EPISODE 27 - Tightropes Over Lava

Adventure doesn't happen in a vacuum - although sometimes it does! This week on The Dice Pool Podcast, we're looking at the one adversary that nobody expects to ruin their picnic, rain on their parade, or snow them in. That's right - its the environment. So join GMs Darkfyre, Flano, Hooly, and Huzz as they take a look at the rules for the varying environmental effects in the GENESYS Role Playing Game and discuss how you can use the environment to tell exciting stories in your campaign world. They also take a crack at a couple of listener questions including how to run your first "Setting Roulette" and the big topic of player absenteeism. So grab your cold weather gear, slap on that sunscreen, and mount your night vision goggles as we take a whirlwind tour of environmental effects.

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Hey Hooly, can you explain to me how granting people who show up free access to an improved version of a Tier 3 talent (Natural) is better than awarding XP for the same attendance? It seems like your team's solution is just to kick the can. You either give everyone the same stuff, or you don't. Changing the way a GM awards attendance doesn't change that fact. I disagree withholding XP is punishment, but the case for parity among players for easing the GM load is apt. However, it's akin to setting aside a pool of dollars for an absent buddy when you and your pals get together to play poker.

Ultimately this is a game. XP is something that is an in-game currency and should be rewarded accordingly.

However, every table sees this issue differently and that’s why it’s important to discuss it at your table, and gauge what everyone thinks. This is one of those polarising topics that we were asked to cover, and we offered several solutions.

We offered our solution and how our table handles the issue. For us it’s not important enough to penalise character growth just because some life event occurred that prevents you from attending the next session.

One option we didn’t include was to not run the session, and to pull our a board game, or do a one shot of something else. That way nobody gets penalised, and those who attend have fun - after all, that’s what these games we play is all about right?

23 minutes ago, themensch said:

Hey Hooly, can you explain to me how granting people who show up free access to an improved version of a Tier 3 talent (Natural) is better than awarding XP for the same attendance? It seems like your team's solution is just to kick the can. You either give everyone the same stuff, or you don't. Changing the way a GM awards attendance doesn't change that fact. I disagree withholding XP is punishment, but the case for parity among players for easing the GM load is apt. However, it's akin to setting aside a pool of dollars for an absent buddy when you and your pals get together to play poker.

To answer your first question: Because it doesn’t affect character progression, and doesn’t penalise the player’s long term enjoyment for what may amount to a life emergency.

Question 2: I’m not sure I understand what you mean about “kicking the can”, so I won’t respond to that.

Question 3: Withholding XP might be seen as punishment by the player, and that’s why we suggest not doing it. We also suggest discussing how to handle that with the group at Session 0 so everyone can express how they want to handle it, and so as GM you can set the expectations from the start.

I get that, Hooly, and I agree. I just think if the intention is to prevent hurt feelings, offering up a free use of a talent is little different from XP. to be honest this has never once come up in the many decades I've been playing, so I am always interested to see not only how this is handled by others, but also by how it came to be in the first place. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

1 minute ago, GM Hooly said:

Question 2: I’m not sure I understand what you mean about “kicking the can”, so I won’t respond to that.

Sorry, this must be a local colloquialism. It means to not really solve the problem, but to move it to another place in hopes that it goes away.

If this system didn't provide a means for a farm boy, a princess, a jedi knight, and a smuggler with his centuries-old warrior pal to all play in the same story, I'd definitely place more concern on character advancement. But if XP is the only means of character advancement and growth, then I feel like something is missing. It's my hope that characters would work towards their motivations and to overcome their flaws rather than accumulate points and consider this the outcome of progression rather than its effect.

Well by talking about this to your players and finding what everyone is comfortable with, people will solve the issue in a way that best suits them.

How we described it is how we deal with it. When I run my games, I make sure everyone understands my preference, but honestly I just go with the flow of how the players want it handled.

I also feel that missing a session can often be penalty enough without double penalising the player. Life happens, especially as we are adults with families and other life/work commitments. Finding a happy medium can be beneficial to your game and to the well being of your players.

How you get there is so individual and dependant on your group’s ideals, morals, values, etc, that there is no right or wrong answer.

1 hour ago, themensch said:

I get that, Hooly, and I agree. I just think if the intention is to prevent hurt feelings, offering up a free use of a talent is little different from XP. to be honest this has never once come up in the many decades I've been playing, so I am always interested to see not only how this is handled by others, but also by how it came to be in the first place. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Honestly this issue doesn’t come up for us anymore, but it did. We addressed it and I came to the conclusion it wasn’t a big deal to hand out the same XP if you were there or not. The re-roll was a bonus that people enjoyed so we stuck with that.

For the record, we don’t do that anymore, not because it was a bad idea, we just didn’t have many people missing games.

Further to this point, we probably cancel more sessions or play something else rather than have someone miss out.

i also don’t think it’s to prevent hurt feelings. I think it’s more to do with respecting that sometimes life gets in the way for some players, and we as a collective don’t want them to feel penalised. There is a distinct difference there.

8 minutes ago, GM Hooly said:

i also don’t think it’s to prevent hurt feelings. I think it’s more to do with respecting that sometimes life gets in the way for some players, and we as a collective don’t want them to feel penalised. There is a distinct difference there.

I hear you, and yeah I don't have that issue either. The tone of the forum thread and your discussion centering around this perceived penalty is where I'm interested in figuring out how not getting XP is a punishment. But I guess this is the participation trophy zeitgeist and I won't continue to beat the dead horse. You're right, we're all here to have fun and if equity in absence contributes to that, it costs absolutely nothing to do it that way. And for what it's worth, I 100% agree with your team's point that if someone is just showing up for the XP and neglecting other aspects of their life, that's not the way I want my games to be either.

Its a tough call and so dependant on the group. If its a case where someone never shows up or shows up once or twice every few months, its time to have a conversation with that player.

Situations like that can cause annoyance to the GM as they try to develop plots and storylines. So the absentee player who is doing this constantly has to take responsibility for the fun of the table they've been invited to, and politely bow out and re-join when their life allows.