Intervention

In my last post I loosely outlined some new mechanics I have been considering for a new game system.  In writing it I started pondering what I feel is another interesting concept.

I talked briefly about GM intervention, and what a no-no it is, IMHO. However, nothing kills a game faster than killing off all the PCs.  As illustrated in: How not to handle death.

So what can a GM (or game mechanics) do when it looks like a PC is going to die?  Well, as I have said before, sometimes you just got to go with it, and a PC death leads to a memorable scene in a game.  But I have been considering an alternative mechanic to sidestep some PC death situations in a viable manner.

I like bonus dice and I like bonus points.  So how about a very rare type of bonus. An intervention point.  This can be considered an intervention by the gods in most fantasy based games.  Intervention by some higher intelligences in some more futuristic / realistic based games.  Or just sheer luck.  Bestow them on players very rarely.  Never more than one at a time.  And perhaps bestow them on the party rather than an individual player.  That way the party has to decide when to use them.  Also, considering John Wick's 'let the players' decide the outcome' mechanic.  Which I personally feel is fraught with danger, but still kinda like the idea of if meted out in ultra-small doses.  If the party has earned an intervention point, a prophecy point, an alternative universe point, whatever you want to call it, if a situation results in the death of one or more party members, then the party can decide to spend that point and they decide how the deaths are avoided.  With GM approval of course.

I plan to test this.