated.

My favorite version is a point system like they used in WFRP 1e.

It's exceedingly simple. You basically get between 1 and 3 'Fate points'. You can use these to stave off a grievous wound or grab that branch if you fall from a deadly height. Once they are gone you're shit out of luck.

You can earn them back through play, but getting them back is very infrequent - so they are a very precious commodity.

Call of Cthulhu "magic points" as efforts of supreme will, used to modify bad rolls into being good rolls. That includes modifying bad hit location rolls. MP recover from rest, provisions, or experiences of awe or beauty, and can go beyond the maximum through supernatural means. Cuts down on the dramatically uninteresting failures and deaths. (I suppose they are effectively acting as "hit points" as the investigators perk up when they start running low on them.)

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on March 28, 2022, 07:41:19 PM
My favorite version is a point system like they used in WFRP 1e.

It's exceedingly simple. You basically get between 1 and 3 'Fate points'. You can use these to stave off a grievous wound or grab that branch if you fall from a deadly height. Once they are gone you're shit out of luck.

You can earn them back through play, but getting them back is very infrequent - so they are a very precious commodity.

Yeah, I'll second this one.  As someone else noted, even in systems with Luck points (like DCC) we often seem to forget about them in the heat of play.  And I'm not a big fan of them in any case.

Feng Shui, you get an extra positive d6 roll on task check (normally is +d6-d6+Ability Score).
Luck is a characteristic, every time you use extra d6 it drops by one until is 0.
At the start of the new session, it reverts to full.

This is very good, because you get an important boost, but you can still fail.
Luck reverting to full next session is good, because the rules doesn't enforce a narrative
straightjacket to gain bonuses (like Savage Worlds bennies).

Similar to this, Lex Arcana invocation of the Patron God. You get an extra roll (rolling again and
adding to your first roll) in your class primary skill. That is once per session/adventure, subject
to the character continue worshipping the patron god in game.

QuoteMy favorite version is a point system like they used in WFRP 1e.

It's exceedingly simple. You basically get between 1 and 3 'Fate points'. You can use these to stave off a grievous wound or grab that branch if you fall from a deadly height. Once they are gone you're shit out of luck.

You can earn them back through play, but getting them back is very infrequent - so they are a very precious commodity.

4E made it bit more robust system - still quite fine I think. You get Luck as Fate derivative for less DRASTIC situations, Luck is recovered steadily, while Fate only if you do something BIG.
And then you have Resolve - Resilience which personal power used in different situations which you can advance when you do something you picked as your life purpose at the beginning of the game.