Courage Points - personal experiences

Qustion: What are your personal experiences with courage points? I'm interested in both, the opinions of players and narrators.
My players always liked them, since it allowed them to iron out failed rolls, but, from a more theoretical point of view, don't courage points remove the uncertainty from the game, one of the things that make roleplaying so exciting?
You could argue, of course, that it is more about the story than it is about rolling dice (Why else would they call the GM narrator instead? :)) and that you need courage points to prevent the "skilled starfleet officer" from screwing up, but if there is no possibility of defeat or failure, why bother?

Why, how generous are you in handing them out ? :)

Courage points are one of the things I love about Coda, though not implicitly about Coda, but just the idea of fudge tools :)

1) they do not always provide enough of a bonus.. if someone hideously botches a roll, it might take 2 or 3 Courage points to solve the dilema... which they may not have!

2) players have to make hard choices on which rolls they use them on.. Unless they have purchased 5 or 6, the average 3-4 doesn't go very far if there is a lot of high drama going on!

The also become irrelevant on extended tests.. if you can't do it on rolling, there's no way you can expend one for every roll!

My usual experience is that players use them like they should - to save their skin, where not spending them could mean horrendous consiquences.

I know what you mean about flawless characters, but then Starfleet officers rarelly make mistakes based on skill checks.. where they usually fail is errors in judgement, ethical dilemas and hard choices, and no ammount of courage points can save you then! :)

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Originally Posted by Ergi

...don't courage points remove the uncertainty from the game, one of the things that make roleplaying so exciting??

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Where to begin?

It is my view that the uncertainty comes from the story, not from the dice rolls, unless you are using the dice rolls as the sole source of drama in the story.

The characters should know the goal, but should not know or be able to predict most of the obstacles that will prevent them from achieving the goal, until just before they meet the obstacle or challenge.

In this way, it is a constant source of anticipation, and discovery, as you all go through the scenario.

"A hostile ship has attacked Planet P. The USS YourShipHere is ordered to rescue survivors."

Arriving at Planet P, sensors are jammed by debris, floating in orbit. Very difficult to make anything out.

A hail arrives, a pre-recorded message, from the planet's surface...Lo and behold the Enemy leader is a renegade officer, who scored consistently better than the ship captain in tactics exams, but who got booted out of Starfleet because he got caught cheating on a history exam.

The uncertainty then comes from the story...how much has the CO learned since then, vs. how much the enemy commander has learned?

The captain knows that back in the day, this guy was hot like fire, smart. Is there a way to test him, to probe his skills, before committing his ship in battle?

Perhaps this debris jams the transporters, preventing rescue of people on the surface. What will it do to a shuttle, flying through it?

Once the people are found, how muany shuttles will it take to bring them all out?

What if a bomb has been placed under the shuttle landing pad near the main dome on the surface?

Don't make all of the drama come from dice rolls.

If it is all about the dice roll, sure, it's dramatic that you might fail a dice roll, for any situation with the possibility of loss makes for drama, but the uncertainty in general should come from "What happens next?" as result of making or failing the skill roll, not the roll itself.

Will the Klingons fall for the Captain's bluff?
If we fight, how much damage will the ship take?
Will any of us get captured?
How many comrades will we lose?
If we cannot get the hull breach repaired in time, what then?
Can we save the crewman's family from the Romulans?

As to removing the uncertainty of skill checks, each new PC gets 3, or perhaps more Courage. And unless you get a refresh, with dramatic action, that's all you got, except for relying on skill, or just that 1 in 36 double six, roll again, and add deal.

So Courage should be Required to be spent carefully, and the Scenario Should Be Designed so that the Courage points should have to be spent all the way through.

If the Narrator is writing a scenario that is set up so that it is at the skill level of the cast/crew, such that they hardly ever spend courage, they can save all of their points, and spend their final 3 or 4 in their courage point pool at the big climax.

I suggest making the scenario difficult so that it's a tough call, as to when to spend courage, and when to just "Let the skill check fail," so that you only spend courage when you really need to succeed.

When a scenario is set up that way, characters that sail thorugh some challenges early on by blowing all of their courage too early in the session will come up against some hard core difficulty in the end, when the shields fail, warp engines drop offline, or the warp core breach is imminent.

If at that point, everyone is out of resources and Courage, they pay the price, for exhausting themselves earlier through heroic efforts that were not necessary.

Conversely, If the crew decides to take a few hits to the ship, or let some of the less critical repairs linger unfixed, they have "Energy and stamina" left when it's time for the final battle the emergency beam-out, etc that should be happening along with the climax of the adventure.

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Originally Posted by Ergi

...You could argue, of course, that it is more about the story than it is about rolling dice (Why else would they call the GM narrator instead? :)) and that you need courage points to prevent the "skilled starfleet officer" from screwing up...

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It's not about "Preventing the starfleet officer from screwing up."

It's about allowing the heroic character to go beyond what Joe Average can do.

If you are giving your crew average tests, Joe Average can accomplish them, and it's easy for the Heroes to sail through it. Give your crew difficult tests, or worse.

The level of heroism is defined by how tough the action is.

If completing the story requires petting a kitten, it's an atmosphere scene, because it is not difficult, and there is no drama.

If the story requires pickpocketing a Klingon Admiral, someone that can do that has cojones for even daring to try it, because the consequences are deadly.

Characters should be forced to do dramatic, heroic things. In the final confrontation, they should have to use all of their skill, resources, and energy, and even with all that, barely make it.

