Encouraging Velocity with Destiny Points

Question

In this question, the hypothetical of having destiny points "locked" is mentioned. For me, this isn't a hypothetical. I love the idea of these points being used to incentivize/discourage different paths of action, but only having 2-3 per session at most makes actually acting on it difficult.

I've spoken to several of my players, and they expressed that they didn't feel like they needed to use destiny points. As a test of that theory, the party encountered a Clone Wars-era droideka, who won initiative, incapacitated the assassin droid in one attack, and pinned 2 of the other 3 party members, to say nothing of the other battle droids in the room. Even during this encounter, still no destiny points spent.

In conversations since then, they said they simply don't remember them, but my spending them during a session doesn't seem to serve as a reminder. I suspect they don't enjoy the concept of me having dark side points to spend, though none of the players actually voice such an opinion.

Short of stopping the action every 5 minutes to remind my players that destiny points exist, how can I encourage them to actually spend light side points?

Answer 1

Use Visual Aids

Destiny Points are normally simply written in a piece of paper, and like many things written, its easy to forget about it. Using **Visual Aids* for Destiny Points helps with that. Players will simply look at them and know immediately if they have points that they can use, or if the GM has too many points so they could also remind him to use some.

All three Beginner Boxes come with some cardboard tokens to represent Destiny Points and iv been using them with great success ever since the game came out. But even if you don't own these, you can use other properly-colored objects to represent the pool of Destiny Points, like blue and red plastic counters, colored meeples, or even poker chips.

Lure with a triumph

Force them into situations that they could have better chances if they actually obtain a triumph. For example, say the group has no hacker/slicer, and they have to get through a door, explain to them that they will be able to open the door by doing a Computers check with at least 5 successes or a triumph (I'm exaggerating on purpose here). The triumph here is the key element, they cannot obtain a triumph if they are not skilled on the task at hand, and flipping a Destiny Point means you now roll a proficiency die and could manage to obtain an easier success with a 1/12 chance (its worth the risk).

This can be done in dozens of different situations, using skills that nobody in the group is proficient is simply the easiest. Using Lore skills is even easier, as you can tempt them with the possible knowledge they could obtain with a triumph on their check. But even in situations where they are skilled, you could use that tactic, like shooting a vehicle with a personal-scale weapon and hope to actually damage it somehow could be done with a triumph in very specific situations.

Call it "luck", not "force"

One thing that happened in the earliest games was that people called Destiny Points as using the Force, which prompted a player to ask me "Can I try to use that (destiny points) or I have to be a jedi?". I had to correct them ever since, for a couple of sessions, that they weren't using the force, they are trying their luck, or trying their fate, or even going against all odds.

Whenever I wanted to lure them into using destiny points I ask: "Don't you want to try your luck?"

Answer 2

why this happens

In general, players hoard destiny points because they are always concerned that they won’t have one when they need it. GM’s can overcome this by throwing points back at the players as quickly as possible, they then learn not to sweat being without them. However, if the players are hoarding them the GM doesn’t have them to do this. So ..

Introduce a use or lose rule

In any encounter, if your side rolled dice and did not spend at least 1 destiny point you have to give one up.

Theoretically, this applies to the GM as well as the players so it’s “fair” but a good GM should be demonstrating that they are there to be spent anyway so in practice it only penalises the players. However, it doesn’t take long before the players learn that the quicker they spend them the quicker they earn them so the rule actually doesn’t penalise them at all.