Author Topic: Monbvol's House rule emporium  (Read 94297 times)

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #570 on: 17 November 2018, 05:58:51 »
Sanity is definitely the number one priority!

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #571 on: 26 January 2019, 01:32:48 »
Something I finally remembered to take a look at:  Range Master.

I'll admit I really don't like it as it is.  Just a bit too much for me to wrap my head around how the heck it is supposed to actually work.

Initial thought for how to make it better:

For weapons that lose damage at Medium or Long Range(Snub Nose PPC, Heavy Gauss Rifle) increase their damage at Medium Range and Long Range by 1 for every five points of damage or fraction thereof.  Likewise for weapons that apply penalties to the cluster hit table due to range(HAG) reduce the penalty by 1.

My main worry is since it does nothing for the majority of weapons as I have the first draft that it may not have enough utility yet I also worry I might be making it a little too good for the weapons it does impact.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #572 on: 26 January 2019, 07:45:38 »
Range Master is a strange one.  I'd be more inclined to just increase every range band by one hex or so (and reduce minimum ranges by the same).

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #573 on: 26 January 2019, 12:42:09 »
*nod*

I've never really liked swapping modifiers like that and in thinking about what I would like from a SPA I don't think my first draft works due to lack of utility.  I also hesitate in adjusting weapon stats in any form.

Honestly Sniper is probably what I'd do with Range Master and Sniper I'd change to be like Marksman.  Which probably would force a bunch of other SPAs to have to be revised/renamed.

Which doesn't bother me doing as much as it probably should.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #574 on: 26 January 2019, 13:06:02 »
Hmmm... here's an idea: how about using "Range Master" as the name for a bonus (or reduced penalty, rather) at LOS range?  Since I asked TPTB about Sniper last year, it's the only band that gets no love.  Since it has Sniper as a pre-requisite (which makes Extreme a +3 penalty), I think +5 for LOS range would be reasonable (down from +8).

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #575 on: 26 January 2019, 13:56:57 »
Well that is kind of why I'm thinking of a potentially wide spread restructuring of the SPAs.

The name Range Master makes me think it should have the mechanical benefits currently assigned to Sniper, with some slight adjustment to keep it from being too good.  Likewise Sniper should have the mechanical benefits of Marksman.

I do realize if I go that route I'll have to change the requirements for a bunch of them too.

I'll have to look up the various requirements but what I'd think I'd do for Range Master:

Range Master
Requirements: TBD/To Be Re-balanced

Player adds a +1 roll modifier to all attacks at Medium, Long, Extreme, and Line of Sight range.  Including Small Arms and Support Weapons attacks at applicable ranges.

Simple and utilitarian.  Also doesn't get mucked up by the C3 family.  Might take me a bit to fully go through the requirements and fully resolve the butterfly effect that will result from this re-structuring but I think it'll come out a lot better.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #576 on: 26 January 2019, 14:08:27 »
Interesting idea... To minimize the butterfly effects, you could set Range Master up as the pre-requisite for Sniper, and just make Sniper another +1 at all ranges beyond Short.  That mildly nerfs Sniper at Extreme, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #577 on: 26 January 2019, 15:19:08 »
I find myself rather hesitant at reducing the Long Range penalty to 2.

So a rather smaller butterfly effect than I thought with how simple it is.

Especially when I consider that it'd be simpler to just drop Range Master all together and just adjust Sniper.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #578 on: 26 January 2019, 15:49:36 »
If that's your hesitation, then dropping Range Master is probably the best route, though requiring two SPAs to get there seems a high enough price.  Having used Sniper in a game recently, I didn't find it that bad.  Granted, the Griffin in question consistently missed on 6's.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #579 on: 26 January 2019, 15:54:48 »
I've used Sniper a few times now and 2 is a bit too good for Long Range.  Especially if you can start pilling on other bonuses.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #580 on: 26 January 2019, 16:02:44 »
Makes sense!

rogueranger1993

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #581 on: 12 February 2019, 21:18:34 »
The link in the first thread for the main document is broken. Can you fix that Monbvol? Would love to download a copy of it.


1. Incoming fire has the right of way.
2. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
3. Always remember that your weapon was built by the lowest bidder.
                                   - excepts from Murphy's Laws of Combat

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #582 on: 13 February 2019, 11:55:30 »
Well that was weird.  Should be fixed now.

rogueranger1993

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #583 on: 22 February 2019, 14:29:30 »
It's working again, thanks for the quick response!


