Does anyone have any thoughts/guidelines on when and how often to use the dark side points as a GM?

I don't mind the players using them how they see fit, but I dont want to use them as a GM all the time. I was thinking of using them only for important NPCs or for when it was important for the story line. I think if I used them too much, they could end up feeling like a gimiky mechanic or certain players might feel picked on. The only problem would be if I don't use them often, the players may get shafted out of using them for talents.

I was considering eliminating them from the pool when PC's use them and turning them light side when I use them. This would limit the uses during a session, but should give the players a slight advantage.

How have they been working in your games?

Actually, I would use them as much as the players use them. It's supposed to be a resource that really ebbs and flows between the players and GM. And if the players aren't using their Destiny Points, I would definitely use yours to make sure they start using theirs. Use your Destiny Points if an encounter is becoming too easy for the players, or if you want them to use their Destiny Points more. I would also hold back on them if the players are having a lot of difficulty. But it's a fun mechanic designed to keep everyone on their toes and evoke the competing sides of the Force. I wouldn't downplay it.

I use one whenever:

• a task should be easy, but I want to make it harder
• I can see a task having unforseen nastiness on my plans if they succeed
• I'm losing badly the encounter and not presenting a challenge
• I need them to think I'm being "unfair"
• They're out of destiny

After running the scenario last night, I used it whenever I remembered it because I honestly forget about the pool most of the time. I was too focused on making sure we were getting a hang of the rules.

I was pouring it on, using at least one every round, which gave the group the opportunity to use them on their own rolls. I think your group will just find their frequency. If you have 4 dark points, and use them all (flipping them to light), the group can sit on them and keep you from using them (saving them for a crucial roll) Or they can use them as we did, and use them on the individual's rolls where they needed them most.

71gamer said:

One rule to make sure you don't forget is that you can only use 1 destiny point per dice roll (per side), at most 2 destiny points will be used in a roll, a Light and a Dark side points.

We missed that rule and sometimes applied more than one destiny point to the rolls, it was still fun, but more dangerous for the players (or more beneficial to the heroes! )

AHA! I think we only doubled up once or twice, but that's good to know! Thanks for the clarification!

I think the thing to do is follow the players' lead. If they're using a lot of Destiny, they WANT you to be using them, too. Lots of Destiny expenditure means, "Let's take this party over the top!"

The feedback from my group is that destiny points don't feel 'special'. This might be because the group are used to Force Points from D6 and D20 (not saga) which are one shot things that make a significant impact on the dice roll. Whereas these 'smarties' can be spent each turn and why wouldn't a player want to increase the chance of sussex or a gm want to increase the difficulty levels (althoughas a GM I can do that anyway.

The issue might be because talents haven't come into play that need a destiny point to activate, so the destiny points are not used to do special things?

Any thoughts on how to make destiny points seem special?

I played in a game this weekend where we didn't use the desitny points to upgrade the dice rolls at all.

The first point used was during an escape from a detention block on a ship under attack. My droid character was rather useless during the early parts of an escape due to a restraining bolt, but when a shake of the ship caused him to topple over and then have our wookie fall on top of him, I used a Destiny Point to say that when the wookie fell he hit the restraining bolt just right to remove it and allow me to use my built-in weapons.

Later during the same sequence I failed a check to capture a prisoner with my net launcher, with 3 threat. So the GM spent a destiny point to have the net fail to expand and kill off another prisoner that would have taken us down a path he wasn't ready for us to take.

These examples might be a bit extreme, and you wouldn't want to use them to such a degree often, but I think helping players remember that destiny points aren't just for dice rolls can make them feel epic and worth saving for key story moments when you really need something to happen or need a piece of equipment on hand (an example in the beta book is spending a destiny point to say "oooh yes I did put a rebreather in my utility belt before we left the ship").

i agree with LoTech, my favourite use of Destiny points is to make narrative tweaks to the story. in Escape from Mos Shuuta, the players used a destiny point to ensure that there was a parked speeder in an alley. they still had to hotwire it. but this small change in the story led to an epic scene where the players tried to run a road block set up by stormtroopers only to have the speed control and steering shot out from them on approach (a triumph result on the minion troopers shot at the pilot)