Stat Inflation

[Herolover]

Hello all.

I am running a Fantasy Campaign with the characters purchased on 75+75 points. I have 3-5 players depending upon what all is going on.

My problem is that I am running into stat inflation where everyone wants a 20 STR. Now, I admit that the party is fighter heavy (I don't have a problem with this part). However, I have the brick of the group that has a 20 STR, the quick agile fighter has a 20 STR, and now I am going to have another player with a 20 STR.

I HATE arbitrary limits so I don't want to just say, no you can't have a 20 STR. So what are some other ways to prevent this from happening in the future.

[Supreme Serpent]

The more I think about it, the more I want to import Amber "ranks" into HERO games. Once someone's "schtick" is determined, no one can get as good or better at it than them.

Big Strong Fighter w/20 Str: Until he buys Str up, best anyone else can have is 19.

Super dexy thief w/20 Dex: Until he buys Dex up, best anyone else can have is 19.

Etc. It's arbitrary, but linked to the other PC's.

Could also say "all stat increases cost triple" or somesuch.

[Vondy]

I would tell them they have to build their character to concept and that you will enforce concept. Then, require each character to have their own concept with their own schtick. You might also adjust the stat benchmarks for your campaign.

Just an example:

6-10: Average
11-13: Skilled
14-18: Competent
19-20: Heroic
21+: Legendary!

In such a case you could tell players they can only have 1 or 2 stats in the "Heroic" range (just as an example), and require they fit the concept. You could just as easily let them all march up to twenty, but only allow one stat to reach into the legendary range. Where you place the benchmarks, and the limits, is dependent on the style of play and genre you are trying to simulate.

[nelay]

I tried control stats somewhat by having a large minium number of non-combat related skills. This helped round out the characters a bit, but I still saw an awful lot of 20 STR mages and clerics.
For the last campaign I went a step further and reduced the starting points to 25 base + 50 disadvs. Now each character pretty much has 1 or 2 decent stats and nobody is buying a stat just to use points. I give decently generous XP but I dont let them randomly buy up stats without some sort of in story explaination.

[Nevenall]

I tried control stats somewhat by having a large minium number of non-combat related skills. This helped round out the characters a bit, but I still saw an awful lot of 20 STR mages and clerics.
For the last campaign I went a step further and reduced the starting points to 25 base + 50 disadvs. Now each character pretty much has 1 or 2 decent stats and nobody is buying a stat just to use points. I give decently generous XP but I dont let them randomly buy up stats without some sort of in story explaination.

This has worked for me too.

[OddHat]

Bring a live rattlesnake (in an aquarium), a box of matches, and a bottle of rum to your next gaming session. At the start of the session, take a swig of rum, and then (using the matches and as much of the rum as you declined to swallow) spray liquid fire over the gaming table. Now, ask your players who wants to be the first to dangle his private parts in the aquarium.

None of them will ever ask for another 20 STR character again.

[Rick]

I'm the GM, erol flyn doesn't get to have a 20str, Conan does get to have a 23str...PERIOD. Arguing gets you the look, continue to argue and you get the hook (rhym not intended, but all the same fun).

[NuSoardGraphite]

Thus far I've been blessed with regular players that build their characters to concept. Though, oftentimes the concepts themselves are overpowered, but they stick to them!

Though I like the method of adjusting the "benchmarks" then telling everyone only 1 or 2 of their stats should be on the "Herioc" level and only 1 at the "Legendary" level (and it must be the stat that is most important for the characters concept, of course)

[OddHat]

Thus far I've been blessed with regular players that build their characters to concept. Though, oftentimes the concepts themselves are overpowered, but they stick to them!

Though I like the method of adjusting the "benchmarks" then telling everyone only 1 or 2 of their stats should be on the "Herioc" level and only 1 at the "Legendary" level (and it must be the stat that is most important for the characters concept, of course)

Yup. This is a good method, espescially if you play up Character A's "Legendary Speed", character B's "Legendary Strength", etc, out of combat.

[Storn]

I charge 2 pts for STR (in HD I create Generic/Custom Power and charge the same amount of points the STR is.).

I also only give 2 xp per adventure.

I am throwing away STR mins to weild weapons. It is stupid that an atheltic man (STR 10) cannot wield a 2 handed sword. Because it suggests that you have to benchpress 400 and be HUGE to weild such a weapon. Not every Swiss Mercenary who weilded a 2 handed sword was an 18 STR. The str mins are stoopid, IMO, as they are defined. So, now you can be a 13 STR warrior and have a two handed battle axe or sword... sure, its going to be a bit more taxing than Ahrnald...but it can be done.

Instead, STR Mins for every 5 pts under, you expend 1 END more for using the weapon. And of course, for every 5 pts over, you get a +1 DC.

And I have good players who will not buy strength up if it doesn't meet character concept.

[Killer Shrike]

Personally, I dont worry about it. Whats the point of enticing people to play a game system that lets you model your character as you please within point limits and campaign appropriatness, only to turn around and say "no, you cant have a 20 STR (or whatever) -- Billy already has that"?

I encourage players not to step on each other's shticks too much, but there are so many ways to build things in the HERO System that two characters having similar stats does not necessarily mean they are similar characters by any means.

If it really really really bothers you, consider making the cost of STR = 2 points. It immediately stops being so efficient to buy you're a fool not to buy as much as you can from a mathematical perspective. If it's not just STR, but all key stats that you dont like to see float up to 20's, set the NCM to 15 for the camapaign. This singlehandedly makes it inefficient to buy everything up to 20 (although at 1pt per STR, you still basically break even if you push to 20 via figureds).

[OddHat]

Personally, I dont worry about it. Whats the point of enticing people to play a game system that lets you model your character as you please within point limits and campaign appropriatness, only to turn around and say "no, you cant have a 20 STR (or whatever) -- Billy already has that"?

I encourage players not to step on each other's shticks too much, but there are so many ways to build things in the HERO System that two characters having similar stats does not necessarily mean they are similar characters by any means.

If it really really really bothers you, consider making the cost of STR = 2 points. It immediately stops being so efficient to buy you're a fool not to buy as much as you can from a mathematical perspective. If it's not just STR, but all key stats that you dont like to see float up to 20's, set the NCM to 15 for the camapaign. This singlehandedly makes it inefficient to buy everything up to 20 (although at 1pt per STR, you still basically break even if you push to 20 via figureds).

Hey, KS. Nice to see you around.

[joen00b]

I think my big beef is everyone and their cousin wanting to learn martial arts. One guy in the group can do a flying side kick knocking the bad guy through a brick wall and all of a sudden the paladins and thieves and mages want to be chop sockying all over his genre. I've seen it happen a hundred times, if I've seen it once. Guaranteed there is always at least 1 person in the group that wants to accenuate their skills with Martial Arts... nevermind the background story of how this guy studied his whole life to be able to do martial arts, now this one guy wants to be able to do them too.

Am I the only one aggravated by this?

[Supreme Serpent]

Nah, that just means Martial Arts are unbalanced.

[Storn]

My fix for martial arts?

You can't apply it to weapon damage. It is only empty hand techniques. Martial Art Techniques applied to weapons makes armor obsolete.. which is fine for some fantasy campaigns for feel... but not mine.

And empty hand technique vs. a knife/dagger/short sword, -1 OCV
vs. Longsword, medium length weapon: -2
vs. spear or polearm: :-3

{of course, if you DO get inside of the weapon length, then its the other guy who has the OCV penalties.}