So, my players have really taken to using Harrow Points in my games. They're just finishing up Seven Days, and have used up most of them. They got 4 this chapter, but only 2 on the first one, and were saying they wish they could have more.
My party has always run with ad-hoc XP rewards for doing cool stuff, like a particularly interesting solution to a puzzle or sacrificing a couple turns in combat for the team. I was thinking, instead of bonus XP, which could cause a bit of inflation (albeit only a touch), I could reward extra Harrow Points for this. "Your actions have inspired Zellara, and you feel your empathetic bond to her strengthen."
It would likely be a case of one bonus harrow point per session, so as to not make them too overused. Anyone use this idea before or have any thoughts?
There is the hero point system that you can use instead: it awards hero points to the players for a number of reasons, which they can use to gain a number of advantages. I'm sure you've heard of it, but if you haven't: hero points.
I actually like the hero point system better than the harrow point system, since some of the harrow points bonuses are not very helpful to certain players. Hero points have a wider range, so they can be used to any class's advantage.
In my campaign I've substituted the Harrow system for the hero point system. Players can gain up to 3 hero points, but with each harrow reading they can gain harrow points which are hero points that do not fall within the maximum limit of three. In other words, the PCs can have 3 hero points and four harrow points. By using this system, I'm actually hoping that my players will feel more inclined to use the hero points and won't feel obligated to save at least two hero points to "escape death". Now they can keep the harrow points in their reserve and freely spend the hero points.
Oh, right! I had heard of them, but I never looked into it. None of us own the book with them in it, and I never thought of going to the SRD. I'll definitely check this out, I might follow your lead and replace harrow points with hero points.