First, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
For the most part, I don't think that FASERIP is broken. However, there are a few areas that get constant complaints, so I'm starting a thread to discuss some simple to implement "fixes" to make the game more palatable for folks.
Essentially, some house rules that aren't as intrusive as a lot of "fixes" found on the Web.
What Works:
The Universal Table. It's the heart of the system. It's got to stay.
Intensities. Makes it easy to reslove a lot of stuff quickly, and to quickly create powers if needed.
Most of the other stuff. Most of the rules for various things strongly evoke a Silver/Bronze Age comic book feel, and work well enough. I won't address those in this post, though I'd like to hear any feedback on any subsystems that might benefit from some tweaking.
Problem Areas:
Single roll to hit and for effect. It makes the game run very quickly, but it creates a mental disconnect with a lot of players. It seems to really bother people that it takes the same roll to hit Aunt May as it does Thanos. Combat in most systems is some kind of opposed roll. The opponent's skill or armor or whatever, has some effect on the outcome.
Proposed "fix": Split the single roll into two rolls. The first would be a Hit roll based on the relative intensities of the attacker's and defender's relevent stats. The second would be a roll for effect. Color shifting is limited to a lower limit of White or upper limit of Red. So, not autohit or automiss. The one exception may be using Mook rules for autohits below white intensity to speed up combat against large groups of agents. I'd suggest no automiss for the mooks in this case, though, as it would trivialize them just a bit too much.
Armor is too powerful. It really bugs people that armor, force fields, and other defensive abilities are absolute. If you have an Am (50) damage attack, and an Am (50) defense, the attack isn't getting through. This is pretty much inline with comics, though. Spider-Man can't put a dent in Juggernaut, but he can leverage his smarts, his agility, and his ability to hurl insults to trick Juggernaut into burying himself in fresh concrete.
Proposed "fix". GM responsibility. Encourage the use of creative solutions to high defense characters, or don't make the match up in the first place. This is a comic book game, and should encourage comic book problems with comic book solutions. Most characters do not have absolute defenses against everything. If the work around for the defense isn't a power possessed by the players, then the GM should encourage them to use makeshift substitutes or use other tactics, or power stunts to get the job done. A big help here would be to encourage Karma spending and discourage Karma hoarding, which leads to our next trouble area...
Karma Hoarding. The Karma system has one major problem: It's used for advancement and to modify rolls in play and for power stunting. The costs for advancement are high, and players sometimes want to save up to advance their character, perhaps to shore up a weak roll from random character generation. On the GM side, the Karma system can result in a lot of book keeping that needs to be done on the fly. The game works best when the Karama flows freely and in real time. Hoarding Karma and waiting until the end of the adventure to make rewards of Karma both impede the flow of Karma.
Proposed solution.
Get rid of the Karama costs for advancement as a seperate expense.
Power Stunts already become permanent after ten tries (note: "tries", not "successes" player's book, pg 17). These should be the primary means of adding additional "powers" to characters.
For increasing the ranks in a Power or Ability, allow Pushing as a Red FEAT roll. After a set number (probably more than ten, but I haven't worked out a good number to pace character growth) of successes, the rank increases by one column. GMs may want to limit the number of these push attempts per session, and/or require they be dramatically appropriate (i.e., tripping a character's psych limit, following a major setback, or saving the world). (Note: Pushing damage up a column shift also helps with the Armor/defense issue to a degree.)
Award Karma in real time, if possible. I'm not sure what the RAW say on this, but it keeps the flow up.
Give the players opportunities to gain karma during "down time" activities, or in their civilian life. A lot of games may focus on getting to the action/plot, but less on civilian or off time activities. In this case, encouraging blue booking or player to player roleplaying, with summaries given to the GM (or copies in PBEM games) will help. Some limits should be placed on non-moderated play/blue booking, so that those players who have a more literary bent or more free time don't dominate, though.
Ok, those are the "big issues" I keep seeing mentioned about the system. Any suggestions to these proposed "fixes"? Any other areas where the system is lacking from your personal point of view?
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Originally Posted by megaplayboy
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