Re: Ability advancement

From: Thom Baguley <t.s.baguley_at_...>
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 15:34:49 +0100

> From: ryan.caveney_at_...
>I would like it if this were true, but unfortunately it doesn't seem
>to be. For example, it has been mentioned several times that it will
>take the expenditure of at least 168 Hero Points to get from a
>starting character to one who can learn a theist cult secret (one
>affinity at 5w and two at 1w -> three at 1w2). If one were to put all
>these points in just one skill, however, whether it be Wealth, Close
>Combat or Tiddlywinks, that one 5w becomes 13w9. This is why
>specializing your HP expenditure on a single generic skill from which
>you can improvise almost anything is seen by some on this list as so
>dangerous and in need of some rule to discourage.

Wow. This seems to be predictated on a very wierd (to me) Hero Wars group. In my experience no player has ever added more than +1 to an ability at a time. My group meets at best fortnightly. Many sessions are 2 episodes and even the most commonly used abilities (e.g., close combat) are used every session in my games. I also give many directed HP awards and players often spend HPs for bumps.

My players will be lucky to get +15 in a heavily used and HP bough-up ability in one calendar year.

Even spending 3 HP for +2 in a "related" ability every week for a year () gets only 6 masteries in your best ability (a more realistic asymptotic limit).

I don't believe in re-writing rules to accommodate extremes (and making it break down for most groups in play) is sensible.

Some problems should be dealt with if (and only if) they emerge in play.

Thom