Cinematic House-Rules - Post them if you got 'em!

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Lyzzy

... How do you guys handle real-bad-luck-can't-fudge-the-dice-any-further-character deaths?

I use my Agonist Luck rule:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...ist#post735183

[Kalzazz]

Explosive damage usually does not degrade, especially when say the party is throwing an explosive fireball at mooks

Mooks, like eggs, come in convenient dozens. While its quite likely to see a half dozen, dozen, or two dozen mooks, it is rare to see 4, 10, 20 or some other number

Mooks do not understand the concept of body armor. Also, they usually do not understand the 'reverse missiles' spell

90% of all guns are AK-47s. These are exceptionally popular with mooks. Also, mooks do not comprehend any method of firing other than full auto all the way. In a fantasy setting they often use swords and crossbows due to a lack of AK-47s, they tend to use the crossbows first and still forget about reverse missiles

The combination of AK-47s, obsession with full auto, and non comprehension of body armor and reverse missiles means most mooks do not survive the first round of combat

PCs usually can move and attack with no drawbacks

Very few enemies have more than 10 HT

[Kalzazz]

Oh yeah. No PC dies unless the player decides they are dead, unless the paper wants the character dead death tis but a temporary inconvenience. Thus, characters dont stay dead if the dragon eats them or they block a TOW missile with their head etc, they just get better

Also, death is not very uncommon, PCs die pretty frequently but then get better. This is because I try to make fights relatively 'balanced', aka, both PCs and badguys have a decent shot at winning the battle, since I tend to view those who beat up on things weaker than them as being more bullies than heroes, since PCs are heroes they need to fight worthy foes . . . . however, being a dice based RPG, if the enemies are designed to be a fair match for the PCs they can and will flatten the PCs not uncommonly

[Ragitsu]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Explosive damage usually does not degrade, especially when say the party is throwing an explosive fireball at mooks

Very nice. I've been considering using this with grenades so that they stay super-lethal even at the edge of the blast radius.

[drexasaurus]

I am about to run a game to introduce a young person to role-playing with a Fantasy campaign, and the goal I have is to make the game less deadly--especially for people who make accidental mistakes or who are a little over-heroic. My role-playing buddies are worried that GURPS is too deadly and if I ever include them, making a more cinematic game might help out. These are some of the ideas I have so far.

*Do away with Shock* This will be one less modifier to worry about, and will also help deal with the frustration with being less effective every time your injured. I don't want to be as unrealistic as DnD with HP (not familiar with 4e, if that means anything), but I think this will meet the expectations of the imagination of a young person better and perhaps the genre as well. This will result in the PCs in being able to better manage battles where they fight greater numbers of weaker foes, and will similarly make single enemies more dangerous.

*Use the Minion Rules* This is fast and satisfying.

*Use modified rules for spending character points* I was planning to make a separate pool for modifying successes rather than just character points. I see a lot of people here doing something similar. I am thinking of giving 2-3 points per adventure instead of 1-2, and allowing them having up to 4 points in their "hero point" pool at any time. I want to reward sticking with rolls the way they are, so they will obviously have more points to spend if they are conservative with their hero points. I don't want to allow characters to convert rolls more than one level at a time (for instance, no critical failure to a success). May allow the "flesh wound" rule as well.

*No hit-location rules, most of the time* I don't want the majority of all hits to be treated as if they hit the torso. I will make an exception in the case of parrying a grapple with a weapon, and if I think the hit location will aid in the sense of drama (like to hit the arm of the evil villain that is about to activate the Amulet of Ages), then the characters can spend a character point to attempt it.

*I will make two "cinematic hero" templates,* and the PCs will be required to pick up the first level. This will include some hard-to-kill and subdue advantages, maybe some natural DR, and... I need to research this. The second level will include a unusual background advantage that will allow them to buy up levels of these advantages not allowed by most characters in the campaign and maybe also change how some of the rules affect them so they feel a little more cinematic.

I still have some work to do, but these are some of the ideas I have so far...

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by drexasaurus

I am about to run a game to introduce a young person to role-playing with a Fantasy campaign, and the goal I have is to make the game less deadly--especially for people who make accidental mistakes or who are a little over-heroic. My role-playing buddies are worried that GURPS is too deadly and if I ever include them, making a more cinematic game might help out. These are some of the ideas I have so far.

*Do away with Shock* This will be one less modifier to worry about, and will also help deal with the frustration with being less effective every time your injured. I don't want to be as unrealistic as DnD with HP (not familiar with 4e, if that means anything), but I think this will meet the expectations of the imagination of a young person better and perhaps the genre as well. This will result in the PCs in being able to better manage battles where they fight greater numbers of weaker foes, and will similarly make single enemies more dangerous.

So why not just include High Pain Threshold in the Cinematic Hero Template?

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by The Benj

So why not just include High Pain Threshold in the Cinematic Hero Template?

actually I took it a step further and made all players take Supernatural Durability (Dies Normally -80%) but that's not canon IIRC

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

actually I took it a step further and made all players take Supernatural Durability (Dies Normally -80%) but that's not canon IIRC

So they have HPT and can't take Crippling injuries while they stay above 0 HP. Interesting.

[Ragitsu]

Ablative DR is cheap enough, and would work well for a hero's intangible extra layer of protection.

[kdtipa]

I use a variation of those points for buying successes you guys were mentioning. I call them "Heroic Mettle Points". I love the idea of a character being nearly beaten, almost dead, and when they need it most, just pushing through and saving the day. So I award these HMPs for stuff they do in game that makes me think "that was really cool".

Then they can later use these points to accomplish one of three things. A points can be spent (only one point per round) to...
- Subtract three from any roll they make. This can save them from critical failures and can grant them a critical success.
- Recover miraculously from wounds... or maybe they weren't as bad as they looked. They can regain hit points equal to their base hit point value. So if they have a HP score of 12, and they're at -14, they can spend a point to get themselves back up to -2.
- Recover fatigue. Pretty much the same as recovering hit points, and not used as much, but an exhausted character might need that extra juice to keep going.

I really like the first use best, as it can help protect against those situations where dice rolls can't be fudged any more to keep a character alive... subtracting 3 from the roll might save a life.