I know that I'll get a lot of replies along the line of "What the HELL are you doing?" but this thread isn't about whether or not it is a GOOD idea but to humbly seek advice on its implementation.

Explanation for WHY this house rule is being used and a bit of backstory:

My player group are not fans of the percentile system and the whiff factor of early to mid level characters. Only having a 50% chance at success (usually MUCH less) left a bad taste in their mouth. Yes I know most of you will roll your eyes and call them ******* or whatever but that isn't constructive and that's not the point. It is the status quo and I, as the GM, had to adapt in order to keep them playing!

So I decided to include the Fate Point System from WFRP 3 which essentially boils down to this mechanic:

• Players keep track of Fate Points with small tokens.
  
• There is a party sheet set in front of everyone.
• Whenever a player does something that impresses me and/or the other players, has a great idea (whether actually implemented or not) or shines through with particularly good roleplaying, I put a token on the party sheet.
• I do this instead of dishing out small rewards of extra experience points to individuals
  
• Once there are a number of tokens on this party sheet equal to the number of players, I dish them out to everyone, essentially re-charging their Fate Points a little.
  
• CAVEAT: no one can have more Fate Point tokens than the maximum written on their character sheet. If Fate Points are dished out and a player already is at their max. quota, they either use one immediately or lose it.

The players love this mechanic, because everyone's good moments help out and rewards the party as a whole and they get to use a few more fate points than before.

Here's the PROBLEM:

Blood of Martyrs introduced Faith Powers. These use up Fate Points. Suddenly, the PCs can use them MUCH MORE OFTEN. UH OH.

Here is my proposed solution:

If a player uses a Fate Point in order to use a Faith Power, they do not discard the Fate Point as usual. Instead, they replace the Fate Point they just spent with a different colored token. From that point on, that Fate Point token counts toward their maximum amount, even if he/she can't use it anymore.

Eg.: PC has a maximum of 3 Fate Point tokens at any one time. He uses one to fuel a Faith Power, and replaces the Fate Point token with... I dunno, a penny. Later on, the party sheet dishes out a new Fate Point to everyone! Hooray! But that PC can't gain one because he is considered to already be at "full" (two regular Fate Point tokens + the one that's been... uh...turned into a penny).

Do you think that this could work?

Also, are there any other Fate Point related Talents that I'm not thinking about which may be messed up because of this house rule?

I'd suggest you put your foot down and tell them that faith powers are used as normal, from the player's original fate points, using RAW.

IMHO you conceded alot in implementing that wfrp3 scheme. Faith powers are not something that should be used every second turn (exaggeration). The game will become broken quite quick (if it hasn't already been broken), and you will find yourself having to readjust everything to counteract your players rapid firing faith powers to balance it back out. From what i gleaned from them, they are 'miracles' that are called upon when the situation is most dire. Not when some chump fails their reading test.

Very true and I think that they understand that.

I'm just looking for ways to limit their use in this alternate fate point system.

I've tried it out, last week (minus faith powers) and it went surprisingly well. The players were more courageous and willing to have their characters take risks which made the game much more entertaining for them.

It ALSO made them more forgiving when I brought out much harsher enemies.

Anyway, I think that once a Faith Power is used, the Fate Point is gone for the rest of the session and won't be able to "recharge". Like I said, perhaps by switching a Fate Point Token with something different in order to represent how it's been used up.

Of course the Faith Powers which BURN a Fate Point permanently still do so. That's not changing.

Interesting idea.I understand where you are coming from with fate points. They are a good a mechanic(if not nesscesary with this system) but can be a balance issue. It's for reason that If I was going to do character gen again, expecially for DH, I would give players max FP's. In that way it's still based on their character choices (or rolls) but they aren't unduely hampered by 1 roll specifically. Of course this means they are especially blessed characters but I don't see that as a downside.

I mention this because there are number of character options that take or grant an FP, certainly the Dusk homeworld is a pretty damned powerful bonus if that reduced FP is not considered. So something to bear in mind.

Secondly Voidborne traits give extra FP and a 1 in 10 chance of not loosing a FP when spent. Is that reduced in effectiveness with your system?

That's the only things I can think of that effects FP.

For skills, yes people do start rubbish, this is intimidating at first. I'd advise making sure that rolls are as easy as they need to be, seems wierd that a standard roll is almost never used but there you go. And that with any skill that can have it you allow people to start with tools, even if it's holy scroll to use an auspex or radio, a field med kit, some shiny looking robes or incense to calm peoples nerves.

