[HOE] Staggering powers WAS: Mundane Background

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

> > How did you arrive at 25pts? I'd have thought 15pts (from VotWW) would
> > have been the natural amount...
> 
> Well the edge actually started as kind of a joke. The 25 points comes
> from the way that Hucksters and all other AB were changed from what
> would be called first edition.
> 	Instead of the natural power restraint of having to spend their
> points on each and every Hex as a separate skill suddenly a huckster
> need only buy it and Poof! instantly skilled as well as every other
> Hex he has had for years, or months, or whatever. :) This alone was
> what started it. The I found a Hex, I am a master at the hex thing.
> 	This hit across the board with Sykers and such in HOE. So since
> each AB was effectively getting 5 starting abilities at level 5 each,
> we just added 25 points for the I'm Normal edge. I say 5 because not
> to many Ab's would start with less than 5 in that all encompassing
> uber skill.

Well I think this was done because hucksters were handicapped compared to
blessed. Blessed got 5 powers from the start (or their faith level,
whatever) and there was no way to really scale them like you did hucksters
(I have Lay on Hands at 3, Dervish at 5, etc.) I guess you could, but then
they become so hard to keep up.
Anyway, hucksters were really ham-strung (as 2nd edition pointed out)
First they had to buy the hex (at level 1 for starters), then they had to
have 5 different stats high because hexes rely on so many different stats
(unlikely blessed/shamans/mad scientists/sykers/doomies/junkers/toxic
shamans/etc.) then you had to roll your dice, THEN you had to draw cards.
We basically determined that unless you were some type of roleplaying god
that didn't even look at the dice (because you were THAT into your char.)
playing a huckster by the old rules was impossible. It was too frustrating
AND too dangerous (risk of botching with low number of dice + risk of
backlash).
So they "fixed" hucksters in 2nd edition. We didn't like the fit so much
(the absolute power from the start thing bothered us too). But from an AB
balance perspective it made sense so we suspended disbelief.
Then the precedent went to HoE where people like sykers and doomies don't
really have ANY of the problems of hucksters.
Anyway (again), my groups come up with a rule that we're going to try for
a short run of my friend's modern day Deadlands setting: 
Deadlands:Y2Weird :)

My arcane works a little different because I'm a psychic (not a syker)
from Greywolf's page (he's probably lurking here somewhere with URL).
Basically the power-level of the game is lower so the AB's were reduced. I
have a few generic powers (empathy, telekinesis, healing) that I can use
to do something general (empathy - read emotions). Now I can also do
"tricks" like influence someone's emotions with empathy. When I do this we
figure out a TN from a list we've come up with. Now since I've never done
this before I have a -4 penalty to try it during the first session. If I
succeed in using it the penalty goes down to -2 for the next session. If I
succeed at least once again it goes down to nothing.

You could do the same with AB's. They spend their time and points and get
the power, but they have -4 to use until they've used it successfully,
then a -2, then nothing.
That way there's at least some type of learning curve for them to deal
with.

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab

   	Reason #173 to fear technology...

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