awarding Hero Points & Hero Dice

[kevperrine]

In-game... I'd like to hear some thoughts on HOW and WHEN and for WHAT you award Hero Points and Hero Dice for.
And how many at a time.

Here are some examples of what I've been doing. Tell me what you think about them. Fair, unfair, too much, not enough? Do any of these twist the rules in a bad way?


- when I spend a Villain Die, I like to give that as a Hero Die to the player who it was primarily used against. If it's the team. I open it up to a "team pool".

- Team Pool: haven't tried this one much in BASH! yet, but in my old M&M games I would have a "team pool" for Hero Points and Hero Dice. This would be a pool that anyone could grab from on the team, generally asking the group if it was okay to use. I tried both - having a Team Pool with individual points as normal. As well as ONLY having a Team Pool and no individual points. I found that a Team Pool only had the group acting more in concert as a team, encouraging others to spend from the pool. This included the "Leader(s)" having their extra points dumped in the pool. Not sure how I'd work this with BASH! unique Leader Advantage points and such... any thoughts?

- I give Hero Points for excellent in-character quotes. I've taken to awarding TWO Hero Points each cool quote.

- I give Hero Points for cool actions and their descriptions. Generally giving 1-2 Hero Points for these, encouraging cool descriptions. Savage Worlds RPG and Feng Shui RPG (I believe) ask for cool descriptions and give bonuses to the immediate die rolls. I like the idea, but would rather give the player the Hero Point to be able to use as they need - immediately or not.

- Saving Innocents or doing things that take you out of action. ANYTIME a PC-Hero takes their panels to go help innocents in any way, I give Hero Points. Up to 1-5 points depending on the situation. I also give points when a hero takes themselves out of a combat in order to do other things to help, like disarm the bomb or jump in the way of the wrecking ball coming at the helicopter (taking the damage for it), etc...

- When a player figures out a mystery of the story/plot, I will often give a Hero Point or two.

- When a player sets up a scene that is especially comic book cool or a genre trope, etc... I'll give a Hero Point.

- I have offered, instead of rolling a skill check to learn info on a certain villain... the PC-Hero can "accept" this villain as one of their "Rogues Gallery" (if they have the Disadvantage) and get the info without a roll. Also getting a Hero Point or Hero Die for their (new) Rogues Gallery villain being a main character in the plot.

- In general if a player spends a Hero Point or Hero Die, doing any one of the above... depending on the situation, I sometimes give it right back to them as reward.

- Sometimes I offer Hero Points or Hero Die to DO an action. Either something negative to them (such as jumping in the way of harm, taking extra risks, or letting the villain escape). Or something interesting to the story.

- Overall I ask players to "nominate" (very informally) anyone they think deserves a Hero Point. Sometimes I'm so busy as Narrator I "miss" something deserved of a Hero Point, so I ask players to remind me.



What do you think of those??
Do you do any others??
-kev-