Character Generation House Rules

[martinl]

What DFRPG specific character gen rules tweaks do folks here use?

I'm seriously considering these for the game I'm running this summer:

• "Max one half-ogre per group," or even "no PC made half-ogres." Too good for the cost.
  
• "Delvers to Go PCs are always ok."
  
• "GURPS DF PCs are ok with brief review (except for Bards)" - my group has easier access to that document, and Bards are the class with the most skew.
  
• "Strict template compliance is not required, but exceptions must be GM reviewed."
  
• "Druids have access to healing spells but take 10x as long and herbs to cast them, monks have access to reskinned Faith Healing" - just to spread the healer niche around a little.

[Kalzazz]

If I was going to do it I would strongly consider making Heroic Archer available to more templates, there are several templates open to melee guys but one and only one bow guy template

I'd let Swashbucklers take sacrificial parry. It's ridiculous to me that there's no way to have sacrificial parry and fencing main weapon

Allow Knife/Main gauche class weapons as main/secondary weapons on all templates, theres a TON of brutal rumbling in C as an option, so the lack of abiliity to make a knife using slugger is really goofy

Put Wealth on the Knight template optional advantage list, seriously people see Knight they think well, Knights. Moneyed people with shiny swords and armor

Remove all baked in reduced attribute disadvantages and just make folks pick 50 points of crazy

[zuljita]

If I were doing house rules, I might cut out half-ogre.

I'd support Kal's attribute disad adjustment too.

[Bruno]

I would probably change the half-ogre template rather than forbid it. Remove or reduce the Social Stigma, add Gluttony perhaps (for your ever-hungry ogres).

Or if you're in a game with no social interaction at all, just dungeon crawling with no non-murderable NPCs, I'd take off the disadvantages entirely and just raise them to 38 points. But make sure you have traps and enemies that target IQ and Will of individual PCs, rather than letting smart PCs do the thinking for the ogre.

[Kalzazz]

I'm more or less fine with half ogres, but I'd want to add like Bruno's Kaiberoi and Kentauroi as options to so half ogre isn't the sole 'appeals to strong sluggers' race

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

If I was going to do it I would strongly consider making Heroic Archer available to more templates, there are several templates open to melee guys but one and only one bow guy template

You can build a bow martial artist without Heroic Archer if you change/allow some things from Basic Set.

Allowing Power Blow for Bows makes them do a lot of damage. (I don't see why Power Blow isn't already allowed for throwing axes and what not. Not allowing it for shurikens just seems like punishing the Martial Artist)

Zen Archery may help against very fast, or small targets.

Allowing Blind Fighting for ranged attacks.


That would give you another different option for "bow guys"

[tbone]

Not really a rules change/tweak, just a general suggestion:

Unless there are a lot of players (5+?) to represent a good selection of professions, be very generous in letting players nab bits and pieces from professions other than their own (as long as the concept still works and PCs don't end up too blandly similar). The niche specialization of professions is nifty, but when there are only a few players, each PC really needs to double up on key professional roles.

Beyond that:

I don't want to add a bunch more skills to DFRPG – there are arguably too many to begin with! – but to me, the following really feel like they belong:

• Navigation (Underground)
• Survival (Underground)
• Hidden Lore (Dungeons)

The first two are from GURPS Underground Adventures, and spell a key difference between experienced underground delvers vs generic adventurers. PCs without this experience might want to hire an underground "wilderness guide" who has the skills.

The third is my own simple idea: knowledge of where the world's dungeons are, what's in them, what famous delvers may have already raided them (or died trying), etc. This would be a fine skill for the PCs' agent back in town, who uses it to pick the next target and suggest preparations. Or PCs can gradually learn it on their own, eventually calling on their own knowledge to separate rumor from knowledge, choose targets for plunder, and prepare just what's needed... instead of having to rely on sketchy rumors in town, or locate a tavern drunk with a wild story and a map...

[dripton]

I agree with tbone -- if you have a small number of players, consider relaxing template requirements.

The game I'm running now has pretty extensive house rules for character generation, mostly to make starting characters less powerful, but also to fit the adventure:

* 150 points
* -25 points in disadvantages
* Sense of Duty: Friends and Companions for -5 doesn't count against the limit
* No Catfolk or Half-Ogres
* Accented and Broken languages from GURPS
* One free Accented language for 0 points
* Area Knowledge and History skills from GURPS
* No mandatory templates; buy whatever DFRPG traits you want. But if you start as a fairly strict subset of a template, you get that template's special privileges.

[Pmandrekar]

Originally Posted by martinl

What DFRPG specific character gen rules tweaks do folks here use?

I'm seriously considering these for the game I'm running this summer:

• "Max one half-ogre per group," or even "no PC made half-ogres." Too good for the cost.
  
• "Delvers to Go PCs are always ok."
  
• "GURPS DF PCs are ok with brief review (except for Bards)" - my group has easier access to that document, and Bards are the class with the most skew.
  
• "Strict template compliance is not required, but exceptions must be GM reviewed."
  
• "Druids have access to healing spells but take 10x as long and herbs to cast them, monks have access to reskinned Faith Healing" - just to spread the healer niche around a little.

So, which of these have you settled on? I'm considering shifting from Scout Bowmistress to something a little more Healing oriented, if you think we need it...

[tbone]

Originally Posted by dripton

* No Catfolk or Half-Ogres

I'm curious about this (especially with martinl also giving Half-Ogres the stink eye).

In a point-buy game, no race should be an overtly good or bad deal. Half-Ogres' traits seem pretty modest to me, with the obvious exception of ST; is it that +4 ST that seems too good for the point cost? Or do the disads seem to offer too many points for their effect?

(Likewise with Catfolk: They have a big package of traits, but all pretty low-value, and the final cost is hefty. Are they unbalanced in some way?)

Anyway, while I'm here, I have a few more notes lying around on the topic at hand: house rules for DFRPG char-gen. Nothing very exciting:

Additional skills I'd allow delvers

As noted in my last post here:

• Navigation (Underground)
• Survival (Underground)
• Hidden Lore (Dungeons)

Additional skills I'd allow martial artists

• Zen Archery (good for Scouts with Weapon Master, too)
• Pressure Secrets

Other money-making skills

Useful for PCs who want to make money in Town:

• Artist
• Fortune-Telling

Other useful adventuring skills

Useful... though boring for PCs. Good skills for hirelings.

• Packing
• Teamster

Other knowledge skills

All skills that could be of use in the game – for NPC experts, anyway, if dull for PCs.

• Architecture (for inferring clues about dungeon levels, secret areas, unsafe areas, etc.)
• Area Knowledge (useful if there's more to the world than a single Town)
• Cooking (Cooking gear exists in the game, so there should be a skill to use it. At least for hirelings.)
• History (for scoring clues about old ruins, rivalries, etc. Mainly for Town sages?)
• Engineer (Artillery, Clockwork, Combat, Mining - any of these could be useful or PCs or hirelings)
• Expert Skill (Natural Philosophy or Thanatology)
• Law (Bo-o-ring... but can be useful in Town, even as a complementary skill to aid Smuggling and other shady actions)

Again, the goal isn't to add tons of skills; I just think these are good second-stringer skills to fill out DFRPG concepts, or skills for specialist hirelings.

Final note: I think Martial Artists' Breath Control skill is a wee dull for its cost. I'm thinking maybe it should allow (for example) +20% breath holding time per point of success (min.+20%), instead of just a flat +50%. It could also act as a complementary roll for Autohypnosis, Body Control, Kiai, Meditation, and Singing, as well as Running or Hiking to avert fatigue or make good travel time.

Just trying to give the skill more uses...