An alternate Character build system (MY House Rules)

[NMI]

I personally have always, except for 1 or 2 times, have created my character by picking and choosing what I want. Never had a problem with munchkin level PC's because I don't build munchkins. On occasion, I might use some random tables, but not all of them.

[Cobalt-Blue]

Never claimed you were. I was just saying why I thought the RAW were written that way. Number one RPG rule is have fun. So whatever you need to facilitate that.

No, you just implied that players who played what they wanted were automatically min maxing and were not good roleplayers-- or to use your word: actors.

Stop putting your foot in my mouth. I said no such thing I said

I've seen both ways but far more who have no randomness tend to min max and then don't think they have to RP the min.

My point was that this is story telling, NOT acting. You can have a three dimensional character without randomly generating his/her birth order, background, education, and skills. The system as it stands is very LIMITING, NOT UNLIMITED.

Gee sorry you feel that way

If you're spending your whole time worrying about who is min maxing and who is not, then you're not spending enough time on the story.

If you spend NO time on worrying about who is min maxing then there is no point in characters or a story.

I want storyteller's not actors--I have little use for actors, but I admire good writers.

without someone who can play a role (act a part) there is no R in RPG.

Again, if you want to force your characters to generate random crap for their characters, go right ahead.

Your assuming I do. I don't even have my players roll up Nightspawn unless they're out of ideas or want a challenge.

But that's not what the title of the game suggests, "Heroes Unlimited."

Funny I always thought unlimited meant unlimited potential or variations of superheroes not unlimited player control. So does Rifts mean that everything in the game has to have a tear in it including the character sheet? Recon must mean that you have to find everything. Dang TMNT, when it was TMNT was such a let down it didn't only have Teenagers, Mutants, Ninjas or Turtles and damn N&S for having characters other than Ninjas or Superspies.

Characters in my game who decide on a "dump" stat quickly learn to regret it.

That is what I said sorry I used min-max instead of "dump"

Characters who have average stats learn that there's a certain importance to being average in a stat too. These house rules were designed to do two things, which I think I accomplished with them:
1. Allow a player build the character s/he wants instead of some stupid stuff the dice generate (Underwater abilities and APS Fire? what the hell?- yeah, you can build a background for it, but it's a pain in the butt, it's strained, and leaves a bad taste in the player's mouth for having to do it. Players who are forced to do that quickly move to a system where they can BUILD their characters.)

Where in PB does it say a player must randomly roll... anything?

Remember, the only older continuous game system for superhero roleplaying does just that. It's biggest problem is it's math heavy (more so than HU) but it has the advantage of a character generator Mutants and Masterminds is grabbing a chunk of the Superhero RPG market because they have two things going for them that HU doesn't. A.) A character build system. B.) A character generator WITHOUT being math heavy like the aforementioned game.

2. It streamlines an overly complicated character generation system. Using the system as it is, it can take over an hour to build one character. (Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you can build one in twenty mintutes-- but you've been at it for a while, and we hear this out of anyone who doesn't want to see a change. And if you have to do it for several villains, and NPCs, it just gets to be too much.) I can use this system and be done in 20 minutes EVERY TIME, and print the character out on a 5x7 notecard.

how is designing a character faster than randomly rolling powers? No I don't do it in 20 minutes I let my spreadsheet automatically generate one.

To be honest, HU has been on the back burner of Palladium for so long that I'm surprised it's still in print.

and that is sad

It was one of their first games, but it has moved so far down the support line that some Zombie Apocalypse game which is pretty much a fad, gets more support.

but not as much a fad as the Y2K bugs

Have you looked through the Rifter to see how often an HU article or support piece shows up?

nope don't buy em... they cost money

If you're lucky, every other issue. Rifts gets more than one EVERY issue. The system needs an overhaul, and it needs to streamline and some actual support!

Some of the ideas here are how my group does that overhaul to allow us to play the heroes we want, and as try to get more NEW people to play it. They aren't min maxers and they aren't bad roleplayers because they do this.

Good I'm glad you have had a regular supply of mature role players not everyone is that lucky nor does age matter as my 13 year old son is a more mature RPer than my 30 something brother in law.

They BUILD Characters around concepts, not randomness that makes no sense.

Again I'm glad not only do you have mature players but players with imagination or at least imagination that doesn't suffer from creationblock. There is a certain amount of imagination that goes into developing a character around random rolls when one has no initial concept though and I'd argue both are good. Min-maxing on the other hand... not good. Like I said, have fun.

Um... so I don't know why you mention being an author, cuz in this day and age anyone can be 1. an author and 2. a published author. So my question would be what is your real name or pen name because the only real measures of an author are how many people buy their book, but most importantly (to me) is it is a good read, which of course is subjective.

Okay, let's just agree to disagree. I'll walk away with my opinion and you can walk away with yours. These house rules are obviously not something you find interesting or useful. That's cool. I find them helpful. As for my pen name, it's the same as my username on here. I write everything for Scifi (Avada and Imperial Entanglements (The Latter is ADULT Space Opera)) , to superheroes (Cadre 5; Atlantis Unleashed Dragonwar, Behind the Masks, and The Cradle (some sci-fi there) to paranormal romance (The Lost Prince, Cattin' Around (These are ADULT and the latter is part of the Atlantis Unleashed Universe); to young adult (The Kindred: Mooncat! and Runemaster!) to fantasy (Yffandia: Lost Causes) . I brought up being an author, because that is what the best roleplaying groups are: authors writing a shared story within a set of paramenters. Actors read lines written for them by authors. Good roleplayers are the author of their own dialog and actions.

[Hell knight]

The problem i see with a system like this , is its way to easy to gets clones . I gm a game witch was point based , every one took 90% the same skills and abilities . Witch they thought were more useful no fun when every one is the same. So for me i love the random tables , i do have my lii twists like a roll of 27 on the powers table may be read as 27 or 72 there choice.

Be sides the world is chaos , witch we try to bring order to . Any one says other wise there trying to sell you something .

Still well done on your system.

[McFacemelt]

I'm curious in trying this out with my players, I particularly like the skill buying. How many points do you plan on charging for your players to make a power Mega? 2 for a Minor, 3 for a Major were the first numbers that came to my mind just curious on yours.

[Cobalt-Blue]

I'm curious in trying this out with my players, I particularly like the skill buying. How many points do you plan on charging for your players to make a power Mega? 2 for a Minor, 3 for a Major were the first numbers that came to my mind just curious on yours.

Mega powers can't be bought at first level, but their total cost should be three. So taking a minor power to a major version of it would be the expenditure of two points plus one more would make it three. Taking a major power to mega power would be one.

[say652]

I made a character using this system.

It's a good unmunchkinable system.
The skill system aspect totally levels the field.

Sure you can lift mountains and fly into space, what's 3+5?
Which way is east?
Can you drive I am getting sleepy?

All things you wouldn't have slots for if you used them to create a Flying invulnerable Mind Melter with the Yggdrasil gift of knowledge.