1. Incoming fire has the right of way.
2. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
3. Always remember that your weapon was built by the lowest bidder.
                                   - excepts from Murphy's Laws of Combat

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #584 on: 22 February 2019, 14:34:12 »
No problem.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #585 on: 15 June 2019, 19:19:57 »
Yanked the stage 3 stuff for my work in progress modules for my AU.

I'll warn that they are not going to be that great as yet and I haven't worked on them in over a year at the time I made this post but for my purposes they work well enough.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #586 on: 01 August 2019, 22:25:30 »
Had a thought about another possible house rule to try and simplify the skill list a bit.

I have a separate skill for piloting a Spheroid dropship while it is in atmosphere.  I know I initially put that in for a realism reason and to not overly prune the skills.  But I'm thinking screw it, I can scrub that and change the one and only alternate field I have it in.

So going into my spreadsheet where I have my altered fields to change that I found some other oversights on my part.  I don't actually have a way for civilians to get Piloting/VTOL or any of the Driving skills I altered.

I'm only somewhat concerned about the Driving skills as that seems like something you can build into the modules but VTOL probably should have a Stage 3 training field option for Civilians.

So I'll be looking at what I can do to get that in there.  I do have an overly similar Pilot/Aerospace(Civilian) and Pilot/Dropship that I can alter one into a Pilot/VTOL field.

For that Piloting/Sphereoid(Atmosphere) I do need to think of a replacement skill for the field.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #587 on: 01 August 2019, 22:47:27 »
Okay updated the documents in question and thus I think I'm finally done mucking with skills and traits.  Well aside from possibly re-balancing the point pools from my Status trait because I do admit with all the things I want it to cover it might not have enough points or ways to get points.

But I probably won't know that for sure until I actually get some play test data from people actually using it.

I hope to get working on my AU specific modules again and because I find the Nebula California stuff interesting but a bit lacking for the super powers in particular I'll try and make myself work on further supplements for that as well.  But the Nebula California stuff will be in another thread.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #588 on: 06 August 2019, 15:16:35 »
Recent discussions about AToW's failings and how people don't like the way Fast/Slow Learner work as written, which based off the fact I've changed how they work in my house rules I do agree with the overall sentiment, combined with how people are also somewhat dissatisfied with even the rebates for field skills is making me think about a few things.

I am finding that I would not be opposed to dropping the rebate system all together when I think about it aside from the idea it is supposed to help represent how you learn things easier/faster at certain ages than others.  Even then with that in mind I would not mind it being dropped.  Heck there is a member of my gaming group who doesn't even make use of it just to save time and not have to do the math.

For Fast/Slow Learner as it stands in my house rules they either double or halve all non-reward XP gained by the character.  So training, downtime, and the new source I put in of fumble a roll gain 2 XP(1 XP Slow, 4 XP Fast) whil gaining 1 XP anytime you get a margin of success of 5(MoS needs to be 10 instead for Slow Learner, Fast gives 2 XP for MoS of 5).  I'll admit despite me already reducing the costs they do occasionally make me think they may not be doing enough to be worth it.  The only idea I have is to adjust the downtime XP income rates.  The half Intelligence rate would then be Slow Learner, Intelligence would be normal, and double Intelligence would be Fast Learner.

Another thought rattling around my head is Extraordinary Attribute.  I've come to the opinion the way I have it now may make it too much of an XP sink for too little benefit/drawback.

So wild crazy experimental thought.  What if I incorporate certain traits into it?  Like Extraordinary Attribute(Positive)/Intelligence builds in Fast Learner?  Extraordinary Attribute(Negative)/Intelligence could build in Slow Learner.  Body could have Thick/Thin-skinned.  Not sure what to have as a Positive for Edge but the Negative would be Gremlins.  I'd have to give some thought for the rest and quite possibly invent new traits.

Or I could go the other direction to maintain my current ideas about attributes maxing at 6 without Extraordinary attribute and requiring a rank of Extraordinary Attribute for each rank adjustment.  Gremlins then would come with the drawback that the character can never raise their Edge above 5 ranks/points until they get rid of Gremlins.  I'd probably swap Body to Toughness/Glassjaw in this case and probably further revise both those traits.

