My House Rules. Please Comment

[JCD]

My quick 'no math, hiss spit' answer to guns? Let the dice explode on a CD 6.

(For those unfamiliar, an exploding die is that when you make a specific roll, in this case a 6, you roll that die again and add it to the prior result.)

If you want to put an upper limit on the die, say it's limited to explode only as many times as they have (Whatever you want) Forces of the character. (Personally I would use Corp forces, even though it's Precision you use for shooting)

Example: Gary shoots his gun. He gets a CD 6. He rolls again, and gets another 6. He rolls again and gets ANOTHER 6 (at this point the GM checks the die). Now normally he would roll the die again, but his Corp Forces are three so he can only max out at 18. The power of the gun (+1) only adds once, though guys who really like guns might add that to every die...but be careful or guys might be able to do 11 points per die with the proper gun!

[Jason]

Ah, thanks for the link reminder. I think the routine action for point-blank shots is brilliant, but is there a reason it's only limited to humans? This seems like a huge bonus to give to human PCs over celestial PCs (if you happen to have any humans in the group), and if gun damage is lacking overall, why not implement such a bonus across the board?

As for "exploding" the CD: I rather like that idea, but for some reason, a couple of my players really hate it. Traumatic memories of West End's Star Wars game, maybe?

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Azel

However, as another GM, let me bring your attention to things I think might make you see things in a different light:

Driving … works on two separate things: dealing with driving emergencies (road hazards, car problems, etc.), and time efficiency. …

By the way, Move Silently deals with being unnoticed. You may be not noticed in either quiet movement, hidden while still, or forgettable among distractions, but the core is being unnoticed. It will not help you track. So you can tail someone, yes, and Move Silently will help you not be noticed -- and that's it. But if you lose sight of your target even briefly, Move Silently will not help you. And even if you have a non-Djinn/Cherub beacon on them, like Attraction, Affinity, or tech gadgets, it will be Tracking (and area Survival knowledge) that is rolled to make sense of any blinds or other weirdness.

Oh, and Singing is also useful for Celestial Songs in Sotto Voce (and I forget what else) in the Liber Canticorum.

So, I am confused: If you see all these skills as being so multi-purpose, what about the "three points of utility per level" in Fighting and Dodge bothers you? In some ways, players seem to be getting more bang for their buck when you replace Dodge with Reflexes, and make Tactics count for ethereal combat.

Also: I agree that it's problematic to group so many skills under Intelligence for Knowledge, but I think it's reasonable to house rule that some Knowledges may be "higher of Intelligence or [other pertinent skill]," as we already have with skills like Lying.

And also: My players have asked me what Intimidation should be under. Giving it its own skill seems reasonable. I told them to go with Lying if they're bluffing about threatening someone, and Emote if they're being honest.

[Archangel Beth]

For skills, in number and as regards proliferation of Knowledge (Mumble)... One may want to examine some of the IN->GURPS conversion stuff in GURPS IN. Mostly because one can then consider back-converting GURPS to IN, and that may give ideas for things to convert a given skill to besides Knowledge (Thingumie). E.g., Riding (Horse) is probably going to be Agi, not Knowledge (Horseback riding). O;>

Though it may be that there are, indeed, an awful lot of things that Knowledge is good for, and a smart celestial should be, er, smart, if they want to know a lot of stuff. >_>

[Azel]

GURPS IN... Gotta look into that. Point conversion guides are useful things.

Anyway, simplest answer for why break up Fighting and Dodge versus the multiple utility of other Skills: because it is a no-brainer investment during character creation.

Unless you are running a wholly non-violent game (hi Andre, hi Novalis!), you are going to have conflict; and the fastest, most direct way to resolve conflict has traditionally been overt displays of power -- a.k.a. violence. So it just cheapens the design build of characters because two of the first things you do is: dump points into Fight and Dodge. Why not, they work on all three levels of reality, there is no design penalty. From sheer gaming viewpoint, whereas other skills are context dependent, you can *always* have utility with points in those combat skills (may not be the best choice, perhaps even suicidal, but the choice of combat is always there).

Now through this design a character that specializes in raw corporeal combat no longer can chew through the game with Numinous Corpus and Fighting/Dodge at all realms of the game. They gotta pick one. Sure I'll let NC help in the three realms, but I'm not going to compound a potentially disruptive (Note the Flaming Feather in Liber Canticorum) Song get a boost from needless synergism.

edit: Also, I encourage more non-combat utility of skills. If expanding Dodge (or Fighting, by let's say impressing a girl with a Karate kata) into non-combat uses makes stories more cinematic, I'm all for it. By diversifying the functions of combat-focused resources into non-combat uses, I expand the overall utility of the character build. Ideally this should open the PC from the dreadful mental loop that, "If I am built as a great hammer, all problems are - or should be - nails." I want to discourage power creep by expanding more paths of conflict resolution so players can pursue their ambitions. Hmm, I hope that was clear and not too heavy on the jargon.

