Bad Stuff

[RPGPundit]

Generally, I've been good enough at laying on the hurt for any bad-stuff character (and especially the one player who's character had the worst bad stuff!) that players would go out of their way to try to avoid it.

You don't need to make every single bad stuff character have horrible things happen to them all the time. You just need to leave anything that's up to chance go better for the guy with better stuff and worse for the guy with worse stuff; and you need to make sure whoever has the lowest stuff gets some serious pain.  The rest takes care of itself, as players will compete to avoid being the guy on the bottom of the stuff pile.

[Croaker]

The rest takes care of itself, as players will compete to avoid being the guy on the bottom of the stuff pile.

Good one. Putting player competition into stuff too

[Arduin]

How much 'Bad Stuff' have you let your players get away with?  What do you consider an excessive amount?

What do you mean?  Players control PC's.  As a GM I certainly don't.  I control NPCs...

[Skywalker]

What do you mean?  Players control PC's.  As a GM I certainly don't.  I control NPCs...

I think you may have misunderstand the term "bad stuff". Bad Stuff is stat that measures the amount a player has overspent on advancements on their PC. As such, it is common for the GM to put a cap on the amount of Bad Stuff the player can choose for their PC.

[RPGPundit]

Good one. Putting player competition into stuff too

I've found that to be the answer to most things in Diceless-system games.

[Taewakan]

I build NPCs out of Good and Bad Stuff using the Artifact creation rules in both rule books. Enemies and Allies, so to speak, but only after they collect enough Bad or Good STUFF to make it interesting.

Then I use the 1-5 points left over to modify the types of experience they have - from a little or occasional good or bad events at +/-1 point to disliked or liked by a Named Elder at +/-5 points, as an example. I do not limit myself to NPCs for good and bad effects of STUFF under 6 points. I like probability charts that make bad things happen more often i.e. 1 small bad thing every session at 1 point of BS to 5 small bad things or a couple medium bad or one HUGE bad at 5 points. For good stuff, just reverse and - well, you get the idea.

I also make the PCs buy off their Bad Stuff NPCs through roleplaying and Good Stuff NPCs are notoriously fickle once the points disappear/are spent on something else.

Like everything else in this game, DM personal preference rules. If your players are enjoying your game, you are doing something right. If they are hating what is happening to their characters you are doing even better