By putting in another system on top, Drama Points just being a suggested name, you can keep the great feel you have in your game now but not have to get down in the mucky-muck of finding all the little rules that talk about Action Points and figuring out how to change them. APs were tacked on to core 3/3.5 but in 4e they are a crucial core mechanic and while there’s no reason you can’t house rule them, it’s going to be a headache to do so especially as new books come out.

Basically what I’m saying is take the easy way out

Reading a rule and playing a rule are quite different. You should house rule it if you don’t like it, but until you’ve actually used it and hated it, it’s just a theoretical understanding not a practical one. I always try to start a new game system plain vanilla, and go from there.

I don’t think house ruling out action points will break anything, but there are some game balance issues around them. Elite and Solo monsters have them too and it’s one of the things that makes them scarier. Solo monsters especially need some way of doing more than one thing per round.

As a sidenote, if battles are getting too slow in 4E, make sure you have the capability to damage several targets simultaniously (mages are best for this, obviously but other classes can do it in a pinch or to limited effect) and encourage the DM to make more use of minions. Minions are fantastic! They’re a real threat (ask anyone who’s gotten bogged down in a group of them) but they’re easy to take down (one hit and they’re out for the count) so they add real threat without adding lots of rounds.

That said, definitely try it before you mod it. Try it enough times that you get a feel for how it impacts the system forst. (I wish I had done that with some of my own game tweaks.)

Bruce Lee had a quote about trying out everything you can, and then adopting what works for you. He counterpointed his own statement with a reminder that you don’t always know why things are done a certain way, so keep your mind and options open.

The other one, I said, “The fire would be narrowest at this point, so I’m going to charge, leap through the fire, and then hit him with my greataxe.” The DM said, “That sounds really interesting, and I think I have an idea to make it even cooler. Spend a point and you can do what I’ll call ‘Charge of the North.’” He wouldn’t tell me what it was until after I spent the point, but it turned out awesome so I was happy.

Half the time, we come up with it and the DM okays it. Well, a third of the time, we come up with it, and the DM okays it, another third, we come up with it and the DM nixes it, and the final third, he comes up with it, and offers us the chance to do it. None of the players mind anyone else using the points to do cinematic stuff, since it always helps the party, and we /all/ get a chance to shine if we want, so it’s not like one person is monopolizing the spotlight. Sometimes, the DM will say, “That sounds awesome, but I’m going to charge you two points for it because it’s pretty powerful” and we have to agree if that’s fair or not. Sometimes, we will turn him down on a chance to spend points if we don’t think it’s worth it. “I’d have to spend a point just to make in there in time to hit him before he casts the spell? Not worth it, I’ll just throw a javelin.”

In short, yeah, that’s pretty cool — but it’s just different.

It may seem even strange that I suggest you consider using BOTH systems. Yeah, I know, weird — you’ll have to call one action points and the other … uh … deus ex points (DX?). Could be pretty interesting and … well .. awe inspiring.

But more seriously, 4E’s action points are intentional controlled and limiting while still giving players a tactical advantage. I believe they did this so it can be easily part of the rules and part of any RPGA/competitions that 4E used in. Your form of action points really rely on the GM and what he wants to accept or not.

But now I’m curious, when does your group know when an action point is invoked that it is too much? or not enough?

Humans (and Half-Elves) can take the Action Surge feat for a +3 to attack rolls during the standard action granted by an action point; the Warlord’s Commanding Presence class feature can grant either restored hitpoints or a bonus to an attack roll when an action point is spent, etc.

The way I see my players reacting to this is to often save their action points for a devastating “setup-and-payoff” combo, or occasionally in dire straits to take a Second Wind & still be able to attack — possibly with bonuses! — or perform some other action, even a minor action like most healing spells. (For the non-Dwarves, anyway. Second Wind as a minor is huge!)

One personal house rule I have established for the future is that, like in Eberron, action points will get slightly better for you as you level. In 4e terms, each new tier will allow for one more action point to be spent per encounter (i.e., 2 in paragon, 3 in epic). Still only one per turn, though — three standard actions in a row might get a bit wooly.

Maybe I should explain how we use action points, since it seems different from how everyone else does with d20. I’ve heard that the Buffy game has a mechanic kind of like it, and that might be where this originally came from. We use action points to do things like take an extra cleave after dropping one of three ogres who are tearing down the town gates, even though the third ogre is four squares away and I’ve already used a cleave that round, or charge through the ring of fire to attack the sorceror (without taking fire damage), and end up with my buddy charging right next to me so we’re both already flanking when we attack. Cinematic things that go beyond “bonus of X to roll Y” or “use power Z an extra time in W situation.”

As for house rules in general, I say try out RAW for awhile first, But I already have a bunch of little house rules in place for 4e. I think the tight constructed system behind 4e may be a liability for fun, and a healthy distrust of RAW can go a long way to remedy that.

We’ve played a couple of campaigns with the old version of APs, and nearly every PC winds up with scads of unused points — they’re just not as valuable in mid- to high-level play, IMO. With 4e’s version, I love the refresh mechanism, and only being able to use 1/encounter strikes just the right balance between needing to save it and wanting to use it — they feel precious.

On the broader topic, I think you should a) go with your gut when it comes to changing things before playing the game for the first time — but also b) poll your players beforehand and c) when in doubt, err in favor of giving the game designers a chance. Give APs a try as written, and tweak from there — and I’d say the same thing for any general case like this.

That said, I’m ready to start making the house rules and Action Points is on my list of things to tweak. For my group they don’t really enhance the game, and currently we all feel that the game needs some enhancing.

Yet I had to play the game straight several times to reach this conclusion. It allowed me to see how overall the game could be improved upon, and that is why I always play new games straight for a few sessions. I can’t fix what I don’t know is broken, and fixing what you suspect to be broken is probably just breaking things further.

If it still felt flat, I would then bump it up a notch and add in one part of your existing action point system (if possible). Feel free to experiment to find the right balance that you already found with the previous action point system.

If the standard 4E action point system is not enough, here are a few suggestions:
- Allow more than one action point per turn (allowing the player who has stored up several points to do a very cool combination of actions when needed).
- Grant 1 action point at the end of each encounter instead of once per every other encounter. Put that with the above rule and you will get some interesting hoarding.
- Make bonuses granted from action points (such as the suggested 1d6 adder to d20 rolls) last for several rounds effectively treating the action point as a ‘power up’.
- Don’t forget to give/use action points on your creatures — it’ll keep the players wondering if the creature is about to do the same combo on them.

Me, I’m enjoying finding new uses for Action Points (since we’ve never used them in my group) which extend the fun.