PS: I'd make Intimidation, also known as Domination, its own skill myself. Just easier to do. Dominate/Intimidate would be the abuse of a target's fears to extract temporary behavior -- at the cost of lowered Reaction in the future.

Lying is convincing another of an artificial "truth" that can have long term ramifications on target's behavior. Fast-Talk merely relaxes another into overlooking truths -- which is why Seraphim can use it, at times -- and usually does not have long term ramifications in the target's immediate behavior. Emote is the broadcasting, or masking, of one's emotional state, which can evoke audience sympathy, which can affect behavior. Seduction is the focused improvement of Reaction Roll on a target by exploiting their will.

[Jason]

Okay, I buy that. Thanks for explaining. Now I'm kind of wishing I could add a bunch of house-ruled skills, but I don't want to confuse my players. Maybe I'll do a bunch of changes all at once so they don't feel like we're constantly in flux. (Even just changing the character sheet design to simplify it and fix some of the automatic calculation errors has been met with some cries of confusion.)

[Azel]

Oh goodness, don't introduce it all at once mid-campaign! I'd do a side story one-shot, if i were you. Test it out to see if your players like it, or can handle it. I know I speak like players are my own personal guinea pigs at times, but table confusion from perceived inconsistency can frustrate players terribly. And frustration makes sad pandas. :(

In fact, I'd use previously generated characters made by you, so you can experiment with what you want immediately. Then write a quick sitcom run, lasting like only an hour or two. Finally hand out character motivations and let the players run with it. They'll find all the complications, I can assure you. PCs are so devious like that!

By the way, I do dig dice explosion. Swingy, but quite cinematic. However, I do have a concern that dice explosion is usually in dice pool systems, whereas IN pretty much has one CD die to roll. The principle is sound, but due to less dice rolled, explosions would be fewer and farther between than dice pool systems. Thus I fear I won't have that through-put of damage I desire. Although, you could roll TN separately and then roll all 3 dice as exploding CD dice for the burst... That could be a fun combination of both house rules!

[Archangel Beth]

Originally Posted by Azel

GURPS IN... Gotta look into that. Point conversion guides are useful things.

*beth helpfully provides a link to the PDF*

O:>

Also a link to the book's page, which has some links to free stuff that might be of interest, or might not.

O:>

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Azel

Oh goodness, don't introduce it all at once mid-campaign! I'd do a side story one-shot, if i were you. Test it out to see if your players like it, or can handle it. I know I speak like players are my own personal guinea pigs at times, but table confusion from perceived inconsistency can frustrate players terribly. And frustration makes sad pandas. :(

In fact, I'd use previously generated characters made by you, so you can experiment with what you want immediately. Then write a quick sitcom run, lasting like only an hour or two. Finally hand out character motivations and let the players run with it. They'll find all the complications, I can assure you. PCs are so devious like that!

That is probably a better idea. I thought I was done with one-shots for a while, but I just ran one that I actually wrote with some friends in mind who were out of town for it, so maybe I'll run it again for them and use it as an excuse to try out some new skills.

By the way, I do dig dice explosion. Swingy, but quite cinematic. However, I do have a concern that dice explosion is usually in dice pool systems, whereas IN pretty much has one CD die to roll. The principle is sound, but due to less dice rolled, explosions would be fewer and farther between than dice pool systems. Thus I fear I won't have that through-put of damage I desire. Although, you could roll TN separately and then roll all 3 dice as exploding CD dice for the burst... That could be a fun combination of both house rules!

Personally, I'm okay with an explosion only happening once out of every 6 Ranged Weapon rolls, especially if I implement the other house rule I've been kicking around: semi-auto pistols can be fired multiple times in a single attack action, for up to (skill level) shots, at a cumulative -1 penalty for each beyond the first.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Azel

Although, you could roll TN separately and then roll all 3 dice as exploding CD dice for the burst... That could be a fun combination of both house rules!

In the event of that, how do you adjudicate Interventions?

I can see three possibilities:

A) Only the "normal" d666 determines an Intervention. Exploding dice are just an extra. (Odds remain the same, but some dice explosions will occur during Infernal Interventions ... possibly leading to more literal explosions.)

B) The two TN dice and any of the CD dice, whether it's the original or one of the exploding dice, can cause an Intervention. (Raises the odds of an Intervention, but also means that explosions can happen during either a Divine or Infernal Intervention ... you may get a TN roll of 1-1, a CD of 6 and a 1 on one of the exploding dice, for example.)

C) Any three dice rolled in the sequence can add up to an Intervention. This can really up the odds of Heaven or Hell taking an interest in what you're doing!