Well Glassjaw for sure as looking at my house rules I haven't actually done anything to Glassjaw and I really should either way I go with this idea.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #589 on: 06 August 2019, 16:03:26 »
For a positive Edge Trait, might I recommend "Lucky" from Campaign Ops?  It isn't listed anywhere else, to my knowledge...

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #590 on: 06 August 2019, 17:35:33 »
Lucky is just Edge re-branded/renamed for games not using fully developed AToW characters.

Which does point out a bit of a problem.  To make this idea work I really should ensure the traits are opposed.

With my rolling Tech Empathy and the Field Training bonuses into the combined trait of Intensive Training Gremlins doesn't have a true opposing trait anymore in my house rules unless I make that an opposing trait to Gremlins.  Which seems a little ham handed to do and only makes a vague amount of sense with some questionable logic but I don't see a way around it without getting overly convoluted in inventing a new trait.

Some attributes are going to require inventing new traits for sure though.

Which gives me this list for traits I can build a max attribute adjustment into:

Strength I know I've talked about incorporating Fit into Toughness before and have that in my document but I think I am going to back off that idea because Fit/Handicap would seem the best opposed traits.

Dexterity I like the idea of Ambidextrous enough that I may have to invent a new opposed trait.

Reflexes I don't see any good candidates.

Body Toughness/Glass Jaw.

Intelligence Fast/Slow Learner.

Willpower I know it might be a little too much unless I also increase the costs/benefits but Patient/Impatient seem the best candidates.

Charisma Gregarious/Introvert but likewise I'll probably have make those +/-200 XP each as well.

Edge Intensive Training/Gremlins.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #591 on: 26 August 2019, 20:52:59 »
I finally figured out good candidates for Reflexes.  Combat Sense and Combat Paralysis.

Rather than Intensive Training i am currently considering an alternate/massively reworked Tech Empathy.

I'm debating exactly how it'll work still but my initial idea is +1(or -1 if for some reason it is the better modifier) roll modifiers to MASC, Supercharger, Blue Shield, and maybe disengaged PPC safety rolls.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #592 on: 27 August 2019, 03:26:28 »
Maybe throw Sensor Operations, Computer and Communications rolls into the mix?

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #593 on: 27 August 2019, 08:37:18 »
I would if Intensive Training didn't already provide a way to get the same bonus.

The only other idea I have is maybe it act as a tie breaker on such rolls or maybe scour for more equipment that have dice rolls involved with their use.

I may have a third option now rattling around in my head but I'll need to look at a couple things first.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #594 on: 27 August 2019, 16:28:02 »
I like the tie-breaker idea... it's an advantage without being an explicit +1.  :thumbsup:

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #595 on: 15 February 2021, 13:14:09 »
Well I really left some things hanging that I really should circle back to at some point.

For now as I mentioned in another thread I've been thinking about the idea of doing a priority system option for AToW character creation.

The only way I can think to make it work is to make it a hybrid between rules as written, incorporate some of my house rules, and come up with a few new ones.

I'm basing my ideas for how to handle skills off of my revised fields that universally have 5 skills each in them but when it comes to traits there's some pretty significant changes.

To make the priority system work I'm pretty well dumping the entire idea of Extra Ordinary Attribute, any notion of Phenotype, and am kicking Investment, Property, and Status into a new category I'm calling Assets.  Likewise I'm also dropping the idea of limiting traits and skill specializations by attributes.  This can be adjusted to Rules as written traits of Bloodname, Custom Vehicle, Design Quirk, Equipped, Property, Rank, Title, Vehicle, and Wealth easily enough if one wants to.  If one does go that route I would recommend slightly increasing the point totals.  I'm also willing to entertain suggestions for other traits that can reasonably be moved to this category.

For Attributes, Traits, and Assets for now I'm retaining the idea of 1 point from the pool equals 1 rank and retaining the linear progression.  Again this is something I'm willing to entertain be changed to a non-linear progression.

