Quote:
Originally Posted by Otaku
What do you mean by "necessary"?
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I mean does it fix a problem that needs to be fixed? What does unifying Ally Patron and Contact do that actually makes the game more fun (or realistic or whatever your goal is). Yes it is more elegant, but I don't see elegance of rules as the sole reason to make a house rule. Remember that house rules are often hard to remember in actual play and difficult to troubleshoot for unexpected rules interactions. I have only a few that I use in every campaign, and I'm not seeing what this does that is as useful.
Yes it is simplifies the rules, by turning three traits into one, but it also adds a lot of complexity elsewhere:
- You'll need to communicate it to players as otherwise they'll assume the RAW.
- You and players will have to consistently remember the house rule and how it differs from the RAW.
- You won't be able to use any published material that uses Ally, Patron or Contact (which is quite a lot of stuff!) as-is without conversion to your house rule.
Which, for me, anyway is more than enough reason to not do it. The last in particular is very frustrating to implement when you just want to use some published resources in your game.
Is there any reason to do this other than for more elegant mechanics?