Diminishing Victory Points

Using this method, the PCs start with a certain number of Victory Points, and rather than accumulating them, they attempt to avoid losing them. Perhaps the PCs are trying to prevent a hacker from getting into a database, keep an evacuation center safe during a hurricane, preserve a celebrity's untarnished reputation despite their troublemaking behavior, or are otherwise attempting to minimize damage, loss, or danger. This variant is less common, but it's great at conveying the urgency of a situation as the PCs lose points. Sometimes it's necessary to add that sense of tension with this subsystem! Typically, when the PCs lose all their Victory Points, a negative event occurs. If they're on a timer, the final results might be better the more points they manage to keep before the time runs out.