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Old 04-29-2020, 09:05 AM   #1
hcobb
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
Default Handicapped but experenced

Do Handicaps subtract from attribute totals for XP costs to advance attributes?

Can a character take handicap points to pay for aging costs?
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Old 04-29-2020, 10:07 AM   #2
larsdangly
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: Handicapped but experenced

This is a good question. The two most obvious ways to use handicaps is either as a pool of extra points when you start play (making them worth up to a few hundred XP) or as a subtraction from your stat total when you consult the XP charts (making them worth many thousands of XP late in your career). In principle, you could provide both benefits - i.e., someone with 2 points of handicaps might start with 34 stat point AND always subtract 2 from their stat total when computing XP costs. This is obviously the highest value you could assign to handicaps (in fact, it makes them almost required for every character!)

I don't recall anything in the articles about them that makes it clear which is recommended (and regardless you should make up your own mind because these are just someone's house rules anyway). If you use them they will make your character creation process a bit like GURPS, loosening the otherwise rigid constraints on starting stats. The munchkins among us will obviously make a lot of hay out of that opportunity, but even if that sort of play doesn't appeal to you they bring so much color to the game that it might be worth while.

I've considered adding a half dozen simple advantages to the list that basically work like handicaps in reverse. If you let this get out of hand you will quickly land at a place you probably don't want to be - a GURPS-like tome of character options that have to be pored over and balanced against one another when you create characters, and a vast list of options you have to consider in play. But used judiciously it could open up parts of campaign play that are not represented in the RAW. E.g., what about people born to high station or family wealth? They certainly should exist, but it isn't obvious how you get that way in the game other than through a Horatio Alger story of rags to riches. A few 'birthright' style advantages would go a long way here.
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Old 04-29-2020, 10:23 AM   #3
hcobb
 
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Default Re: Handicapped but experenced

I've submitted an article on "Reputation and Secrets in The Fantasy Trip" that shows a non-mechanical (i.e. no points gained or lost) way of handling social status as a seed for role playing. The advantage of taking these aspects "off the sheet" is that when the murder hobos talk themselves into trouble it doesn't require a lot of recalculations, just some GM notes.
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Old 04-29-2020, 01:56 PM   #4
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: Handicapped but experenced

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
Do Handicaps subtract from attribute totals for XP costs to advance attributes?
Hopefully not, or the most capable people will all be quirky weirdos for some strange meta reason.


Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
Can a character take handicap points to pay for aging costs?
Maybe. Though as we older fans probably can appreciate, the Aging rules are pretty soft, and it'd probably be more appropriate to add aging afflictions without reducing the attribute decline.
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Old 04-29-2020, 09:20 PM   #5
Axly Suregrip
 
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Durham, NC
Default Re: Handicapped but experenced

This reminds me of halflings. For XP needed to advance, halflings should be treated at if they have 2 additional attributes.

Or at the very least they should have a -2 MA after all other MA calculations.

(Now I need to dodge as I am sure to have sharp things thrown my direction.)
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Old 04-30-2020, 12:59 PM   #6
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: Handicapped but experenced

Quote:
Originally Posted by Axly Suregrip View Post
This reminds me of halflings. For XP needed to advance, halflings should be treated at if they have 2 additional attributes.

Or at the very least they should have a -2 MA after all other MA calculations.

(Now I need to dodge as I am sure to have sharp things thrown my direction.)
Not from me. I agree.
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Old 04-30-2020, 07:03 PM   #7
BobP
 
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Default Re: Handicapped but experenced

Quote:
Originally Posted by Axly Suregrip View Post
This reminds me of halflings. For XP needed to advance, halflings should be treated at if they have 2 additional attributes.

Or at the very least they should have a -2 MA after all other MA calculations.

(Now I need to dodge as I am sure to have sharp things thrown my direction.)
... and they get a bonus for that, too.

But for my part, I have no problem with attribute points counted as-is. There's something nice in what's implied about how halflings and gnomes take to the adventuring life.
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Old 04-30-2020, 07:19 PM   #8
TippetsTX
 
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Location: North Texas
Default Re: Handicapped but experenced

This is why I prefer exchanges of 'like' elements. Disadvantages are fine, but they should be balanced by adding some advantage in the form of a special ability, talent or trait rather than attribute points.
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