Plot Vouchers

[Keklas Rekobah]

According to Nick Lowe, in "The Well-Tempered Plot Device":

"A Plot Voucher is one of those useful items that is presented to the hero at the start of his adventure with a purpose totally unspecified, that turns out at an arbitrary point later in the story to be exactly what's needed to get him out of a sticky and otherwise unresolvable situation."

With that in mind, here are six Plot Vouchers for use IYTU:

1. Jump the Shark: This voucher is redeemable for one successful resolution of a task that would otherwise be fatal to the character if failed.

2. Nuke the Fridge: This voucher is redeemable for surviving one calamitous event that would otherwise be fatal to the character - this includes suernovae, black holes, reactor meltdowns, and tax audits by the IRS.

3. Deus Ex Machina: This voucher is redeemable for one intervention by the referee to set to rights a situation that would otherwise be hopelessly impossible for the character to resolve on his or her own, even if the character got him- or her-self into the situation in the first place.

4. Hammer Time: This voucher, when redeemed, allows the character to extract from Hammer Space (an other-dimensional realm) any single weapon appropriate to the conflict at hand that would ensure defeat of the character's opponent. This weapon returns to Hammer Space immediately on defeat of the opponent, or when the character or opponent withdraw from the conflict.

5. It's Clobbering Time: Upon redemption of this voucher, the character and his or her opponent engage in hand-to-hand combat, without weapons, without armor, and without intervention by any other character. To the winner goes the property and wealth of the loser.

6. PC Call Home: This voucher is redeemable for one rescue. Character must be lost, marooned, kidnapped, stranded, or otherwise unable to return to wherever he or she was before the need for rescue arose, even if the character was the sole cause of his or her own need to be rescued.

All vouchers are issued to players at the beginning of a campaign - one voucher per player - and stay with one player each regardless of how many characters he or she plays during the campaign, until redeemed by the player for the specified effect. All vouchers are good for one use only, and may not be transferred or redeemed for cash. Only one voucher per player. Void where prohibited, regulated, or taxed.

 

[BlackBat242]

No thank you... I'm playing Traveller, not Tales from the Floating Vagabond, Toon, or a similar game.

 

[rancke]

I think some form of fate points is fine -- adds verisimilitude to the game -- but the ones suggested are way over the top.


Hans

 

[aramis]

i think some form of fate points is fine -- adds verisimilitude to the game -- but the ones suggested are way over the top.


Hans

qft!

 

[BillDowns]

Aren't plot vouchers kind of like a computer/video game where one has to use cheats in order to win?

 

[hdan]

Though it's a lot more free-form than proper "Plot Vouchers", I use a variant of "Bennies" from Savage Worlds - each player gets one or more bennie tokens each session which they can use for re-rolls (both for and against them). A bennie never makes things worse, so if the new roll is worse, the original one stands.

A player can also blow a bennie immediately after a combat is over to restore one of their stats to full value, even if the character is dead. (I use MgT - in CT, I would degrade the wound status by one). But I tend to have more cinematic flavored games, and a PC getting killed by a street thug is not heroic.

You can't save bennies between sessions - use 'em or lose 'em. I use 3 bennies, but two or even one is better if you run a grittier campaign.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

It all depends on how the CV is managed...

Ref: "... and as you look out the forward viewport, you see the missile approaching head-on, silhouetted by it's own exhaust. You estimate five seconds to impact..."

Vic: "I play my Plot Voucher!"

Ref: "'Nuke the Fridge'? Hang on ... okay, the last missile hits, and the explosion throws you against the bulkhead. The lights and gravity fail ... your visor cracks, and its inner surface seems to be coated with a red, viscous substance ... you can't feel anything from the neck down, and it's getting harder to breathe ..."

Vic: "Hey! That's supposed to save me!"

Ref: "... everything turns black, and then ... nothing."

***

<Sound effect> "... beep ... beep ... beep ... beep ... beep ..."

Ref: "Ados al zaude? Ezin duzu entzun nahi?"

<Ref shines flashlight into player's face>

Ref: "Ezin duzu entzun nahi? Zein da zure izena?"

Vic: "Get that **** flashlight out of my eyes!"

Ref: "At the sound of your voice, the medic shouts something unintelligible, and there is a flurry of activity around you. You smell antiseptic..."

Vic: "I'm in a hospital?"

Ref: "Good guess. Suddenly, everyone pauses and makes way for a tall gentleman in surgical garb."

Vic: "Doctor, what happened?"

Ref: <In his best Jeremy Irons voice> "We pulled your body from what was left of your vessel, and stabilized your condition. We're about to commence spinal surgery to restore your mobility..."

Vic: "Oh, thank you! I thought I was a goner, for sure! I definitely owe you a drink, Doc!"

Ref: "I do not drink ... and if you ever want to address me again, I will thank you to call me 'Noble Sir'. Intendant! Put him under!"

 

[aramis]

That kind of snarky mode would simply have me walking, Keklas. Better to not have the vouchers at all than to have them not do what they say they do.

Especially since the missile in such case could instead simply have a faulty detonator, for far less disruption, and far more verisimilitude than being pulled from the wreckage, tho' if anyone would check for survivors, it would be the Joes.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

I can always count on certain responses from certain quarters.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I think Action Points in various games are pretty similar. In fact, it reminds me of SpyCraft.