>It can be hard to balance, but people tend to raise secondary
>abilities more when they have plentiful hero points (the first few
>always go to the favorite ability, and the next batch go into the
>reserve to save you in combat). I suppose one could always award HP
>specifically designated to raising skills that aren't among your 3
>best.
I find that if you're playing really intesely about the characters Abilities in the first place, that there's no incentive from a power aspect to raise any one Ability over another. That is, if the GM is making sure that the PC gets into all manner of conflicts that involve all manner of Abilities then the player, not knowing what will be "more effective" next time, tends to put the HP into whatever makes the most sense in terms of the events that are occuring, or whatever seems most interesting.
Which is a great feedback loop. Basically, the GM gives the player what he wants, and the player tells the GM what to shift to in terms of focus by what they buy with the HP they get. So, the lesson? Use your PCs character sheets as the guide to building the action that they're going to encounter.
That also means that if the player does nothing but pump up his primary combat skill for example, that he does want nothing but to see if his character can become the best. This doesn't mean that you can't include other elements from his sheet in the combat, but it does mean that it's inappropriate to try to get him to "spread out". The player will do that on their own if they think it's interesting enough.
OK, sorry. Enough proseletyzing today.
Mike
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