Now obviously you are set on using this system and that's cool, it improved the game and your players are having more fun. But have you or your group reached high ranks in DH? I find that by rank 8, at least in my games, players don't bat an eye at something unless it can one hit kill you, mostly because the players can one hit kill a lot of things. Just my experience and I feel this style of use of Fate Points would make a party of rank 8's nigh unstoppable.

One thing in our group we did the same thing, but Fate Points were not replenishable in this manner, we had Awesome Points if we figured out something, remembered a crucial fact or whatever the GM ruled as a neat, cool thing he would reward us with an Awesome Point. You needed 10 Awesome Points to increase your max FPs by one, but with one AP you could get a Drama Card www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/king-of-kings/wikis/drama-card . Now not all of these are for everyone as they contain a lot of meta results, but something to consider.

And one last thing, 40k is grim dark and people die all the time tell your players to suck it up... kidding . Oh and the game I linked to is on hiatus and not certain if it will ever be finished.

Very good points brought up. Thanks for the advice.

I think I'm actually gonna scrap the Fate Point replenishing rule. Just too many issues, really.

However, I may instead keep using the Party sheet and putting tokens on it for good roleplaying and ideas, but those tokens just count for extra experience which can be dished out at the end of the game as evenly as the players want.

Say, each token is worth 10 or 20 Exp or something. And they, the players, can unanimously agree how to dish out all this stuff.

Necrozius said:

I think this is a much better idea, honestly. Having a respawning pool of Fate Points that works under all conditions EXCEPT faith powers would have the long term effect of punishing the player for playing a highly devout character, so I wouldn't endorse that plan. Dishing out token amounts of bonus XP at the end of a session for "Awesome moments" is something that I heartily approve of though! The first few sessions that I ran I handled this myself, but I found I got alot more player interaction and social feedback by involving the players in the process. Essentially I encourage them to nominate any player/character in the group (except themselves!) for having done something particularly awesome/cool/dramatic timing etc... and then state what they thought was so awesome. If the majority of other players agree then the GM awards some bonus XP towards that character. If most of the players think it was lame, bad form or just "fishing for points" then they are not shy about shooting it down instead, at least in my group. The GM's bonus here is that if someone is being a tard regularly or spoiling the others' fun it becomes apparent much quicker and peer pressure often helps mitigate the problem, while the players that are making the game more fun for everyone go home with a tangible reward. And yes, the same player can be nominated for multiple "awesome moments" by their peers if the nomination is for a separate event/moment/deed.

One other fun GM trick is to toss in "good RP" bonuses towards skill and combat tests in the game. "Oh bummer, more cultists are coming into the room. I shoot one with my bolt pistol." earns the player a BS test to hit. "Stand fast and hold the line, Brothers! By the Emperor, we shall not fail! I strike a heroic pose on the barricade and snap a defiant shot off at the lead cultist." might earn the player a BS test at +10, for example, because it is just cool!

One other idea is to borrow the Demeanor concept from Deathwatch. Each marine gets a demeanor based off his origin Chapter as well as a personal one. Once per game session a player can opt to activate his marine's demeanor (either Chapter or personal) and in effect spend a "free" Fate Point. But here is the magic: If the player is judged by the other players to have roleplayed their dramatic moment well then their "free" Fate Point becomes a SUPER Fate Point (my term) with increased benefits over a normal FP use! It would not be very hard to adapt this over to a DH game.

Hi

I'm totally new to WH40K (barely acquired the core books for DH, and RT - reading in progress), so I don't know what Faith Powers are, but I'm not new to WFRP3, so maybe I can give you a hand Necrozius.

If said powers are based on Fate Points, and you don't want your players to exploit the WFRP3 mechanic in this case, maybe allow them to use the Faith Powers only, when player Fate Point personal supply is full, or almost full (say full-1).

Additionally, each time they use Faith Power, they may have to roll 1 Fortune die (you have those dice right?), for each Fate Point left in their personal supply, and if the result is Blank, then lose that Faith Point (or if the Faith Powers are stil too powerfull, you may tell them, they have to clear they personal FP supply each time they use one).

If there is a need it may also clear the group supply at each use.

Then, they will be forced to use Faith Powers less often, and each time they try, they risk of losing the rest of their Fate Points (50% for each FP if you decide to roll).

Just my 2 cents, as I said, I don't know much of the system YET.