Skills I do have a non-linear progression figured out.  From the skill pool 1 point gets you Rank 0 bumping it to rank 1 would cost another point for a total of 2 points spent so far.  Going to rank 2 would cost 2 points for a total of 4 points.  So basically you pay in points the rank you want for each step along the way.  To encourage the use of skill field packages, well this is where my re-arranging and making new fields with 5 skills in each of them comes into play.  Each field would cost 4 to get all 5 skills at rank 0.  If you want to increase all the skills to rank 1 it'd cost 4 points again.  Going to rank 2 would cost 8 points.  So basically as long as you increase all of them it'd cost 4 times the new rank instead of 5.  But if you want to individually raise particular skills in the field do that after you're happy with where all the other skills are as the best way I can think to handle it without getting messy and overly complicated is once you start doing that you no longer get the bulk discount and would have to raise each skill individually.

Special Abilities and how to handle them is something I'm still a little up in the air about.  I may make a fifth priority category for this and just use the point cost for them from Campaign Operations.  The only thing holding me back from going this route is I have developed some new Special Abilities for outside the cockpit and outside combat that I'd like to keep incorporated but would have to figure out how to price.

For advancement purposes until a better progression system is figured out I will be retaining AToW's XP system for rewards and progression after character creation.

Final note before I get to the spreadsheet.  Yes I have just arbitrarily set the numbers for now.  At some point you do just have to make arbitrary decisions just to get started.  But I am absolutely willing to entertain different numbers if characters are not coming out in satisfactory states.

Now for the aforementioned spreadsheet.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #596 on: 15 February 2021, 13:23:25 »
First revision already and it has only been a few minutes.

I completely forgot to address negative traits.

My thought is to just let players add a corresponding value to one pool.  Or if the trait is worth enough I would be willing to allow splitting it amongst multiple pools as well.

Of course your table your rules applies as well.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #597 on: 15 February 2021, 14:54:01 »
I have determined already I am absolutely going to have to adjust the Skills point pool, mostly by massively increasing how many points each priority gets.  Likewise I think I do need to give more points to the Skill pool for negative traits.  Debating between x3, x4, and x5.  I'll try x5 first to see how it works.

I have figured out the pricing of my new Special Abilities.  Which made me realize I have to also address the prerequisites.  I have decided to go for a fairly simple idea that will allow adding the Special Abilities.

Which raises the question of do I roll Assets back into Traits or keep them separate and have 5 categories.  Until I get some feedback that isn't just me theory crafting my own rules I'm inclined to go the 5 category route.

Now for the actual idea.  I have decided the best way to approach Special Abilities is that you can purchase any that you want/can afford but you may not benefit from them until you meet the prerequisites.  I don't think any have been added that don't have AToW prerequisites so this approach should be fine.

The price structure I'm leaning towards is 1 point for every 50 XP or fraction thereof that I have them as in my house rules.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #598 on: 15 February 2021, 15:26:48 »
Okay I had to make a small change to one of my new Special Abilities as I realized it was actually mechanically quite pointless as it was.

Conditioning now lets a character add their Body modifier to their fatigue point pool and to any roll to recover fatigue.  Considering a requirement for this Special Ability is Body 7 this nips in the bud any need to address situations of negative Body modifiers.

I added a cost list for my new Special Abilities but left out descriptions and requirements as those can be found easily enough in my house rule document linked on the first page.

Now that I'm up to version 2(I do consider it that much of a major revision now) a new link seems in order.

A thought I am having to ensure diversification of skill assignment is I am inclined that Priority 1 can start no higher than rank 3 in any one skill, 2 rank 4, 3 rank 5, 4 rank 6, and 5 rank 8.

I should also address aging.  Since I don't like the way rules as written handle it I am pretty much discarding it and once play commences I'll use my house rule version and just leave it up to those who want to retain it to figure out how they want to incorporate it with this attempt at a priority system.

Also yes I am quite aware that converting to AToW's XP pool this will pretty much ensure a character is more than the starting 5,000 XP but I don't really consider that a problem.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #599 on: 15 February 2021, 15:30:04 »
Quick take, before I've looked at the spreadheet: allowing additional discounts for levels beyond zero is dangerously subject to abuse.  You have the right idea in limiting them, but I don't think I'd allow them at all.  The Fields are supposed to represent initial training in a highly constrianed environment.  I'd set them to what they currently are, 1 level of each skill (not 0... 30 XP gets you Level 1), and cap the discount there.  Anything beyond that is individual investment of time and effort (i.e, XP).

AND you posted again while I was typing this... will have to think about that update...  ::)

 

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