Re: [DL] Fudging

[Brett Dixon <balance@tubas.net>]

On Thursday, March 13, 2003, at 02:29  PM, John Billings wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 02:07:32PM -0500, Brett Dixon wrote:
>>
>> On Thursday, March 13, 2003, at 01:54  PM, John Billings wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 11:53:41AM -0500, Matthew DeForrest wrote:
>>>> At 04:13 PM 3/13/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> Spolier space.
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>
>> The 'mundane' thus has an advantage in that they are unlikely to get
>> lynched because someone thinks they're a witch. Always a bonus.
>
> An advantage - but it doesn't nessecarily make for a lot of thrills and
> spills when your huckster, blessed and flamethrower toting mad sci 
> polish
> off the enemies before you get to role a dice..

As some more fodder, If you have access, a lot of the splatbooks 
provide a black hat group that could go againts specific Arcane 
Backgrounds. Huckster's have the face-card themed Huckster group, Mad 
Scientists have... Well... i guess they have Dr. Hellstromme.

Oh,and the optional Sinnin' rules from Fire And Brimstone can make life 
difficult for Blesed who rely on mkaing those Sinnin' rolls.  As I 
remember, the rule minimizes the serial sinners by making difficulty 
numbers increase over a short period.

>> Also, don't forget that those ABs take a LOT to develop. The bounty to
>> buy three hexes is more than it costs to become practically ungodly
>> with a pistol (6d10, or similar). and the gunslinger's guns only cause
>> her  head to pop off when something really, really bad happens.
>
> Again, a fair point.

Something I thought about while reading this thread is than an AB 
character is.. an AB character. It's difficult to go beyond that for 
most players, as they feel that someone with, say, limited huckster 
talents just can't compete. The Ab is on a treadmill, and needs to kep 
up with spells, replacing skills lost to brains leaking out ears, etc.

A non-AB character can become proficient in a new skill at, say, the 
3dX level in just a few weeks of game time. If that's an important 
group skill like piloting a boat and the group's heading to the maze. 
THey've just gotten their pilot.

i understand the under-powered character complaint very well... I have 
one GM who does an amazing job, even in pre-gen modules, of letting 
every character shine, and it's difficult.

>> Which makes me think of something else: Have you considered allowing a
>> Relic into your game that would be up the character's alley? It's a
>> sort of limited, specialized arcane ability, but it can make the
>> character very powerful in a specialized way.
>
> Ooooooooh. Now there's a _fantastic_ plan.   I'll have to think one up
> that would be relevent...

It's definitely worth discussing with the player. Some nifty things 
about relics is that they are unique and can make great story seeds... 
If the character's a two-fisted gunslinger, drop them Wild Bill's 
pistols and watch the fun.

The only problem is that if the relic isn't specific enough someone 
else may grab it, which defeats the purpose... I had this problem where 
the wrong character in my HoE campaign was the first to grab a relic 
inspired by Mad Max's car possessed by a spirit of vengeance that 
caused a lot of problems. The rest of the posse ended up scheming to 
kill the car.