From:	Lehlan Decker <decker@****.FSU.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Dice Pools and Stardom
Date:	Fri, 8 May 1998 13:28:09 -0500

>
> Part of my gaming philosophy is that the PCs are the stars of the show.
> While they may not always be the best, the most powerful, etc, they are
> always the stars.
>
> I use NPCs to fill the rolls of supporting characters and extras.
> The major villian would be a supporting role. The Johnson that hires
> them would be a supporting role. All of the other characters are
> extras: guards, pedestrians, civilians, etc.
>
> Anyway, I used to feel that dice pools were a game mechanic that
> made the PCs the stars of the game. The supporting cast have threat
> ratings. The extras are out of luck, so to speak :)
>
> Now I'm starting to wonder if dice pools are needed. Good GMing and
> story writing should be all that's needed to make the PCs the star of
> the game, right?
>
> Are dice pools needed? Are karma pools needed? What do you think?
>
Hmmm..this one is a bit tough. In the past I've stuck to using
Threat ratings for 90% of the NPC's, and only calculated karma and
dice pools for special cases. I've found (at least in my game), that
usually at the point it would make a difference, I'm fudging die rolls
anyway to keep the story going. :)
The other problem is...My karma rules are a variation of 1st edition :)
(It seems to make the game a bit more lethal, and karma more valuable).
In conclusion, I'd say no. IMHO of course.

--
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Lehlan Decker 644-4534 Systems Development
decker@****.fsu.edu http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~decker
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The universe doesn't have laws, it has habits. And habits can be broken.