(Champions/Hero) First Try Stakes...

[Storn]

Having a NPC as a sounding board could degenerate into the player just having conversations with himself as both PC and NPC.

Ooops.  I didn't mean NPC as sounding board as a NPC under player control and that I just have a conversation with myself.

But to your main reply... I think you and I are on the same page.  Didn't mean to mutate this thread into Champions Flags... but I like where youa re going with it.

My one concern about linking BW's Instincts to our house rule of Luck chits is this:

Luck Chits (as they stand now) are ways for Players to make up for bad dice rolls.  Blue and Gold give some degree of "Scene Editing" and allow for a bit of co-GM Stance. 

BW's Instincts are defintely Flags.  They are saying "Mess with me HERE or leave me alone HERE".

By linking Chits to Instincts.. I forsee a problem that, hey, my Instinct didn't get triggered... but I REALLY want this die roll to be re-rolled or I have a blue chit and I wanna edit the scene.  You want to tie the players up in knots, forcing us to come up with convoluted reasons why my breakfast conversation with my wife allows me to suddenly get that critical hit... hmmm.... I think that is a disconnect. 

You are also SEVERLY limiting the utilitary of Chits as they've been used until now.  If I can only use the Chit Instinct; "Notice when something is off..." isn't that up to the GM to tell me, how do I know I"m supposed to throw a Chit here?  Unless I'm seriously misreading your post... which I've read a couple of times to see *what* you mean.  Maybe you can elaborate?

Now.  If you mean to link chits to our Flags... (which is pretty much how M&M 2nd Ed is doing it now)... now IF we players drive story... If we Wave our own Flags... we get a chit... then maybe you are cooking with gas.

My counter suggestion.  Ea. player gets 1 chit for free (as always).  For ea. 5 pts of Luck, get 1 chit.

They are all white.  We don't get any colors.

When a Flag is Waved... a chit moves up the color rank.  White becomes Black, Black becoems Blue... 3 blues become Gold...
...I dunno... just an idea to throw out there.

[RDU Neil]

It wasn't that the Flag had to be "hit" in order to spend a chit... but that by tying an instinct to the chit, it simply required a bit more storytelling in the generic sense.  The chit can be used to reroll... but the player has to explain a bit more using the instinct as a rationale.  Maybe not the best idea, but again I was playing around with keeping with the Hero model of "paying for" what you get.  Not required... but where I want to start.  Or... if we returned luck chits to just White and Black... and you earn a Blue or Gold through hitting "instincts"

In this case we are changing something in basic character construction to add the "instinct" element... and if so would likely need to make it a new "required" characteristic (or whatever we call it).  Probably something along the lines of a "group build" where all players are involved in establishing each other's "Drivers."

(We've done the group character generation before and I thought it was very successful.)

The earning of Blue and Gold through "Drivers" (I like that better than instincts for this application) should be enough to "drive" the players.

Worth trying, anyhow... (though I think some would be bummed by having to earn their chits rather than drawing them randomly.)

[Storn]

The earning of Blue and Gold through "Drivers" (I like that better than instincts for this application) should be enough to "drive" the players.

Worth trying, anyhow... (though I think some would be bummed by having to earn their chits rather than drawing them randomly.)

okay, okay, I suspected I was misinterperting your words.  I think we are actually closer to agreement than I was gleaning from the wording.

"Drivers" works for me.

I had thought about how folks would be a bit bummed by the lack of thrill that seems to come with the random draw of Luck chits.  Maybe Drivers exist to upgrade chits when they are hit/Driven?  That way, you keep the mechanic we have in place, but you also plant the seeds of thinking about Drivers in the player's minds.  Makes luck chits even more powerful... but I don't have a problem with that... I'm not the GM who has to contend with J's 6 Luck chits <g>.