M&M 3e House Rule requests

[charlieluce]

Is it too early to start talking about what sort of House Rule check boxes we would like to see in the M&M 3e data set? Yeah, yeah, I know there's a screaming horde of "Use 2e Impervious", but for Hero Lab purposes that's just a flavor text change (unless it's also supposed to flag a violation if Impervious exceeds PL, which is also a common suggestion).

Anyway, that's what this thread is for.

[Captain Canuck]

I noticed that there is already a house rule box for changing the cost of skills. I would like to see this divided into combat (close combat/ranged combat) and everything else.

Ideally, since there are only 16 skills, it would be pretty cool to differentiate costs for any skill we want (technology/investigate vs. expertise, anyone?).

[Shadowchaser]

Originally Posted by Captain Canuck

I noticed that there is already a house rule box for changing the cost of skills. I would like to see this divided into combat (close combat/ranged combat) and everything else.

Ideally, since there are only 16 skills, it would be pretty cool to differentiate costs for any skill we want (technology/investigate vs. expertise, anyone?).

You can use the rules editor to adjust the costs of skills and create new ones. I created a new Presence skill called "Occultist" which, in my game, will help make Presence a more useful stat.

[SeeleyOne]

Could you please provide details of your Occultist skill? Perhaps in a private message if not in the forums?

[charlieluce]

Originally Posted by Captain Canuck

I noticed that there is already a house rule box for changing the cost of skills. I would like to see this divided into combat (close combat/ranged combat) and everything else.

Ideally, since there are only 16 skills, it would be pretty cool to differentiate costs for any skill we want (technology/investigate vs. expertise, anyone?).

I looked at the various proposals for changing skill costs, and after I ran the numbers I concluded that making Skills cheaper just screwed up Attribute costs even more than they already were, so being unwilling to reconstruct the entire skill list I decided that if it looked like it was going to be a problem in my games I'd toss the players a few more starting points and call it good.

Presence, though, is a non-starter for me.

[charlieluce]

Speaking of Skills, I'd also like the option to have Expertise that is not based on Intellect; since I'm preparing a Mecha & Manga/fantasy type game, Awareness, Dexterity, and Presence will all be valid bases for an Expertise.

EDIT: Now included! Yay!

[Shadowchaser]

Originally Posted by SeeleyOne

Could you please provide details of your Occultist skill? Perhaps in a private message if not in the forums?

Terribly sorry I didn't reply to this earlier. It's been a crazy week.

My Occultist Skill is pretty much lifted from the old DC Heroes game. It has the following uses/subskills:

Create Artifact (Needs Advantage), Identify Artifact, Occult Knowledge, Ritual Magic(Needs Advantage), and Premonition

I'm still play testing these in game, but essentially I use the skill in place of Expertise (Magic) for Artificing and Ritualism. Additionally, even someone without the Ritualist advantage can use this skill to try and gain premonitions of the future, and investigate magical evidence.

I tend to think of Presence as being the "Magical" stat, mainly because it's all about your character's sense of self, his or her force of personality. Kinda goes back to how I think of magic in the DC universe, based on a quote whose origins escape me at the moment: "Science is learning to speak about the universe in words everyone can understand, Magic is learning to speak to the universe in words it cannot ignore."

[Shadowchaser]

Originally Posted by charlieluce

Speaking of Skills, I'd also like the option to have Expertise that is not based on Intellect; since I'm preparing a Mecha & Manga/fantasy type game, Awareness, Dexterity, and Presence will all be valid bases for an Expertise.

I'm sure once they've updated the software, we'll get a drop-down/selectable Ability association for Expertise, since it's obviously meant to be the 'catchall' skill.

One thing I've noticed in the description of Expertise (and it should probably apply to other skills) is the idea that subskills or specific uses of Expertise can add their bonus to other abilities. For example, someone with Expertise (Electronics) might require a Dexterity+Expertise Ranks to perform a delicate bit of rewiring.

This is probably beyond the scope of Hero Lab, but it's interesting to note that it makes all stats more useful, even if a given skill doesn't list that stat as the associated stat, it might always come into play later.

[charlieluce]

Originally Posted by Captain Canuck

I noticed that there is already a house rule box for changing the cost of skills. I would like to see this divided into combat (close combat/ranged combat) and everything else.

Yeah, I don't recall anyone that has talked about Skill Costs on the Atomic Think Tank saying that they were going to change the Combat Skill costs (and really, is anyone going to use 4 or 5 Skill Ranks per point in M&M3?).

[Colen]

Good idea for a thread - I'll definitely look at what people ask for here once I've had a chance to tighten up the files a bit.