Dragonfly's House Rules: NEW POWER: HEIGHTENED!

[Dragonfly]

Howdy Mr. Jupiter,

First, thanks for the kind words about Heightned.

Second, I actually did run across your version of this house rule as I was working on my own, and I drew inspiration from it.

Third, I hadn't seen your revised chart. IT FREAKING ROCKS! Seriously, it's just pretty and cool.

Finally, I like the options that Heightened offers, but I agree with you - BASH UE works great without it as well. I don't think the house rule is a necessity at all. It doesn't "fix" this fine system, but it does give our group a few welcome options, especially for those street level types.

Best,

Dragonfly

[Lindharin]

It doesn't "fix" this fine system, but it does give our group a few welcome options, especially for those street level types.

Definitely; this is a house rule I'd use a lot in a Pulp or Street Level type of game, where I probably wouldn't use it as much in a 30-40+ pt. game.

[MrJupiter]

It doesn't "fix" this fine system, but it does give our group a few welcome options, especially for those street level types.

Definitely; this is a house rule I'd use a lot in a Pulp or Street Level type of game, where I probably wouldn't use it as much in a 30-40+ pt. game.

Yes, I agree that the Heightened power would be very useful to lower "Mystery Men" games where really strong "Brick" types might stop at rank 3 Brawn.

[MrJupiter]

Howdy Mr. Jupiter,

First, thanks for the kind words about Heightned.

Second, I actually did run across your version of this house rule as I was working on my own, and I drew inspiration from it.

Third, I hadn't seen your revised chart. IT FREAKING ROCKS! Seriously, it's just pretty and cool.

Finally, I like the options that Heightened offers, but I agree with you - BASH UE works great without it as well. I don't think the house rule is a necessity at all. It doesn't "fix" this fine system, but it does give our group a few welcome options, especially for those street level types.

Best,

Dragonfly

Thanks. Glad you liked the charts.

[Michael]

First of all, Dragonfly, you have a point that stats might be worth 3 points even though we only pay 2 points for them. I normally view it as a kind of point break.

1. Having each aspect of the attribute broken down the way you did might be a good way of describing some of the boost rules since you were thorough in spelling out the categories for each stat.
I would replace

Mind: Damage, Mental Defense/Resistance, Mind Effects (awareness, skills) = 3 pts.

with Mind: Powers, Defense, Intelligence (awareness, skills) however.

2. If you raised the costs of stats to 3 and gave players 6 to 12 additional points, you will see more characters with 1-2 stats and fewer 5s.

3. Heightened is interesting, and looks better after I read it a few times (I first thought it was a dice bonus and not a result bonus) but I have a few concerns that players might use it to avoid the cap of 5 for attributes or get around the normal disadvantage.

4. I like the idea of socially awkward. It needs to have more descriptions of the effects included other than a multiplier penalty with social skills.