And sometimes, they fail, even then.

Don't be afraid to write an episode where failure is likely. Just don't do it all of the time. And make the consequences for failure, WORTH THE RISK of doing the mission.

If the character's ship can handily transport 5,000 colonists from a doomed world where the sun is going Nova in a week, don't make that the goal of the mission.

Make it 6,000 colonists in 1 day. When the crew arrives the science officer and his assistants, discover that the calculations that they got are flawed. They do not have a day, they have...

...3 hours, or less (they are sill not sure, there are too many variables, but this is Best Guess), with the trip to the safe zone or planet taking 2 hours, one way, at safe speed.

Unless the crew can overdrive the engines or figure out a way to haul everyone out in time, 1000 colonists are scheduled to become bacon in 3 hours. And it is up to the crew to find a solution. The die rolls along the way will either help them or hinder them.

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Originally Posted by Ergi

...but if there is no possibility of defeat or failure, why bother?

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If there is no possibility of defeat, or failure, (and at the same time relying on dice for drama) you are setting your skill check difficulties too low, or not raising the stakes of the scenario high enough as a consequence for failure.

Examples:

"Scotty, we need warp 8 in 15 minutes, or we're all dead."

"Jim, They're both dying, and it's all I can do to keep them alive, unless you can stop the ship from bouncing around (from enemy fire)!"

"Captain, if the transporters are not fixed in 2 hours, we'll freeze to death down here, we just drained the last of our phasers, heating these rocks in this cave."

So you take the above situations, set a difficulty, and there it is. Assume that the characters involved will have to spend at least 3 courage points per scenario (since it is refreshed at the beginning of each new one), and

Set the difficulty accordingly for your checks all along.

If your characters in the crew are sailing through, with no challenge, who's running the show, such that it is so easy? The difficulty is up to the narrator.

Don't be afraid to let the characters fail. Not all the time, but sometimes, so that they learn humility.

If they meet a pair of enemy ships and totally destroy the enemy with ease, by wasting all of their Courage in battle early on, (because they assume that that was the "Big Battle," what will they do when the enemy Battleship arrives? Turn and run? Die trying? Go for a draw? Pyrric victory? Bluff their way out?

Always keep a plot twist in hand, and use them often, so that no player ever knows what to expect next.. though they can make a very good guess.

The way I run it, a character should hardly ever have a courage point left by the end of a scenario. If that routinely happens, you aren't challenging the crew enough (With skill rolls, at least).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ergi

Qustion: What are your personal experiences with courage points? I'm interested in both, the opinions of players and narrators.
My players always liked them, since it allowed them to iron out failed rolls, but, from a more theoretical point of view, don't courage points remove the uncertainty from the game, one of the things that make roleplaying so exciting?
You could argue, of course, that it is more about the story than it is about rolling dice (Why else would they call the GM narrator instead? :)) and that you need courage points to prevent the "skilled starfleet officer" from screwing up, but if there is no possibility of defeat or failure, why bother?

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I think how coruage points get used depend a lot on the campaign style and the types of adventures. Courage points are really designed for two types of situations:

-When the character simply MUST make a test. The sort of stuff where failure is not an option. Things like doing a cold start on the warp engines.

-When the character is about to get wasted. The idea here is that bad luck and such will eventually wipe out a character through no real fault of the player. Like when the scared 8 year old accidentaly fires a lethal phaser blast at a character with a 10 Defense, at long range, who is using terrain for cover, in the dark, and then rolls all sixes.


A secondary use is to allow the players to make some tests that they otherwise would have failed.


Personally, I don't think that the take away from the excitement or sense of risk in the game, since each player only has a small and very limited number of points to spend. In general, I find that players have more things that they want to spend courage points on than they have courage points. If they spend them all early on for minor tasks, they won't have any for when they need them.

Courage points are also used to negate the emergence of effects of some Flaws, like Battle-fury.

Courage points, if not now maybe the future, could be required to used certain abilities or traits.

On the LOTR side of things, Courage can be used in effect to face off against mighty foes like wights, Balrogs, etc.

Actually yes, I had forgotten about flaws, they are essential for that, otherwise every Klingon would fly into a frenzy in any argument, at a moments notice :D

To my mind, your warp core about to explode, or a Fell beat looking at you and licking it's lips... are two occasions where you don't want to flub your rolls! :) I am a firm believer in letting actions decide fate, not unlucky dice rolling.. if you stand their picking your nose as the warp core is about to breach, or cover youself in ketchup and supply the fell beast with a knife and fork, then you are at the mercy of your own actions, and no ammount of dice rolling should save you!

The flip side to courage points is fumbles (my house rule) if you roll a double one - you completelly flub! As a rule of thumb, I do give players a second chance to catch themselves... You slip and fall off the rop bridge, but your lighting reflexes mean you are hanging upside down by your ankle! I do that because an unlucky roll should not mean instant death, but if the fail was to simply not notice the Romulan Cruiser decloaking and arming it's weapons.. the roll is not instant death, it's just a severe tactical mistake - which can be recovered from - albeit at some great loss! Of course Cloaking devices are MEANT to do that, so no one will be surprised!

I think the point of any kind of bonus dice is that the PC's are meant to be larger than life: They are meant to survive against all odds, and have luck on their side, but luck runs out, as do Courage points, so acting stupidly, and relying on your courage points will ALWAYS fail!

I had forgotten about using courage points for flaws, too. A very important use for them!