I really don’t like the term victory points.
I get why it exists; it’s a useful crossgame metaphor, it’s a very utilitarian idea for what you want to do in a game, it explains itself decently well – these are the points that get you victory.
Thing is, it’s such a bald metaphor. If your game can have no idea of how to describe ‘the thing that makes you win,’ you’re kind of tipping your hand about what you’ve spent time and effort thinking about. In The Botch, you’re fighting over Diamonds. In Dark Signs, you’re trying to control nightmares. In The Dragon’s Favour, you’re trying to earn favour.
In any of these games, just having an idea of the metaphor of what you’re trying to encourage the players to do lets you step away from the name ‘victory point.’ I don’t even mind the mechanic! Victory points are a good mechanism for representing a variety of things!
Just don’t call them victory points! It’s a half-way measure!