In the HW Rules, when expending Hero Points to increase skills, there are two costs given. The first applies to skills which were used during the game session, the second (double the first) is for skills which were *not* used during the session.
I propose that any skill which was used with an improvisation modifier not count as a skill used within the session.
General skills like 'strength', which are almost always used with improvisational mods, would therefore always cost double.
(Though IMO, the cost for non-session skill raises should be raised to treble rather than double - possibly even completely disallowed).
For example:
I have Strength 14 but I don't have Arm Wrestle. I use my Strength at -6 to Arm Wrestle and at the end of the session earn hero points.
To increase my Strength from 14 to 15 will cost me 4 points (including cementing the benefit).
Instead, I could gain Arm Wrestle at 14, which will cost 2 points (including cementing the benefit). Gaining the Arm Wrestle skill doesn't cost double the points.
Some skills, like Carries Heavy Loads, Prays for Hours, and so on, need a bit more thought because I personally would never have thought of these as being 'skills', and would never have thought of giving someone improvisational modifiers if they'd used something like 'Strength' or 'Endurance' instead.
If someone did use 'strength', you'd still want to be careful about letting them raise the ability with HP. Whatever it was they used their raw strength for would have to have had a chance of increasing their strength as a result.
I could probably go on for some more about this if anyone wants to. I think I've said enough to convince myself that I can make this system work.
Richard
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