Action Points, or AP, in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is a group statistic that is shared among a party of players and a game master mechanic for giving NPCs additional actions.
Overview[]
Players[]
During play, action points are pooled into a maximum of 6 total action points. At the start of play, the starting AP is equivalent to the amount of players. Action points are then generated by exceeding skill checks with additional successes, i.e. a skill test difficulty of one is rolled and the player wins with a check of 2, thus adding an action point to the pool.
The maximum of 6 cannot be exceeded normally and additional AP that would put the pool over is lost. However, until that player's turn is over, the additional AP can be used by that player to perform additional actions. This additional AP is in a personal pool until the player's turn ends. Any AP still in the personal pool will go into the group pool if it does not exceed 6.
If the amount of AP is depleted, the players may buy AP from the GM. This AP can only be used to buy d20s and the amount bought from the GM is given back to the GM in their pool.
Game masters[]
Game masters pool AP just like players but their pool is effectively infinite. In addition to pooling AP, players may buy AP from the GM to buy d20s with. When that occurs, the GM pools the amount of AP the players bought.