Using Skills in unorthadox ways

[DanteDeathHermit]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Well, I'm not sure how to clarify it, but if you want to ask about the specific points that you aren't getting I can give it a try.

The Power-Ups books are a series of eight books that give you expanded treatments of some secondary ideas from the Basic Set: perks, quirks, talents, enhancements, limitations, and so on. I find perks and quirks invaluable when I'm building a character; they let me pick ways of customing the nuances of their behavior. Enhancements and limitations, not so much, but if I'm writing up a set of abililities I used those volumes a lot in getting the abilities to work exactly as I envision them.

I'm going to get all four of those PDFs then, they aren't as expensive as I'd expected, considering most of the books seem to be $20+ and these are like like $6-$8.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by DanteDeathHermit

I'm going to get all four of those PDFs then, they aren't as expensive as I'd expected, considering most of the books seem to be $20+ and these are like like $6-$8.

I think at least you will find Perks and Quirks well worth the money.

SJ Games is putting an increasing amount of effort into producing less expensive PDF volumes. Most of their recent ones have been targeted around $6-$10. For example, my last few supplements, Chinese Elemental Powers, Enhanced Senses, and Back to School, have fallen into that range. Even the relatively huge Social Engineering is only $14. The reason is precisely that such supplements are relatively more affordable. . . .

I don't find all of the PU volumes equally useful. Impulse Buys just really doesn't fit my personal campaign style, for example. But the very best ones, Perks and Quirks, strike me as nearly indispensible, rivaling Powers and well ahead of Martial Arts or Social Engineering. Of course, as a GM I do a lot of character design; there's nothing like a well chosen perk or quirk to bring an NPC to life.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I think at least you will find Perks and Quirks well worth the money.... Impulse Buys just really doesn't fit my personal campaign style...

My group gets no use out of Quirks, for us it's all Perks, Enhancements, Limitations, Impulse Buys*, and now Talents**.

I've flirted heavily with Imbuements and Players occasionlly look through it before chargen, but ultimately they think it's a waste when Real Powers (TM) are allowed (I may have to run a game with Imbuements being the only access to powers).

Wildcards was very handy in finally helping me decide how much I really dislike Wildcard skills. Money very spent in my opinion. ;)



* In that I ripped everything I liked out and reprinted it as a much shorter couple of pages with heavy referencing back to Impulse Buys. The book itself doesn't get opened very often.

** Now that I've 'heavily' limited attributes, they are looking for other 'cheap' ways to advance groups of skills.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I've flirted heavily with Imbuements and Players occasionlly look through it before chargen, but ultimately they think it's a waste when Real Powers (TM) are allowed (I may have to run a game with Imbuements being the only access to powers).

Imbuements is very much a niche area, but it fills a hole that was spotted on these very forums. It's not for every player or character type, but some imbuements - such as the ability to imbue your DF Scout's arrows or Knight's sword with Penetrating Attack, giving their mundane weapons armor divisors - can be useful even in higher-powered games, letting them keep up with the Wizard/Psion.

[Bruno]

Our DF Scout finds very regular use for Arching Shot and whatever the one is that makes your projectile burst into shrapnel. For any given character, some will be better than others, as always.