House Rules

[lemming]

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson

That one seems fairly common. Seems to me a guy with a 30 REC is pretty much impossible to keep down (unless you beat on him while he's down - very heroic ) under such a rule.

My old gaming group came to the same conclusion. Posted about this on a different thread.

[zornwil]

I have lots of house rules, since you asked they are at http://www.asterick.com/realschluss/x-champions/house_rules/index.html . But highlights are covered below.

 

As to "why", it's to fix things I perceive as broken or less than ideal and can be made closer to ideal with no massive effort. Or, in a few cases, campaign-specific things. Highlights would be:

 

Mental and Supernatural Defenses - mental I do like most people, I just think it should be derived with no "entry" cost, that seems unfair to regular people and doesn't make sense to me - it also corrects for those situations where you think a character should have 20 or higher EGO but no "special" MD beyond what they should have just based on EGO; supernatural was/is to make the supernatural stuff more differentiated and to make it so the subjects of purely supernatural (no material element involved beyond that invoked by belief) attacks resist based on INT; MOST IMPORTANTLY, SD replaced Power Defense COMPLETELY as the arbitrary non-Mental/Energy/Physical catch-all special defense, I felt the "Power Defense" idea was so vague it was senseless, so this gives it a different grounding (I think most Power Defense things reflect more supernatural things, and if you do NOT want them to, you should be using Phys/Ener/Mental)

 

Martial Arts - I've discussed this elsewhere, in a nutshell I don't want big bricks to get cheap martial arts maneuvers as such (yes, I know they can just buy cheap CVs - that's a good and different thing in my book), and I want low-STR people to have easy access to martial arts (in fact you can be totally normal, get martial arts cheaper in my game, and buy up damage classes for a very effective character with low STR)

 

Perks - Contacts were modified mainly for my game and also because the cost increases (though they weren't quite as bad as people made them out to be) in 5th were outrageous to me, when you compared loyal contacts to Followers, it ended up being cheaper to just buy a follower who is well-connected and in the organization you want - made no sense

 

Inherent - that was a silly thing introduced into 5th with very limited application in my view, no reason to start to differentiate it in my view

 

Adjustment Powers - i felt they were generally overpriced for what they did, and I felt the genre put them more as a normally at-range thing

 

Classes of mental effects - this was one of the worst changes in 5th in my view; it was good as a discussion point, but to have to buy separate classes, including "aliens" (what rationale is there besides convenience for that as a category???), and pay the same price as for people is ridiculous in most games; I dropped them and left it in the traditional case-by-case (meaning based on character concept) basis. In a modern game, selecting only aliens or only animals is of course a limitation.

 

Many 5th edition changes I didn't like, so ignored and house-ruled them away. They all related to things I didn't see as broken prior to 5th - Aid, Healing, Regen, Shape Shift, EC, they all worked just fine, never had an issue.

 

I added an invulnerability power, like many people, with some limitations, in order to model those instances so common in the genre where a particular type of attack(s) has no impact whatsoever on someone.

 

I am NEVER (well, okay, barring unforeseen circumstances) going to allow "does BODY" at only +1 on an NND.

 

VPPs - I added some logic to make these model more the way I think they work best in fiction, where trading the powers in a VPP is either a lot more costly or you can try to trade them out as you go for penalties on the likelihood they'll function as expected - this models both the sorcerers who try to concoct a new spell in the middle of combat and the gadgeteers who try to jury-rig a device to do something different in combat.

 

Disads - added campaign-specific ones such as "Alumni of Xaviers' New School for the Gifted" and "Unregistered"

 

Combat - made actions in a phase simultaneous to just get a little closer to fictional combat where people shoot each other at the same time; weirdest thing I suppose is that I "stack" STUN and BOD damage, so that defenses strip off the BOD damage FIRST, and then any remaining defenses act against STUN, or, if none, the remaining BOD gets through and all the STUN goes through, the reason being I just like how this works in terms of letting more STUN damage through and making BOD damage pretty important/meaningful (i.e., it's not just meaningful that you dealt STUN and some BOD, it matters whether you dealt that same STUN with a LOT or a LITTLE BOD now)

 

Multiple Power Attacks - just seem too abusive without more controls, so I made it so you have to buy some advantages to use them

 

END and at range - I thought they both worked just fine in the older rules at 1/5 for END and -1/3" for range - with END I tweaked further to run off of the base cost and that seems to work a little better for my own thoughts

 

Experience and Reputation - added a system to more discreetly award XPs but also to allow character growth via reputation (it also shapes certain things, like you don't get a Presence Attack until you graduate to the first Reputation Level, you can't get a base until further up than that) - this Reputation thing just seems more consistent with heroic fictional lead characters

[Supreme]

My main house rule is my critical successes and failures rule. As is HERO has an optional rule about "extraordinary successes" on skill rolls. If you make the roll by more than 10, your success can take on "extraordinary" successes. I adapted that to attack rolls. Make your attack roll by 10 or more, and all of your damage dice are sixes. Miss your roll by more than 10 and you do regular damage to yourself, or your comrades (GM's call). This gives HERO what it was missing from other RPGs - crits and fumbles. Some may not like 'em, but they really speed up a game, and make things lively.

[TrickstaPriest]

House Rules

 

Interesting rule Supreme, I've often used and seen critical and critical failure systems like that. I tend to do whatever sort of "ill effect" I think appropriate, I find merely increasing the damage tends to make me lose heroes and villains too quickly. (¬_¬_Especially with how well these nuts roll... or how poorly...) Most of the ones that I use in what I have played in HERO I've already seen, but there are a couple I'm throwing out. Most of these are character creation, but I find them quite useful.

1. Similar Powers- I tend to allow people to take very similar powers in Multipowers, since otherwise I find there is too much of a point loss for only a little game. Players can often get quite a few powers into Multipowers, though I may require them to take more than one Multipower for powers that aren't similar enough in function.

2. Power Description- I require descriptions, at least small ones, of powers, including how they work. It doesn't require too much in the way of research unless they are coming up with something particularly unusual, and I let some things slide as merely "over-the-top" power effects. I tend to like this when people end up taking lots of odd advantages and limitations on their powers, and I've required people to take advantages or limitations if they would make sense. This also tends to help break away from the confines of thinking of the powers as dice and rules.

3. Creative Use- I tend to like to give the players a bit of leeway in using their powers. The advantage of clearly defining the powers of the characters is that I'll allow them to cook up some homemade uses of their powers, even if it would require an entirely different Power. This tends to require something similar to Pushing Powers, but with more points that can be put towards it. Of course, I tend to increase the END costs or difficulty in rolling the power, and it'll never be as strong as if they bought it fully. How much of an increase depends on how flexible I view the powers in the setting. Some settings are more flexible in their use of powers than others.

I'm also vaugely cooking up a Second Life system that'll give me a construct for allowing characters and villains to survive otherwise nasty rolling when the scene is relatively unimportant. I dislike fudging dice, and I certainly can't fudge the players rolls (oooh... critical failure to disarm that bomb? hm...). The nice thing is that it doesn't directly use the system, so it can be used for any type of game, and it doesn't use anything so silly as actual "lives". It will also help me keep my villains from getting killed off by absolutely insane rolls, since I can use it for them too (though to give the PCs a reward I would always use the penalty that comes with it).

[Arthur]

Originally posted by Arthur

For example, if your defenses are 21/7, and you are hit with a KA that does 10 BODY and 20 STUN, you take 2 BODY and 2 STUN, not zero STUN.

 

Duh. Make that 3 BODY and 3 STUN. Duh again.

[prestidigitator]

The ones I can think of:

• Healing used for regeneration must either buy the Cumulative advantage, or increase the maximum benefit to double the character's maximum Body. This makes it expensive--as it should be--and consistent.
   
  
• Flash works as in 4th edition (including cost, except for non-targetting senses, which are half). I run mostly heroic adventures, and the new Flash rules make the Power mostly pointless there.
   
  
• Characters of unusual size may buy Growth or Shrinking, with the modifiers No End, Persistant, Inherent, and Always On. I never got the point of denying this. Buying the individual benefits and Disadvantages winds up differing by only a point or two every time I have tried it, anyway. Buying Growth or Shrinking in this way seems easier to wrap my mind around, too.
   
  
• I guess this isn't really specified one way or the other in the book, but I allow Skill Levels and Combat Skill Levels to be "upgraded" to more expensive ones. I require that a character have at least a 5-point Combat Skill Level to trade in along with a Skill Level in order to get an Overall Skill Level which is good for combat as well (the character is refunded the leftover points, and may immediately use them to buy either type of level without further training). I often also require that 5-point and(/or) higher skill levels be obtained this way, rather than bought directly (unless starting characters are pretty powerful).
   
