Topic: My Campaign, some House Rules...opinions welcomed.

[Uriel]

So, we are still feeling HARP out, myself and a group of 5 players.
4 are hardcore D20 refugees (Although we are all pretty excited about Pathfinder, as a second system), one is a casual gamer, though I have been drawing her out a bit, and getting her to take a more active role in the game.

House Rules:

 FATE POINTS (Fudge Dice Used for variable results)

I use Fate Points in all of my games, stemming from WHFR, way back in the late 80s.
In D20, I would give D3 of them, and they were good for a few things.
A FP could save you from certain death, auto make a skill roll or save a companion.
I had bought a few Fudge Dice (2 +, 2 blank, 2 - symbols) a few years back, and decided to use them somehow.
One of the characters had been hit by a Fireball, and the damage was sufficient to kill him.
I told him to roll the Fudge Die, a + meant that he had avoided the hit, and his FP was intact, a blank meant that he had avoided the hit, but the FP was gone, a - and the FP was gone, and he clinging to life with 1 HP. You can also just use the FP, no roll, for an NPC or companion (The D20 game was a family of Dwarfs, and the players wanted to keep their family alive, not to mention the Ranger's Animal Companion).

Anyways, we have brought the Fudge Die into our HARP game as well.

One character was bitten by a Zombie (I use Romeroean Zombies, it's a Virus, not a Curse). He missed the RR by 60 or so...even with burning all of his 3 FPs. I told him to roll the Fudge Dice. 3 Negatives. He is now slowly transforming into a Ghoul, and gleefully looking forward to playing the character , trying to keep this knowledge from the other players, not that they don't suspect him...One player "If Vyse so much as drools near me, I will split your head like a melon, no offense Dave."
Dave (Player) is good at bluffing...

AIMING

One player asked if there were any rules for taking your time aiming, and was there a bonus for it. I couldn't find anything specific, but HARP lends itself well to creativity, so...

You may take up to 5 rounds Aiming at a target with a ranged weapon. For each round aiming at a static target (A guard, the mayor making a speech, etc...) you gain +10, to a max of +50.
For each round aiming at a slow moving target (Drawing a bead on a deer as it walks through a glen, for example), you gain +5, to a max of +25 to the shot.

I thought about allowing it to affect Sniping (The success of the MM,not the result on the crit table), but I think it is fine as is.

DAMAGE TABLES

We are using the HB 11 tables, though I think I am going to use the ML Crit tables for individual body locations, as we are already using the Hit Location tables, as a couple of the guys really like calling their hits, and it is a necessity, with the Zombies needing to be hit in the head (25 HP to the head drops one...the fight with biting heads from a Decap, one torn in half, one with no arms..but all still fighting actually freaked out the players. This is better than I expected, as I (A longtime Zombie Movie fanatic) wanted to show hordes of Zombies can be scarier than a Dragon, when a Fireball doesn't just incinerate the whole lot of them. Also, since it is a Viral condition, they can't be turned, not that there is a Cleric anyways...


WEAPON CRYSTALS
So, I bought a whole bunch of 3 Sage Games 'raw crystals', game tokens. I figured that I'd use them for my Miniatures games, or what not, but decided find a way to utilize them in game, and thus I actually hand them out as treasure, since they are a secondary currency (You can fuel gadgets with them, though raw ones are dangerous).
Small gems have 1-10 PP worth of Mana, and (The players are all fans of Anime, Superhero games, etc...and the game has a Final Fantasy sort of feel, they claim, though I haven't played FF since it was FF2...)
Anyways, some of the weapons are outfitted with Crystal slots, where one can place a crystal to use in the appropriate spells. Ryhen the Gnoll Warmage casts Earth Elemental Weapon, so she keeps an Earth Stone set, to 'bust it' when she casts, saving her PPs for her other spells. They seem to love this,and it is working, though the mechanics are new.

RELATIVE WEALTH ROLL

This is a concept that I came up with back in the 90s, but never used with any regularity. A player rolls a D100 (Non OE), and this determines what sort of wealth them have, relative to what and who they are.

Example from an old RM game: Dave rolled a 27 with his Warrior Mage, not great.
However, he still had the basics for survival, worn armor, a few serviceable weapons,
a few hours a week of Library use and time in the Alchemist labs at his Guild, he shared a room with 3 other apprentices, but he wouldn't freeze in the winter. Had he rolled higher, he might have had a much different beginning.
Conversely, Sam rolled a 97 for his Ranger. Did he get a +20 Bow and 500GP in Herbs? Er, nope. He had described himself as a Woodsman, living along in a wild part of the land, so I gave him his own cabin, with an official deed, several chickens and goats for eggs, milk, 2 horses and a small boat. Since he had Bowyer, I also gave him a
 +10 Quality Bow (Of his own making).

