GURPS and Hero System: modifying powers

johndallman · 11-27-2017, 04:45 AM

GURPS has a very simple system for applying modifiers: they're priced as percentages of the basic cost of an advantage.

Hero System has an ingenious set of arithmetic for making stacking lots of enhancements onto a power progressively more expensive. For a long time, I thought that this was a all-round better method, at least in theory.

Today it dawned on me that the Hero method is better, if the baseline versions of powers represent the desired style of play. If they don't, there will be a contradiction between desired style and cost-effectiveness. This may be part of the reason that Hero System is so centred in its original genre of four-colour superhero gaming, and why doing other genres with it always feels a bit artificial, at least to me.

11-27-2017, 04:45 AM	#1
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	GURPS and Hero System: modifying powers GURPS has a very simple system for applying modifiers: they're priced as percentages of the basic cost of an advantage. Hero System has an ingenious set of arithmetic for making stacking lots of enhancements onto a power progressively more expensive. For a long time, I thought that this was a all-round better method, at least in theory. Today it dawned on me that the Hero method is better, if the baseline versions of powers represent the desired style of play. If they don't, there will be a contradiction between desired style and cost-effectiveness. This may be part of the reason that Hero System is so centred in its original genre of four-colour superhero gaming, and why doing other genres with it always feels a bit artificial, at least to me. __________________ The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques.