So I played a few house games recently and I was noticing some areas where there might be some improvement. I'm moving in a bit, and I don't think I can really help implement or develop these ideas too much due to lack of interest. So I'm just going to throw these many, many ideas out there for you guys to pick up on, pick apart, adopt, or whatever. NC cell will be handed off to Michael Hoff when I head out, and I don't think a Davis cell will pop up in the near future.
So here we go. Some of these are quick little fixes, thoughts, etc. Some of these are obviously too radical or perhaps controversial to adopt. I leave these to you guys to mull over.
Ranged vs. Melee
First, guns are better than melee weapons. That makes sense, of course, and is the reason why people use guns to fight wars these days instead of swords. A small buff to melee weapons may be in order to close that gap a tiny bit. In balancing a normal game, I'd say that melee weapons would do more than ranged simply because they require the player to be closer to their enemies and thus have an additional requirement to use. That method may not work in house games, but I suggest at least making the melee maneuvers only require the skill melee instead of a secondary weapon skill. That might help balance things out as well as promote a healthy variety to the melee weapons used.
Psions and Boosts
The psion template is kind of crazy you guys. Being able to boost a power by THREE levels is EXTREME, especially since you can boost past five. Note that this opens up 3x(number of paths) extra abilities to anyone with the template, including absurd level 8 abilities. The equivalent Xp cost of that many abilities being available for use is astronomical. I feel that boots in general are somewhat overpowered (being able to boost all physical stats to 5 for anyone at will as a level 3 ability may be a bit much), but this is ridiculous. Especially since the drawbacks are somewhat minor. I dare say the physical psychic's is almost balanced since there are no psychic powers that can instantly heal you, but the sensitive psychic psion boost's drawback is very, very marginal. We're talking a good chance at getting a single, non-permenant derangement, which can be cured simply by having psychebender at level 2 and then boosting to five.
And don't tell me the perquisites of the template are the balancing factor. Maxing the psi pool = getting 10 free willpower to spend on any abilities you want as well as ensuring that your minimum dice pool for any of your abilities is 10. That's well worth it in and of itself.
Finally, if abilities are going to be boosted to 8, you've got to actually WRITE DOWN the last three dots. Has anyone anywhere ever written down anything past dot five of a psychic power? I've never seen it. Plus, it seems to me that most people assume that grants one new ability, when it should grant 3. I suggest capping the “beyond 5” boost to dot 6. Then I suggest those dot sixes are written.
Another possibility would be to add more of a random element to the boost to increase risk factor. Using the level 3 boost (which can grant an effective xp boost to a path of up to 54!) should be really, really, really risky. Limiting the number of paths that can be boosted at once would be helpful too if the drawback is too light.
Persuade Maneuver
There's gotta be a persuade maneuver that can actually change opinions. The power of persuasion in the hands of a truly talented character should be able to inspire action and gain support. I understand that role-playing is great and fun and good and all that, but sometimes players just can't come up with the same kind of wit that their master manipulator characters might on hand. I like player skill being a factor, but if social attributes and skills are going to be dots on the page, people need to be able to roll them for their intended effect.
Virtues
I suggest that, for standardization's sake, that virtues be used to determine the difficulty of rolls in powers and never as direct resistance (as they can only be raised to five and don't constitute a standard dice pool). For example, let's say there's an appearance-based fright power. The caster rolls appearance + intimidation difficulty 4 + target's courage. Target resists with a willpower roll.
Social Attributes
Now this is one of those ones that's sort of a big one. Doubt this one will get much attention since people want solutions and not just others to point out problems, but any solution is going to be big and difficult to implement so I'm not taking the time to come up with any right now.
I think some verification of what the social attributes are used for currently.
Charisma:
Getting people to like you, inspiring action to groups, inspiring positive relations to last for long periods of time.
Manipulation:
Teaching, social maneuvering, lying, acting, and mental dexterity (?).
Appearance:
First impressions, standing out in a crowd, the ability to convey messages with your face and body, the ability to project an image.
I like charisma. Manipulation being used for things like meditation seems like a huge stretch to me. I know there's a case to be made for it, but it sounds more like a justification than a real reason. Between wits, intelligence, willpower, and self-control, there should be a better thing to pair with spells and meditation than a social attribute. Consider this when looking at the abilities of mythic manipulation. They're all about manipulating PEOPLE because that's what people really think when they think of the social attirbute manipulation.
I know there's a balance argument to be made since otherwise manipulation is underpowered. I suggest it be merged with charisma or other incentives be offered to buy it up. Stamina has stuns, wits + dex has initiative, and the rest are good enough to stand on their own merits except for maybe apperance.
Appearance must be the attribute used for all appearance-based rolls, otherwise it becomes useless. Having a high rating in appearance doesn't nessicarily mean you're beautiful, and in fact I've known some great looking people I wouldn't give high appearance scores to since they don't stand out. People who are invested into this attribute know how to use what they have: how to make a scar look menacing or sexy, how to scare someone into giving information, how to blend into crowds, and how to use body language to command a room's mood. Those muscles don't mean shit if you can't project that aura of confidence with them. If you want appearance to have a purpose, you can't let people roll strength + intimidation or other stuff like that.
Masteries
The masteries are not in order of power, which leads to low incentives to buy them up all the way. Do you have any character with a mastery at 5? How about a skill at 6? Assuming the character has 4 in the commonly related attribute, it's pretty easy to re-order the effectiveness by rank using math.
1) ability is x1 to buy
2) Ability may be raised to 6
3) All specializations unlocked
4) extra dice based on mastery rating
5) -2 difficulty
I know Mark loves to make having 6 dots in a trait a big deal, but really dice bonus is negligible, the number of powers that mention rank in a trait are few, and any inherent benefits to having those levels are not established. I suppose they could be used to buy super-maneuvers, but that's not applicable for all abilities of course.
Additionally, and this is more radical than just the ordering thing, masteries induce a sort of rock-paper-scissors effect into the game. Most powers are balanced without masteries in mind, and when masteries are applied they become extremely powerful to the point where if you don't have special resistances for the particular type of power, you are guaranteed dead. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, although it could lead to player frustration pretty quickly.
Arcane
Arcane is really good. I don't know if I can, in good conscience, say that it's way unbalancing, but it seems like bursting into a level 3 arcane with a gift and a game's experience is a tad too beneficial for the cost. It ensures that characters without a dice pool of at least 5 in perception plus alertness can not even attempt to spot you. I know in-game math is a bad thing, but I really think the dice penalty shouldn't see direct geometric growth. Instead, perhaps consider something like this as a progression for a dice penalty.
1) -1 dice
2) -1 dice
3) -2 dice
4) -3 dice
5) -4 dice
6) -6 dice
7) -7 dice
8) -9 dice
Counter Magic
I love counter magic. I really love the way it's sort of like a magic general-ed in background form, and I think there should be a similar nega-psi ability too.
Probe
Is not a dot three; you guys are crazy.
Dominate
From Vampire: the masquerade is maybe balanced in a world without masteries where it's difficult to max out things like willpower and abilties. Not otherwise. What happened to the subtlety of social interaction? I also frown upon balancing things based on external source material (and this ties into probe above). We've created our own game system here, with its own progression rates and methods. You can't simply adapt things into this system and expect to be balanced.
Also, as a note: even if it was published by game designers in a book, it can still be unbalanced. If table top RPG game companies could patch their balances as easily as video game RPG devs could (and if there was perhaps more interest in the genre), you can be sure they'd do it just as often. It's a trial and error thing, a work in progress. Nothing is sacred to the point where it should not be questioned.
Natures:
are the only thing on the top of the page with a true gameplay system ramification. It should be moved into the character sheet's main body, if not removed entirely. I suggest grandfathering the willpower regain function into morality.
Armor
Needs a slight buff. I know you guys like to keep combat fast and edgy, but it really requires a suspention of disbelief that a simple bullet proof vest gives a dex penalty and only 3 armor. If the vest was a literal adaptation from real life, the armor provided would at least match a large handgun (6). Those extra damage dice from aim successes should be what overcomes the armor. Besides, saying "I aim for anywhere but the body" is enough to surpass a vest. I suggest that armor be limited by attainability, and I suggest dex penalties be reduced a bit.
Or if we're doing the whole suspension of disbelief thing, can we make melee weapons balanced instead?
And now I'm tired and stuff and I can't think of any more off the top of my head. Maybe I'll bring up a few more points later.