In the HARP game, most of the players are in the average range, but one rolled a 99, and she is in direct line to lead her people, though she is more into being an adventurer right now...but she started with several pieces of nice gear, and ship's passage to her current location, while one player rolled badly, and started severely in debt. It is all working towards a great game, and they all love it.

Anyways, off to sleep, I just wanted to share a few of our HB rules.

-Uriel

[Cloven-Fruit-Games]

WEAPON CRYSTALS
So, I bought a whole bunch of 3 Sage Games 'raw crystals', game tokens. I figured that I'd use them for my Miniatures games, or what not, but decided find a way to utilize them in game, and thus I actually hand them out as treasure, since they are a secondary currency (You can fuel gadgets with them, though raw ones are dangerous).
Small gems have 1-10 PP worth of Mana, and (The players are all fans of Anime, Superhero games, etc...and the game has a Final Fantasy sort of feel, they claim, though I haven't played FF since it was FF2...)
Anyways, some of the weapons are outfitted with Crystal slots, where one can place a crystal to use in the appropriate spells. Ryhen the Gnoll Warmage casts Earth Elemental Weapon, so she keeps an Earth Stone set, to 'bust it' when she casts, saving her PPs for her other spells. They seem to love this,and it is working, though the mechanics are new.

I have allways want to runa a game with that concept.
any particulars of such you want to share?

Oh, and useing 3Sages crystals, is just awsome.
Anyone that has not had a chance to see these ought to take a look at them.

[Ecthelion]

AIMING

One player asked if there were any rules for taking your time aiming, and was there a bonus for it. I couldn't find anything specific, but HARP lends itself well to creativity, so...

You may take up to 5 rounds Aiming at a target with a ranged weapon. For each round aiming at a static target (A guard, the mayor making a speech, etc...) you gain +10, to a max of +50.
For each round aiming at a slow moving target (Drawing a bead on a deer as it walks through a glen, for example), you gain +5, to a max of +25 to the shot.

I thought about allowing it to affect Sniping (The success of the MM,not the result on the crit table), but I think it is fine as is.

From my - admittably small - experience with HARP, missile attacks can be quite deadly because there is only limited possibility to parry or otherwise deflect missiles. Therefore I would refrain from allowing a bonus for aiming. Instead I would resort to the Sniping skill.

[GMLovlie]

I agree with Ecthelion on this, sort of, what you could make aiming do, is reduce the penalty of called shots, and I would make it work mainly with crossbows (and firearms if that exists in your fantasy world), bows should have less of a bonus from aiming, as the strain of holding the bow and arrow taut is going to lessen the effectiveness of durational aiming, at least from my own amateur experience of bow and arrow shooting, of course less so with a compound bow.

[Matthias]

The idea of an Aiming bonus was brought up in our games also. We decided against it also for the above reasons (minimal ways to parry/dodge, etc). You also have to remember, any archer in a right mind will eventually take the Speed Loader talent which in fact makes missile weapons that much more powerful.

I like the Weapon Crystals idea! I have been trying to come up with unique magic item ideas for my game as opposed to the old +10 OB Mace. I might have to use that idea for something down the road.

[Right Wing Wacko]

Whatever works for you and your group is groovy to me

But it's always cool to share thoughts and ideas...

[Maelstrom]

I like the Weapon Crystals idea! I have been trying to come up with unique magic item ideas for my game as opposed to the old +10 OB Mace. I might have to use that idea for something down the road.

I agree about the weapon crystals/esper idea about powering weapons with modular abilities is a cool thing.

More food for thought...
I heard of a GM making magic items something like an extension of the character.  Spending DPs on the item could improve its abilities.  When the character obtains the item they don't know more than a few minor effects.

I've taken that idea and developed a list of materials that items can be made from.  Some of the enchanted materials allow for an item to be developed by the owner through power projection skill (this makes power projection a skill with multiple applications, one specific skill for each item) and re-attuning to the item.  Each time an item like this is attuned by a new owner it loses the abilities the previous owner developed.  There are also detrimental effects for failing power projection (it interfers with a previous development and requires more power to correct the problem) or attunement rolls (allowing the item a will contest to stop working until a successful attunement is obtained.)