Fria Ligans forum

So I want to pose this question to everyone.

A big change from the first printing to the second is that GMs do not get willpower points. Changes are made to the way NPCs utilize talents and such to accommodate the change (in that they are all just free and there is just a limit on how many times you can use them in a turn).

Personally, I think this is a bad way to go and I want to explain why and see what people think.

The first part of this is an argument in favor of GM meta-currencies. In the vast majority of TTRPGs the players play the game and the GM is more of a referee. They don't really PLAY the game because they are not actually bound by any rules. Just guidelines and a list of tools to help them do whatever they want. Meta-currencies, especially those utilized by the GM, make them a player. A asymmetrical player, but a player none the less. Think of Coriolis and Darkness Points. The meta Currency of DP is a tool for the GM that makes them a player and helps facilitate and make fun the back and forth between the player, their environment, and the NPCs they encounter. Willpower Points were that currency in Forbidden Lands. Now they are gone and the GM is no longer really a player.

The second part is to say that tracking individual will power for Individual NPCs is not good. It's a LOT of book keeping for the GM and I agree that that needs a change to something closer to Darkness Points. Wouldn't it be better if each time a player pushed a roll the GM gained 1 WP (or whatever you want to call the meta-currency?) + whatever WP the player generated for themselves. This will power could be spent to fuel NPC abilities, trigger traps and environmental effects, trigger events or hazards, etc etc... Looking back to the first point isn't that just more fun? Isn't that in some way more "balanced" and even easier then telling the GM that an NPC can just churn out magic at no cost?

What do you guys think? Are you happy with the change to no more WP for the GM or NPCs? Would you rather have a meta-currency?

I actually think this is a change for the better, as apart from some talents and spells the gm had very little to spend their pile of WP points on. Whilst it was nice to have a pile of 40 WP (especially I represent these in my game with small stone skulls), the players could see that they didn’t actually get used.

The only issue I have with this is the limit on spell use, with the Power Level for an NPC linked to their rank in the spell, meaning an NPC with rank 2 in a spell discipline can only ever cast the spell at Power Level 3, which limits their effectiveness somewhat, but PC spell casters are limited by the number of WP they have in their arsenal so this might be less of an issue than I think, as I have yet to test this in game.

If you want to balance the use of WP between the GM and the PC, maybe you can just use the current rule but have your NPC use WP during a round only if at least one PC used some during the round. 2 PC using WP allows the GM to have 2 NPC using, and so forth.
The goal is to avoid any calculations that slow the game.

I agree that there wasn't quite enough for GMs to spend it on. I feel like monsters could have abilities that cost WP (like they do with DP in Coriolis) and there should be environmental things to trigger costing WP (like activating traps, hazards, mishaps, etc etc...).

I really think Coriolis is the template to pull from here. There is a lot a GM metacurrency can be spent on that Forbidden Lands just doesn't make use of. And instead of codifying and expanding the ways in which it could be spent they instead went in the opposite direction and scrapped having it all together.

It’s better this way. Coriolis is more designed around a GM metacurrency than FBL was. There’s no reason an NPC is strictly limited to the power/talent level guideline and that’s useful flexibility and the rest of the time you have a solid rule of thumb.

The change of dropping WP for the GM was the right move. There are a lot of things to track during play anyway.

So, i guess that monsters cant use WP to increase damage as first printing (just to be sure)?
As GM i dont have a WP pool anymore then?

Monsters never used WP, as far as I recall?

Monsters never used WP, as far as I recall?

That is right, monsters never uses WP, regardless of print version.

Hum, i was pretty sure i read it somewhere a long time ago but i cant remember where. But it was probably a mistake or misreading. Thanks for the answers !