Szilard/HouserulesBackgrounds
Contents
house rules on backgrounds
Back to:
multiple backgrounds of the same type
Multiple independent backgrounds of the same type are typically rated independently, rather than added together. That is, someone with two artifacts, one rated at 2 and one rated at 3, will have Artifact•• and Artifact•••, not Artifact•••••. Why? It ought to be significantly more common for someone to have several less powerful artifacts than one more powerful one, and Backgrounds above ••• cost double. Some Backgrounds (such as Resources) don't really follow this pattern. Other do so differently - Allies, for instance, should be separated if the Allies are separate, but not if they are more significant or powerful (Ally••••• represents a single, very powerful Ally or close-knit group, while five individual allies would be rated seperately).
artifact
The artifact rating system seems to me to be rather broken. There seem to be three design goals here that are incompatible:
- make relatively fine differentiations between the power level of artifacts
- have some artifacts of incredible power and others of a relatively trivial nature
- retain a five-point scale
I'm tempted to get rid of #3. Really I am. It would make things so much easier. Here, though is my attempt (still in progress) to sacrifice a bit of #1 in an an attempt to salvage what I can: Szilard/ArtifactWeaponsAndArmor
familiar
Familiar seems to be a major weak link among the backgrounds. For three background points, you could have a rather powerful Ally (perhaps a notable Exalt or a Guild Prince), a powerful magical Artifact, a Manse and Hearthstone of significant strength, or a pet tiger who won't die of old age. I've toyed with creating a point-buy familiar-creation system, but I don't really want it to get over-complicated. (My thoughts toward this, though, are at Szilard/Familiars)I'm still trying to figure out what the best method of handling this would be. It works fine as-is for Sidereals, insofar as they have powerful Familiar-boosting charms. Perhaps the answer is to have similar charms for other Exalt types.
Back to:
