Major House Rule: Adding a new Characteristic

[phoenix240]

Or technically adding two characteristics but one of them isn't "new".

 

We're planning on switching the bulk of our Hero System games to a hybrid system using aspects of 5th and 6th Edition along with a few house rules. One of the biggest possible changes is making Perception a Characteristic instead of aspect of Intellect. We also are going to retain Comeliness as a Characteristic.

 

Has anyone added a Char to Hero System? What were some issues (if any)? A major one will be how to use Hero Maker with these House rules, unfortunateoly.

1.  

[Vondy]

I can't answer the heromaker aspect.

 

However, I played in a game where perception was a separate characteristic and it worked fine in play.

 

I'm pretty sure its a toolkit option mentioned somewhere in a 6e book somewhere.

 

And, comeliness was a part-and-parcel of the system for years -- just try to make it do something.

 

That's not hard, it just takes a few moments of meditation. Or a search on the boards.

 

However, my only concern is that more stats means more stuff to sink points into -- how will you compensate for that?

 

With 6e we already had a big inflation in point costs -- some of it stemming from stat growth.

[Rebar]

Per as its own CHA makes sense to me.

[Ndreare]

I think it would work fine. But you would have small discrepancies between the books and the players characters in point balance.

It would also make it were you would have to write the characters out by hand. The Hero Designer software is awesome and accurate. By changing the way you get perception you will lose allot of that utility for what amounts to the +1 or +2 people get on perception from intelligence.

 

Also perception it effectively a skill in hero so while you may divorce it from intelligence I think it should not be a characteristic.

 

If all the bad guys are paying 1, 2 or 3 points per plus one and getting an intelligent bonus might frustrate the players to have to add even one more spot to spend points.

 

 

PS: As a player I would vote against the perception change.

[Vondy]

Weird. It wouldn't let me edit.

[Vondy]

Also perception it effectively a skill in hero so while you may divorce it from intelligence I think it should not be a characteristic.

 

 

It could just be treated as an 11- everyman skill.

 

A player can choose to buy additional levels if they want, or purchase it as an intellect skill.

 

Personally, while I think it "makes sense" on a conceptual level, I'm not a fan of the idea on a system level.

 

The granularity in Hero 6e, from my purely subjective point of view, is already bursting at the seams.

 

Logical and reasonable aren't always one and the same -- when logic reaches extremes its often unreasonable.