In my quest for more organized, consistent and interesting gaming experience I’ve decided that now it is time introduce some improvements and adjustments to our game, which I have decided to implement to our campaign. Rule of thumb is that I’m not going to fix anything that is not broken, but to guide the campaign to respond to our group’s desires and needs; we have decided to use following house rules:
Our group likes cinematic scenes. I try to encourage my players to cinematic actions regardless the rules. At best, the rules eventually are the necessary evil. Cinematic scenes are usually exciting and fun and the ones that are often remembered. Usually we recall those thing way back so I thought. Eartdawn has Karma points, Shadowrun has Edge, Star Wars Saga edition have Force points and 4th edition D&D has action points. These things work very well and sometimes allow players to do awesome things, but the question still has been “How to encourage players to do awesome things even more? Well.. by just allowing them!
To do that, I developed the idea with the keyword: Awesome in mind. This cinematic climax should be somewhat similar to the idea, when heroes in novels have their moments. So I decided to try this Limit Breaker, which has been use in our earlier games, but this time with the exception that it can be done once in adventure and so it is something that players will not want to waste.
The second House Rule I got the idea from At-will’s Using your powers in roleplaying situations. This rule also supports the keyword awesome and in the same time gives motivation to the roleplaying part. The whole point of this rule is about looking at your powers in different perspective (To get clearer image you can visit At-will’s blog). We start to look your powers more as part of your characters ability to execute such actions. The chosen powers can be thus dismantled and reconstructed and aligned also to roleplaying situations. And those situations usually are, well.. Awesome once again, clever at least if nothing else. At At-will there is an example about ranger’s power Split the Tree, but I try something different to avoid repeat. Let’s use Warlord’s level 1 Daily power: Lead the Attack.
Under your direction, arrows hit their marks and blades drive home. Ok, now we have the flavor text and we can start to dismantle the power. What kind of person can deliver such commands; one who has authority to do it and people will listen. He is a leader, which warlord is. Then you can think what kind of person is a good leader, what does he have that others don’t? He has passion, he is confident and he has focus. There are several things which define the good leader, but here we have examples enough. Warlord also have the heavy martial experience, he sees the bigger picture and is thus able to organize things in his mind quickly. He is smart and thinks beyond. He uses his knowledge, ability to read people and charisma to appeal to people in various situations.
Your party sits in a council, trying to develop a defensive plan against the invader who has an army marching towards you as we speak. You have the map, you know soldiers numbers and abilities at the field of battle and see the consequences of actions. Others however don’t possess the ability and could not lead as you do.
Now it is time to convince the other war leaders and lords about your plan, and you have your Lead the Attack used and you receive the bonuses in that diplomacy throw (or somewhat similar in skill challenge). Thanks belong to At-will for this awesome idea!
The last one is not a house rule, but a reward for minor quests. The honors belong to Mike’s Mind.
“Quest rewards are a great method to help the players feel a part of the game and add more interaction with NPC. The idea behind the quest reward is a special card that has some kind of in game effect. There are two types of reward cards you can create for your players, Reusable and One Shots. Reusable cards have an effect that can only be used under specific conditions or once a day. One shot reward cards are just that, its a NPC owes the PC a favor and once the favor is called in that’s where it ends.”
Example: Free accommodation
A farmer’s daughter were recently kidnapped by goblins for some dark plan, the farmer stumbled upon the adventures and asked them to help save his daughter. If the PC’s do, the farmer will have a greater reward for the party. Benefit: While in countryside near the farmers house you have access to a meal and a room for your efforts saving his daughter. +2 temporarily hp from a good night’s rest at the start of the day.
Related posts:
- Keyword: Awesome!!
- The Merchant’s Domain #5
- The Merchant’s Domain #6
- The Merchant’s Domain #9
- CBTS: Meet Master Gemcutter
