My game has only two players in it, and as a result, the MVP and Teamworker awards are getting a bit silly. We’re only a couple of sessions in, but it’s quickly becoming the assumption that one of them will get Teamworker and one will get MVP and the only thing left to discuss - who gets what - is kind of irrelevant anyway. I don’t want them to just get free persona points all the time, I want them to earn the points.
Reducing it to only one award for them to fight over seems problematic in other ways. It’s hard to say “he gets an award and you don’t, you weren’t helpful enough” when there’s only two of them.
On the other hand, simply not awarding Teamworker and MVP at all might deprive them of much-needed persona, particularly given that there’s only two of them and they need all the help they can get. Particularly since they don’t seem very enthusiastic about pursuing Embodiment, though if they did, I could see that running into similar problems.
I’m about to start running a 2 player game. My first session is this evening.
When I was a player in a two player game the GM said that an “adventure” was a story arc. We did those awards maybe once over the course of about 6 sessions, and that was after the final session when we couldn’t spend them.
We have just finished a campaign of a player’s homebrew system where each player awarded 1 point to another player at the start of the session, in that game we had three players. If A ever nominated B and B nominated A then the players were asked to revise their nominations to include player C. That was kind of funny.
You can definetly get Workhorse if your characters have a lot of scenes together but you always are the one testing to get you past stuff, either because you have the skills or because you are more brave in your testing.
MVP i would use like a little deeds point maybe - when you really accomplish something great with a roll that isn’t quite deeds material.
Keep in mind, when it comes to MVP, Teamworker and Embodiment, it’s not a vote, it’s the group decides. That group includes the GM. If, as a member of the group, you feel a player didn’t earn the Reward to your satisfaction, then say so. Get the group to decide against the Reward. If you feel somebody did earn the Reward, say that, too.
It’s up to you, however, to consider how much your idea of proper pacing might conflict with your players, but that’s a social issue, not a rules issue.
When I was playing a few 1 player sessions I would always give my player 1 persona point, for one of those things. I feel like there’s a lot working against a smaller party (less help and skill coverage) so why take away the few things that help them (lower obs and more rewards)? That said, with two players it doesn’t necessarily make sense that both of them get a persona every session. I’d drop it down to a single persona reward, assuming the two players are mature enough to make the decision about who gets it each session. If they aren’t then take Guy’s advice and reduce those rewards to just every adventure and give them each 1 point. That’s how I’d handle it anyway.
In last night’s first session for my 2 player group we didn’t award those as there was no key success to call it. I’m still in favour of the “scenario” lasting a session or two.
