Not neceassarily to comment on your proposed rule but on the points it raises:
> I once spent a HP to cement the benefit of some metal armour my
character looted, yet this has almost never been useful to her in a
contest.<
We used ranks for a while but, IIRC, found entertainment value far outwieghed by the bookeeping. If for your gaming enjoyment you want Karlena to figure edges in contests its a request I'm happy to satisfy. Read on first though.
>The rules explicitly encourage you to ignore equipment, but
require you to spend HPs to cement equipment. That is not a 'fair' HP
cost: spent HPs should provide benefits.<
I'm not sure that hero points ought to be thought of as 'benefits'. Splitting hairs? Hero points are handed out as a reward which muddies the waters somewhat, but I think Hero Points should be understood in terms of the player's ability to impact the story. There kind of counters saying 'I intervene to make the story as I want it' or 'Between sessions this is what I have been doing or learnt'. Spending Hero Points on an ability just says to the narrator that the ability/item is something I am interested in featuring in a story, and not something that should just fade with the session. Or this ability is now more prominent I can do greather things with it. Semantics? Maybe. But if you see it as a benefit then balance, fairness, winning, losing all become issues. If you see it as a story element a desire to weave entertaining description or play about it comes to the foreground.
Of course the impact on you is still the same - the points you spent seem to have no impact on the story - perhaps because we don't use ranks we should give you the HP back ;)
>Someone who wants to play a Mostali is even worse off. My suggestion
would eliminate unfairness caused by HPs spent on equipment being
different from HPs spent on abilities.<
Part of the question is, I think, do we find equipment an 'interesting' part of our story. I suspect we have dropped edges because for us generally it is not. Others might. But as I said maybe in that case we should also drop HP costs for equipment because it is getting no 'story' value. Karlena's named sword 'Mooncutter' has story value, its part of who she is, and as an ability I would happily see her augment with it.
Anyway Karlena seems more at home with acrobatic combat maneuvers in a Xena style. Maybe she should fight sky-clad and painted in woad like her lover. It might add more to the character and as we are ignoring edges you would not be penalized for it. You could take it as an ability, and initimidate opponents with your nakedness, much as nude Celtic warrior women scared the Romans. Hell swap it for the point you spent on the mail coat. Karlena certainly has the 'balls' for it ;)
To be honest with you we never use wealth either, so spending HP on cementing that seems fruitless too, but Charles seems intent, so I may have to craft a storyline around it :)
Take care,
Ian Cooper
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