  
• In superheroic games, I do allow more than one Figured Characteristic to be bought back. It's your funeral.
   
  
• Many (but not all) packages that I provide do not count their Disadvantages toward your maximum Disadvatage total.
   
  
• I like to mess with Spd and the Speed chart (see the "Shaking up the Speed Chart" thread).
   
  
• I require that anyone with a Multipower or VPP may not slow down the game while they decide how to allocate their points. If it takes more than about 10 real-time seconds after I call a player's turn, they are considered to be holding their action. I also allow only one change in a Framework per Phase, rather than any time a 0-Phase action can take place (no, "I allocate all my points to Running, do my Half Move, reallocate all my points to a HKA, and attack").
   
  
• I do not, in general, like experience based on combat, but I like characters to develop a bit faster than normal, so I give extra experience based on challenging situations (something like a point per really tough scenario), including combat if it is really tough. I also award points based on significant story contribution (even out of session writups), very creative or otherwise brilliant ideas, etc. I never allow the spread of experience between players to be more than 2 points in a given session, however. For multi-session adventures, I award experience each session, with the overall story award coming at the end.
   
   
  

[Hugh Neilson]

Originally posted by prestidigitator

The ones I can think of:

• [*] Healing used for regeneration must either buy the Cumulative advantage, or increase the maximum benefit to double the character's maximum Body. This makes it expensive--as it should be--and consistent.

 

ummm...two things. First, cumulative still caps at the max on the dice, so Regeneration would not be unlimited if that were the advantage.

 

Second, Regeneration already has an advantage built into the cost. 1d6 of Healing, standard effect, should do 3 points (1.5 BOD). Regeneration only returns two, so you only get 2/3 of a die. To get 3 CP, you would buy 1.5 d6 Healing (15 base), 0 END (+1/2), persistent (+1/2), 1 turn (-1), Self Only (-1/2), Not Limited to a Maximum (+X) for 15 points. The advantages and limitatiions must equal, as we end up paying the base cost. Therefore, "not limited by dice maximum" is a +1/2 advantage (one I would flag a stop sign over).

 

Originally posted by prestidigitator

[*] Flash works as in 4th edition (including cost, except for non-targetting senses, which are half). I run mostly heroic adventures, and the new Flash rules make the Power mostly pointless there.

 

For me, the jury's still out on "new flash". Compared to the old one, it breaks even at 6 SPD, so it's definitely less useful than "old flash". But blinding an opponent, especially in Heroic where alternate targetting senses are much less common, is also a very powerful effect.

 

Originally posted by prestidigitator

[*] In superheroic games, I do allow more than one Figured Characteristic to be bought back. It's your funeral.

 

I'll buy +500 CON for +1,000 points. I will sell back 100 REC, recovering 200 points, 250 STUN recovering 250 points, 1,000 END for 500 points and 50 ED recovering 50 points. I now have +50 ED for free. I certainly won't buy "No Figured" for a paltry -1/2!

 

Say, I can also buy +500 STR for 500 points, sell back 100 REC (200 pts), 250 STUN (250 pts) and 50 PD (50 Pts). +50 PD and +500d6 damage for free.

 

That said, I would allow selling more than one figured back on a case by case basis. And I'm sure that's how your campaign works too - no one would allow the above structure. As an example, MagicMan is a being of pure mystic force. He wants to sell all his PD/ED back and buy defenses only as a force field (his magical body). Seems OK.

 

Originally posted by prestidigitator

[*] I require that anyone with a Multipower or VPP may not slow down the game while they decide how to allocate their points. If it takes more than about 10 real-time seconds after I call a player's turn, they are considered to be holding their action.

 

This should apply to anyone deciding what to do. You have lots of time to think while others are moving, so you've been given way more than 10 seconds to think about how to use your one to three second phase.

[Agent X]

Agent X's Champions Campaign Rules

 

1. Players must be interested in more than simply the game. They must be interested in socializing with the other players.

2. Players must be respectful and considerate to one another.

3. Players must handle victory and defeat with dignity.

4. Players must respect that my games will attempt to balance the game in the areas of role-play, combat, problem solving, and storytelling.

