The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Dependencies and involuntary change refresh discounts

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iago:

--- Quote from: Dan from Chicago on April 01, 2010, 09:04:43 PM ---Okay ... is the idea to make the Lycanthrope a more difficult character to play? I'm not grousing here, just trying to understand the rationale.

--- End quote ---

Well, in short, the rationale is a basic one. There were many powers in the game, we had to balance them all against one another first, and then we had to limit how complex we got with our "sell back" strategies on stuff that makes sense to get any "sell back" on at all.  If you don't like how that means the lycanthrope has to be implemented in the system -- don't play a lycanthrope. :)

The math should never -- not EVER -- amount up to "well, I can only use these 20% of the time, so I should only have to pay 20% of the cost".  Because time in a game does not flow like that.  Some GMs might enforce a 20% of the time thing. Some GMs might stick you in an entire story arc set during a full moon.  Some GMs might stick you in an entire story arc where it's never available. 

So you have to break yourself of the assumptions that insist you try to tie frequency into the point-cost.  The way time flows in a story means that that logic won't ever apply consistently.

Which is why you should also keep in mind that there are inobviousnesses at play here beyond the straight up point costs of things.  A lycanthrope who's often stuck in situations where his powers WOULD be useful if only he had access to them is going to be a compel-generating MACHINE.  That's getting nailed in the High Concept aspect real regularly -- which means that during times when your powers aren't available to you, you're going to be operating at an effectively higher refresh because there'll be plenty of chances for the GM to pay you some extra fate points as a nod towards the deprivation.

So when it comes down to it, any cost break at all is something of an extra gift on top of what you'll already be getting for the compelled downsides of your high concept aspect (and your other ones too).  The powers people buy are all about giving them peak effectiveness capability.  But you don't always get to act at peak effectiveness.  You're a wizard and your dad has a pacemaker and a demon just came through the window.  Cast a spell and risk stopping your dad's heart?  Should your powers cost less on your sheet because sometimes you'll be hanging out with your dad?  No.  But the *choice* is there -- you *could* cast the spell.  What the sell-back on the sheet normally means is that sometimes circumstances can strike when that choice isn't available at all. So you get a little bit of cost break for that. But it's not really where the jazz lives in the system.

Dan from Chicago:
Thanks for the in-depth reply. I don't have much experience actually playing any FATE based games, so this helps a bunch.

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