Just say you're running a FS game without sites, attunement etc. Given that the game is predicated on PCs being attuned to a small site or three, and so would get XP bonuses because of this, how do you scale XP if this didn't happen?

Basically I'm asking what would be an appropriate scale of XP for a game where attunement isn't an option.

In the games I've run without feng shui site attunement I've awarded XP on a 1 to 12 scale. Admittedly I haven't run a prolonged series like that so I don't know if any problems would arise down the line, but I didn't encounter any problems over the short term.

Dan

Here's a free peek at a Feng Shui book that will probably never happen:

One alternative rule to the feng shui site XP issue to have your players attune to other stuff: their family members, their job, their house, whatever. These things then become involved in the adventures and, if they're protected, honored, and rescued, the player earns extra XP for them. If they're killed, dishonored, or destroyed, the player loses his bonus XP (and only his bonus XP).

You will find no better example of this happening than the Lethal Weapon movies. Murtaugh is fully attuned from the first movie: wife, kids, house, etc. In each movie, that stuff comes under some sort of attack. In time, even the other PCs -- Riggs, Leo Getz -- attune to the Murtaughs and their stuff.

In Die Hard and Die Hard 2, John McClane is attuned to his wife. In Die Hard With a Vengeance, he's a man going through the pain of a lost attunement.

This kind of attunement rule encourages the characters to behave a little bit more like real people with lives outside of the explosions and all that.

What other action movie examples of attunement can we think of?

word,
Will Hindmarch
Feng Shui Line Developer

That is genius! The group themselves getting better simply as they gel and "attune" to each other.

Kinda like how the A-Team were always so much better together, than when they were apart. Surely Hannibal's "I love it when a plan comes together" is some kind of unique schtick?

The XP bonus for closing lines is something I knocked around for "Friends of the Dragon," (with Hannibal foremost in my mind), but it ended up being too much about fiat. Plus I didn't want to get in the way of whatever book would have this future XP rule in it.

Remember, GMs, if the characters are attuning to the group and each other, you have to toss in monkeywrenches to disrupt their otherwise-smooth rapport (think of the mutual love interest, the former friend turned enemy who one character hates and another still loves).

If "disruption" is a word that strikes you as a red flag when dealing with inter-PC dynamics, then you're like me. I recommend having the PCs attune to people (who can be kidnapped, hospitalized, etc.) and places (other than FS sites) that can be attacked or sabotaged. Again, I'm thinking of Murtaugh's house, which is the subject of so many fight scenes in the Lethal Weapon movies while also standing as a visual reminder of his progress (he even builds an addition on it!).

"Face/Off" is all about two characters who are plunged into each other's attuned lives. As GM, I'd first run a session of them tormentedly cut off from the people/stuff they love. Then I'd let them start to attune to these other people (who are putting out all the "attune-like" signals anyway, since they're not in on the body switching) to represent them slowly taking on the qualities of the person they're pretending to be. (e.g. "I'll give you some extra attunement XP, but half of it's got to go into Caster Troy's kind of schticks.")

word,
Will Hindmarch
Feng Shui Line Developer
Atlas Games

It's not terribly significant- but it worked to bring the characters to life.

You could extend this so that (with restraint) character can have solo scenes during a session to develop their character in ways they normally wouldn't because it would get in the way of the action. Just a short scene, no dice rolls, only one PC, and give them a bonus XP if it was interesting.

Alternatively, you could use this whenever a new character joins the group- it happened aciidentally when I was playing once (some mooks bothered me before the party turned up) and it's a great way to give the other players a handle on a new character.