Saturday, September 16, 2017

Hello again!

Hello again! Guys, a question regarding abilities... By default they are used in a daily basis, but, can't they also be used per encounter or depending on the situation? I'm taking inspiration from various OSR classes to make my abilities; rogues have sneak attacks, fighters can parry, clerics can turn undead... Even in games like Shadowrun Deckers can access the matrix and do tricks, as well as Adepts. Any tips on balancing this out? Thanks and happy rolling!
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9 comments:

  1. Eric NieudanSeptember 17, 2017 at 2:01 AM

    I set a hard limit for specialist abilities because they are super hard to balance. You can certainly rule that some weaker ones could work more often (I've let people who took 'speak with animals' at first level communicate more than once a day for example). For balance and fairness reasons, I try to make sure the really useful use only happens when the player spends a daily use.

    I think it's in keeping with the old school spirit to have daily uses. It's all about managing resources, and trying to use your abilities to the best effect at the best possible moment.

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  2. Benoît FELTENSeptember 20, 2017 at 8:17 PM

    I've houseruled this to dR4 per day.

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  3. Eric NieudanSeptember 20, 2017 at 9:41 PM

    Benoît FELTEN That's been under consideration recently, but I was wired about bookkeeping. Let us know what your players think when they have a few abilities to track?

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  4. Tore NielsenDecember 11, 2017 at 12:29 AM

    Benoît FELTEN How has dR4 Specialist ability uses worked out for you?

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  5. Benoît FELTENDecember 11, 2017 at 12:59 AM

    It's worked fine Tore Nielsen. Most of the time it goes away anyway, it's not much additional bookkeeping, and it creates some suspense when powers are used. It's also funny for some powers (like shapeshifting for the werewolf PC) because he knows when he shifts to wolfman he might (but most likely will not) be able to shift back to human anytime soon...

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  6. Tore NielsenDecember 11, 2017 at 1:45 AM

    Hah, I like that. I think I'll use the dR4 approach.

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  7. Eric NieudanDecember 11, 2017 at 2:33 AM

    And this makes me wonder again should I switch? =)

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  8. Tore NielsenDecember 11, 2017 at 5:45 AM

    Remember the crowblin character you gave me, Eric Nieudan? He could disappear from sight and not come back. :-D

    floats in Limbo "at least I'm safe from vampires..."

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  9. Benoît FELTENDecember 11, 2017 at 6:49 AM

    The real question Eric Nieudan is does that mean that spending a leveling slot in a power makes it go up to dR6. That's when it starts to potentially make a more significant difference. I don't know how to calculate the expected value of a dR6 but I suspect it might be closer to 3 than 2.

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