I don't really know if this is a common thing or just a homebrew of my GM.
Basically, by doing something very creative in or out of combat (like using a Flaming weapon as a torch) you get an Awesome Chip. Been a while since I last played, but if I remember correctly, you trade one for 100 GP or trade one to reroll a d20.
We've been giving them in one of my groups, albeit only when a player has his birthday/wedding/what-ever-important-day. Always gives a reroll on d20.
A few years back, I started up a campaign for a big group of people who were almost all new to the game, and to make it a little easier for them to survive a pretty tough campaign (we were using the Shackled City AP), I made use of a "fate point" system, which served two purposes for me: (1) I let them cash in fate points for rerolls -- possibly even multiple rerolls, though the cost in fate points doubled for each roll, and (2) to cash in to cover XP costs for crafting and spellcasting, since we were playing 3.5 and that was still an issue, and besides we weren't tracking XP anyways. I would give them each a fate point when they leveled up, and after each gaming session the party would also vote to hand out a fate point to an MVP and a Workhorse (concepts drawn from the Mouse Guard RPG). Now that they're all experienced players, we don't use fate points anymore, but it was a huge success for us when they were getting started. I can't tell you how many times it prevented a character death, and on occasion perhaps a TPK, though I never got the feeling that the sense of danger and potential disaster disappeared. To the contrary, in some ways having a bad roll that meant disaster suddenly turn into the opposite made them feel just how precarious their situation was. Also, the discussions they had about who should get the MVP and Workhorse fate points did a lot to build a sense of party camaraderie and also got them thinking about the different sorts of contributions that players were making. (For instance, a player might not do anything flashy or epic in a session, but their constant Search or Disable Device checks might have made a huge contribution to the party's success.) So all in all, I'd say this sort of system can be really beneficial, especially with new players. (They still talk about how much they miss fate points!)
You'd be crazy to trade one for 100 gp, though. Seriously.
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We're using an adaptation of the Awesome Points in Old School Hack. Players or the GM can reward a player with one anytime that player does anything the giver deems "awesome". Each one allows a re-roll of any roll but you must take the new result (but you can keep re-rolling as long as you have APs to spend.)
Pathfinder actually addresses this in the Advanced Player's Guide, page 322. They call them Hero Points.
Dont like them. Never have. IMHO they're basically implying that the players as written arent able to do heroic enough things already.
I'm a big fan of incentives. I use points not only for outstanding performance by a player, but I also give them out when the party continues to push on during an adventuring day.
It helps counteract the 15-minute work day.
I use something like hero points, and I give them out for players doing awesome things.
We get bennies all the time, but since we're not playing Savage Worlds they don't do us any good xp
I use a "hero point" system adapted from Mutants & Masterminds. When we were playing M&M, hero points were a huge thing, a resource often tapped to survive the encounter, and a reason to do cool stuff with dangerous consequences. When we switch to Pathfinder, we brought them along.
I am a DM who likes to say "yes" when players ask me if they can attempt something, quickly followed by a "but". Weather its a "but it will be near impossible" or "but even if you succeed there will be consequences" varies. Hero points give me an excuse to let things I wouldn't normally allow, but really want to. They are the cool factor, the extra bit that isn't covered in the rules, the reward for trying and failing badly.
So, ah, yes. We use hero points. We confirm natural ones like confirming a critical threat (they have to beat a 10 on the second roll), and botching the roll nets a hero point. Suffering a GM instilled setback (the monster scored a critical hit with its bite attack, and has ate you hand...the hand holding your favorite magical sword) also scores a point. Having your character doing something cinematic, especially when he doesn't have to, or acts in character despite a negative ("I will kill him left handed"), is also a point.
The biggest reason I grant hero points is when the players- through their characters- outsmart me as the GM. If you come up with a great plan, or do something completely awesome and unexpected, that I hadn't accounted for, I grant hero points for.
Also, humor. If some one can get the whole table laughing for more than a minute, I grant a hero point. The moment that comes to mind is when the the party mage wanted pick up the language "sub-text" so he would know what people are really saying...
We have at times used the hero point system, but back when we still used 3.5 we started doing achievements and they could be used to do things you normally couldn't. Not just like using hero points, but other stuff as well, like my Warforged Warblade was able to use them to create magic storage runes carved into his body. They were extra dimensional, existed on his chest (which had the most storage space) arms, palms (these were used solely for weapons, though drawing a great sword by clapping was useful for intimidate checks), and I think there might have been some on the legs.
I think someone else used some achievements to get a lantern archon cohort (or something similar) and someone else might have used them to get wings IIRC. It has been a long time so I can't quite remember.
It's called extra XP or Most Valuable Player XP in our games.
We call them "bennies" from a previous game system, but yes we use them. Each game a player starts with 3, and can earn one by dropping a foe, but can never have more than 3 at once. They're good for rerolling nearly any roll.
Last session I made a mechanical mistake which resulted in me being able to do more than I should have been able to. Nobody knew about it but me, but it wasn't something I could let slide. My DM trusts me explicitly. If I tell him I can do something, he never questions me, and I appreciate that greatly.
So later in the round--when I realized what had happened--I leaned forward and told him I'd made a mistake on my previous turn and gave him one of my bennies. He said he liked that, using them to sort of "pay" for a mistake, and I did too. I didn't like feeling like I'd "gotten one over" on my DM, even though it had been unintentional. This allowed me to pay for my mistake.
Don't like them. Never have. IMHO they're basically implying that the players as written aren't able to do heroic enough things already.
I'm cool to the idea too, mostly because I don't understand the point of them. Are there really players out there who think "Gee, I love doing boring stuff, but I guess I'll do something awesome (even though I hate awesome stuff) just so I can earn some points"?
Isn't doing awesome stuff its own reward?
Don't like them. Never have. IMHO they're basically implying that the players as written aren't able to do heroic enough things already.I'm cool to the idea too, mostly because I don't understand the point of them. Are there really players out there who think "Gee, I love doing boring stuff, but I guess I'll do something awesome (even though I hate awesome stuff) just so I can earn some points"?
Isn't doing awesome stuff its own reward?
I think the idea is to encourage folks who may not be naturally as creative to try and think out of the box. Not sure about you, but I game with a variety of folks, and not all are equally creatively inclined.
It isn't so much about rewarding the guy who's already creative (though it does, which is fine,) but getting the guy who is more hesitant--either shy or insecure--to start becoming more creative. :)
Our group also finds that they make the game a bit more fun for players, as they can break an really unlucky streak of rolls, or save a character who is about to die. It also gives the GM a bit more latitude in encounter design, because if he accidentally throws something a bit too tough at the PCs, bennies can keep the encounter from being a TPK.
Again, I want to emphasize what a great tool it was to let the players vote each session on who should get a fate point (the name we used) for their contributions that night. It wasn't just a great thing to reward players and keep PC's alive, though it did that too; it was a device for getting the players to reward each other and talk about other players' awesomeness.
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It's a common enough thing. Hero Points, Bennies, etc. Some game systems rely on them a bit more the others. For D20 it's an optional rule. Systems like Savage Worlds have them set up where you start each session with a small stack to use as the game progresses and the GM gets some as well.
I've found that they are very easy to forget for a lot of the groups I game with, both in the using and in the handing out of.
Isn't doing awesome stuff its own reward?I think the idea is to encourage folks who may not be naturally as creative to try and think out of the box.
Obviously I don't know your group, but I've been playing for several decades and I don't think I've ever once met a player who had the attitude "I could be creative, but I refuse to be creative without compensation". The whole idea just seems weird.
They have a hero point system in warhammer 1e that is called 'fate points' which sort of indicate that your player was born with a special destiny. you could use your 3 fate points to accomplish something wonderful and sometimes if you did wonderful things you got more fate points..
All of this was gm fiat of course.
What I noticed started happening was if you were a good little soldier and stayed on the rails of his story, and he accidentally one shotted you, you had plenty of fate points to come back, and he'd give you plenty of chances to recharge the ones you spent. If he DIDNT like your character and you went off the rails or did unexpected things or kicked too much butt or thought outside the box or ruined his plans, you got very few opportunities to get fate points back, and so he created this dynamic where if he didnt like you, you had to start playing more conservative and nice nice or your character was going to die.
I was guarding the rear of our caravan and behind us on the road marched this
Chaos lord essentially mounted on an armord demon rhino...
The rest of the party was thinking RUN LIKE YOUR BUTT"S ON FIRE!!!!
I just stepped off my horse, turned slowly to face the juggernaut, and drew a line in the road with my fencing sword... It was time to lose a fate point. I knew I wasnt allowed by gm fiat to use my fate point for anything other than 'saving my ass from death'... And I knew I wasnt going to let a fate point be spent in such a silly way. Survivng stupid death is not my fate. My fate is to do a great thing... And the time is now.
The juggernaut charges and I roll to attack it and fail horribly, the juggernaut responds by immediately grabbing my character up bodily by the waist in its toothy maw, surlely able to do enough damage to kill me in the next round. I say well, surely if I do not succeed I will be dead in the next round. Seeing as how thats what fate points are for i'll use mine to stab this juggernaut in the brain by way of his nose holes, and scriggle it around a bit. I mean hey. Its a FATE POINT right? How awesome a scene did I just create? Worth every penny in my opinion.
He didnt allow it, said I hurt it but didnt kill it, instead it simply dropped me and kept its distance... We eventually won the fight normally but... Laaaaaame!
Well if he falls on my side of the wagon i'm left pinned with the BBEG on my side, no way to escape and no one to help... FATE POINT!!!!! I use my fate point to attempt to position my fencing sword so that he falls on it when he falls. Nat 20. Location check? Head shot... Booyah. By all rights he should have fallen face first onto my blade. Victory!
Once again no. the bad guy survives the grievous blow to the head, is dazed but quickly carried out of my range by a minion. The rest of the party chases him down but he defends himself by USING THE MINION WHO SAVED HIM FROM ME AS A SHIELD,... then escaped.
Now at zero fate points the gm thinks we're under an agreement that I have no choice to play meek or die, and meek's just not my thing. What he didnt reallize is that if my character died i'd come back at roughly party level, but without all the wasteful parts of my build. I'd come back not only more skilled and powerful but with.. thats right. you guessed it... THREE MORE FATE POINTS!!!!... So I got to be as crazy as I wanted to be knowing he'd never kill me because he didnt want me to ObiWan.
Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can imagine!
Fate points are mostly crap. And I will punish those who use them. I tend to have a similar opinion of hero points.