Distinguishing Normal Charcteristics

[Sidume]

Greetings all

Before people jump down my throat - yes I ran several searches. I didn't find the answer.

The Hero System does a really good job with supers and upscaling with the d6 system. I don't think it does quite as good a job with lower level characters whose stats fall within normal characteristics max. Not that it does a bad job, but I'm looking for ways to differenciate characters where Player A has stat of 11, Player B has a 12, Player C has a 13 and Player D has a 14.

Stat based skills differenciate well between B and C, but there is little difference between A and B, or C and D.

Have there been discussions on this topic, or has something been printed that someone could send me a link and/or reference to? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Maccabe]

Re: Distinguishing Normal Charcteristics

 

It may not seem like much but EGO 12 is a bit harder to mentally affect compared to EGO 11, at one point in Champions you had to get 2 times or 3 times EGO to affect a target. STR 12 can lift more then STR 11 can, CON 12 is harder to "stun" then CON 11 and so forth.

Maybe these small differences are ALOT when you have Normal Characterists Maxima, they add up.

[Escafarc]

Re: Distinguishing Normal Charcteristics

 

It may not seem like much but EGO 12 is a bit harder to mentally affect compared to EGO 11, at one point in Champions you had to get 2 times or 3 times EGO to affect a target. STR 12 can lift more then STR 11 can, CON 12 is harder to "stun" then CON 11 and so forth.

Maybe these small differences are ALOT when you have Normal Characterists Maxima, they add up.

 

Also the same with DEX, PRE, and BODY.

[AlHazred]

Re: Distinguishing Normal Charcteristics

 

• As far as STR goes, there are optional rules to provide more granularity for damage, weight-carrying, and other purposes. Check out the Advanced Player's Guide [6E] or The Ultimate Brick [5E].
  
• Higher DEX allows you to go before people of a lower DEX. This makes each point of DEX important.
  
• CON determines how easily you're Stunned. A single point can mean the difference between losing a Phase and not. And since normal people have a lower SPD, this is an even bigger deal than for superheroes.
  
• INT is the only stat where there's not (yet) a real difference in a normal game. If you're in a Psionic game which uses INT in place of DEX for mental combat (the standard system uses EGO) then what I said above under DEX applies.
  
• In a psionic game, EGO determines so many things, each point of it is important. Order of a action during a Phase, how easily you can be manipulated by Mental Powers, and so on. In 5E, your Mental Defense is calculated based off of it.
  
• PRE has a similar effect to CON -- when you are Presence Attacked, you can lose half-actions or whole Phases with a particularly potent Presence Attack. Each point counts.
  

In 5E, where there are Figured Characteristics, these minor distinctions can also carry weight, although that only counts as far as the "break-points" for most characteristics (13 and 18, specifically).

[Maccabe]

Re: Distinguishing Normal Charcteristics

 

Min/Maxing aside, a person with an 10 in some statistics takes 3 exp to get to 13, while a person with

12 takes 1 exp to get to 13. Seems like simple math but you may have to go on more adventures to

earn those 3 exp then you would 1 exp. Maybe some people learn faster or train more intensely, whatever reason you choose it goes to the character make-up.

[Lucius]

Re: Distinguishing Normal Charcteristics

 

Greetings all

Before people jump down my throat - yes I ran several searches. I didn't find the answer.

The Hero System does a really good job with supers and upscaling with the d6 system. I don't think it does quite as good a job with lower level characters whose stats fall within normal characteristics max. Not that it does a bad job, but I'm looking for ways to differenciate characters where Player A has stat of 11, Player B has a 12, Player C has a 13 and Player D has a 14.

Stat based skills differenciate well between B and C, but there is little difference between A and B, or C and D.

Have there been discussions on this topic, or has something been printed that someone could send me a link and/or reference to? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

One idea I've seen - if you miss a Skill or Characteristic roll by 1, you may roll 1d6. If you're right on the breakpoint - if you're Player C with a 13 DEX and rolled a 13 for Stealth for example - you will still succeed on a 1 on 1d6. If you're one over breakpoint - Player D with a 14 DEX - you succeed on a 1 or 2. And so on, so if you had a 17 DEX and miss the roll by 1, you still succeed on a roll of 1-5 on 1d6.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Distinguished Normal Palindromedaries

[Vondy]

Re: Distinguishing Normal Charcteristics

 

I exclusively run heroic games, often depicting more "down to earth" genres reflected by shows like Bones, Burn Notice, Castle, the Chicago Code, Dirt, Justified, Memphis Beat, etc. More cinematic characters might be based on REH's Conan, Indianna Jones, the Man With No Name, Buck Rogers, and their ilk. None of these characters must have legendary stats to set them apart when you stat them out. That's a question of design style. Indeed, Conan of the short stories is very strong, but not super-humanly so (as opposed to Beowulf for instance), and meets men stronger than he. How you represent that is a personal choice.

 

But, more to the point, I've never had an issue making characters unique. Characteristics are only one facet of a character. They should also have talents, perks, and skill sets that render them unique, or serve to give them a shtick. Let alone complications and their personality, accomplishments, and backstory. Indy is just another run of the mill B grade action-professor pulp hero without his bullwhip, brown fedora, fear of snakes, backstory replete with Marion Ravenwood, and snappy one-liners.

 

I'm all for ensuring each character has his or her niche, but unless a characteristic is specifically a defining aspect of a character - like beowulf's great strength or sherlock holmes' crazy-insane intellect - its not necessary to sweat the similarity some characters may have in their characteristics. A chop-sockey martial arts master and a cinematic commando will have different talents, skills, tactics, and backstories even if both have fairly similar characteristics. One trick you can use is assign flavor text to talents, perks, and skills. I go so far as to assign small situational modifiers based on that text (usu. no more than +1 or +2).

 

For instance, you might have two characters with an 18-20 Presence and the Oratory skill...

 

Motivational Speaker: Oratory 13-

Flirtation, Innuendo, and the Cut Direct: Oratory 13-.

 

One character is clearly an inspiring leader and coach who can fire people up, while the other is adroit with social combat and firing people up in a very different way. This is doubly true if these characters can leverage other skills (incl. background skills) in their differing skill set as complimentary skills. HOWEVER, you have to be consistent about applying the modifiers and put characters in situations where the characters can leverage the flavor text.

 

Just my 2AP. Take it or leave it.