5. Players cannot build characters with the designs of being the best at everything. What does that leave to other players? Ordinarily players should discuss with each other and the GM what role they would like to take. Are they the strongest? The fastest? Etc. In these cases, the player who asks for something first gets “dibs.â€

6. Players should be prepared to change the design of characters at my request. I am the only one who is trying or able to pay attention to how everyone and every character is interacting with the known and unknown elements of the milieu. That means I will have a perspective others will lack in my game.

7. I use 5th Edition Rules with House Rules as I find things that need fixing.

8. I will suspend any rule at any given point when it does not make sense or bogs the game down needlessly.

 

House Rules

1. Character designs must include descriptions of Background/Origin, Personality/Motivation, a Signature Quotation or Quotations, Powers/Tactics, and Appearance, both in normal identity and super identity when applicable.

2. Regeneration will be handled as it was in 4th Edition but appropriate adders from 5th edition will be used as well. Instant Change will be treated as a custom power using the 4th edition arrangment.

3. Normal Characteristic Maxima may not be taken as a Disadvantage.

4. Pulling a Punch does not create a DCV penalty. That is inappropriate for a superhero campaign.

5. Elemental Controls may not have any characteristics other than Strength or Physical/Energy Defense included when appropriate.

6. Encumbrance will affect movement as stated on page 250. Other effects are inappropriate for a superhero campaign.

7. Multiple Attacker rules are used so watch out for swarms of ninjas.

8. Weapon Familiarity and Off Hand are not used.

9. Blazing away can be extended into the following segments. The character can fire a maximum of five shots per segment.

10. Impairment and Disabling rules on page 278 are used should someone take ½+1 or more body. It shouldn’t come up very often but when it does these rules add detail and make for a better story.

11. Casual Strength may not be used to attack. It’s on page 283 and I only mention it because players have considered using this as an option for attacks that do not count as an action.

12. Pushing requires a Con roll for physical attacks and an Ego roll for mental attacks. A Power Skill roll can be substituted if the character has that skill. The number of character points pushed modifies the roll by this simple formula: -1 penalty for every 10 character points pushed. A failed roll still succeeds but the character suffers penalties as if they had been stunned. A roll failed by more than half costs the character one fourth of their total starting stun. With a roll of 18, the character is stunned, loses half their stun and all their endurance.

13. Characters can be allotted certain Social Advantages or Disadvantages based on events in game. In these cases no compensation is given for Social Disadvantages and Social Advantages are paid for in bonus experience.

[Tom Carman]

The GMs I play with feel that, while 4th edition Aid was highly abusable, the changes made to 5th edition Healing went so far overboard that they crippled the Power (a view I heartily agree with). So they decreed that Healing works like most other Adjustment Powers: more-or-less Cumulative and the maximum effect can be increased at a 2:1 ratio. Players are warned that any abilities based on Healing may be retroactively vetoed if they prove more abusive in play than the GM had realized when it was approved. (Actually, this last wasn't explicitly said; but I heard it anyway.)

[prestidigitator]

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson

ummm...two things. First, cumulative still caps at the max on the dice, so Regeneration would not be unlimited if that were the advantage.[/i]

That is another reason this is purely a House Rule. Normally, Adjustment Powers cannot buy Cumulative; they are cumulative already. However, I think it is a reasonable advantage to apply to make the power even more cumulative (bypassing the maximum effect). And yes: with a stop sign.

 

I'll buy +500 CON for +1,000 points. I will sell back 100 REC, recovering 200 points, 250 STUN recovering 250 points, 1,000 END for 500 points and 50 ED recovering 50 points.

Hmm. Well, if too many points were involved, I'd just call decreased characteristics Disadvantages (I've seen this done plenty in examples). Are you allowed 1000 points of Disadvantages in your game?

 

That said, I would allow selling more than one figured back on a case by case basis. And I'm sure that's how your campaign works too...

I trust my players not to try to cheese, for the most part. I also look over all characters a bit, and use common sense. That being said, I guess everything is on a case-by-case basis.

 

This should apply to anyone deciding what to do. You have lots of time to think while others are moving, so you've been given way more than 10 seconds to think about how to use your one to three second phase.

Yes. Frameworks happen to be the place where I have had the most trouble, though, so I spell it out quite explicitely, and players think seriously about if and what Frameworks they will buy (and how to prepare them pre-game).

[Guest Keneton]

House Rules!

 

Read first......Comment Later!

 

[Guest Keneton]

Additional House Rules

 

These are for Fantasy Hero Character Creation and Supplement House Rules From Prior.