House Rules: Low Heroic

[Chris Goodwin]

While thinking about the discussion in the other thread I started (build-based vs. positional combat) I got to work on some house rules, for a style of play I'm calling "low heroic".  They are “low” in the same sense as low fantasy.  They don’t apply in games specifically deemed as cinematic-heroic (which would use Normal Characteristic Maxima) or superheroic (which don’t); those games would run as normal.  These rules apply to spells in my Fantasy Hero games, post-apocalyptic mutations, psionic powers in psi campaigns, alien powers in Star Hero, chi abilities, a Jedi’s use of the Force, and so on and so forth.  

 

The biggest change is that all Powers cost double (which follows through to Base, Active, and Real cost).  Advantages apply as normal to the doubled base cost of all Powers; Endurance Cost and Skill Roll penalties are based on the resulting Active Points.  Powers are only allowed for characters with concepts that specifically call for them, such as wizards, post-apocalyptic mutants, and so forth.  

 

The Google document is here.  I linked it in the other thread but wanted to get more general discussion about it.  

 

[WistfulD]

In other words (if I read you correctly), because this is a non-cinematic world., However, the world contains supranormal abilities like magic and conveniently-useful mutations, etc., but they are supposed to be rare, inconvenient, and likely and individual character's one useful and interesting thing (perhaps in place of being highly skilled). Do I have that right?

 

If so, fine. That's hardly unreasonable. It does have have unexpected consequences, however, some of which can be features, and some bugs. Doubling the Endurance cost? Great. Makes casting a spell more exhausting, the magic user doesn't do it very often. Doubling the skill roll penalty? Not necessarily so great. It means no one takes the Requires Skill Roll limitation. Mutant powers suddenly become the way to go instead of magic spells.

[Ninja-Bear]

Chris I see the style of play you want which is neat. However doubling the base cost of powers doesn't seem to add anything but more paper work and headache. I can just see a GM trying to keep straight buying a power in one campaign and having to remember that he has to double it in this campaign.

[Chris Goodwin]

In other words (if I read you correctly), because this is a non-cinematic world., However, the world contains supranormal abilities like magic and conveniently-useful mutations, etc., but they are supposed to be rare, inconvenient, and likely and individual character's one useful and interesting thing (perhaps in place of being highly skilled). Do I have that right?

Correct.

 

If so, fine. That's hardly unreasonable. It does have have unexpected consequences, however, some of which can be features, and some bugs. Doubling the Endurance cost? Great. Makes casting a spell more exhausting, the magic user doesn't do it very often. Doubling the skill roll penalty? Not necessarily so great. It means no one takes the Requires Skill Roll limitation. Mutant powers suddenly become the way to go instead of magic spells.

Except what power source depends on the campaign. In a Fantasy Hero campaign, it's magic or nothing. Good point on the RSR penalty though; that hadn't occurred to me. Though you can choose the -1/20 Active Points option, so it's not entirely a loss.

 

Edited to add:  Mutant powers, in a post-apocalyptic world, would be subject to the same -1 minimum in total Limitations, though there might be a different list to draw from.  

 

Chris I see the style of play you want which is neat. However doubling the base cost of powers doesn't seem to add anything but more paper work and headache. I can just see a GM trying to keep straight buying a power in one campaign and having to remember that he has to double it in this campaign.

Sure, it does take a bit more bookkeeping. I haven't checked it in HD yet, but I think in HD you can just apply a x2 multiple and it will take care of all of that.  Edited to add:  And how much different is it from a Fantasy Hero campaign where all spells cost 1/3?  Handle it the same way.  In one campaign they cost 1/3; in the other they cost double.  

[Christopher R Taylor]

This would work; basically it makes sure that in campaigns where powers aren't the focus you get low powered minor abilities instead of big flashy ones, but they can still be there (like a pulp campaign where someone has a little bit of precog ability).

 

I really liked how in the original 1st edition of Fantasy Hero, the list of powers had different names.  It wasn't OCV, it was Accuracy; it wasn't Mind Control, it was Dominate.  And some ideas had builds that were ready to use (like talents, sort of) for spells such as Silence and Haste.  It really felt magical and interesting in a way generic names and rules do not.  I prefer the generic approach but that idea had a lot of charm.

[Chris Goodwin]

I did check in HeroDesigner; the multiple applies to only the Real Cost of the Power.  I've therefore tweaked the text of the house rules slightly; the Real Cost of Powers are doubled, and END Cost is 1 per 5 Active Points.  These changes are easy to make in the Campaign Rules section of HD. 

[Chris Goodwin]

This would work; basically it makes sure that in campaigns where powers aren't the focus you get low powered minor abilities instead of big flashy ones, but they can still be there (like a pulp campaign where someone has a little bit of precog ability).

 

I really liked how in the original 1st edition of Fantasy Hero, the list of powers had different names.  It wasn't OCV, it was Accuracy; it wasn't Mind Control, it was Dominate.  And some ideas had builds that were ready to use (like talents, sort of) for spells such as Silence and Haste.  It really felt magical and interesting in a way generic names and rules do not.  I prefer the generic approach but that idea had a lot of charm.

 

I actually really liked how the various standalone games had slightly different rules; to me they felt more balanced for the specific game -- essentially you knew you were playing a different game, even though it was pretty similar to the others.  

[Christopher R Taylor]

Doubling the real cost works better for me anyway. Building a precog, no matter how limited, would cost like 80 active points and be ridiculously out of the range of most characters.  But doubling on the other end means a highly limited power is still within reach, but noteable in its impact on the character's build.

[megaplayboy]

Well, for example, LS: Does not age, would then cost 10 points, not 5.  At the GM's discretion, the power could be "refined" along the following lines:

1 point--1.5x life expectancy

2 points--2x life expectancy

3 points--3x life expectancy

4 points--4x life expectancy

5 points--6x life expectancy

6 points--8x life expectancy

7 points--12x life expectancy

8 points--16x life expectancy

9 points--24(or 25)x life expectancy

10 points--unaging

 

So, in some cases, increased cost could lead to greater granularity.