Rules Alterations :
Agri World (Enemies Within p.24) :
- Origin Bonus - Strength From The Land : An Agri World character gains a +2 bonus to their Fatigue Threshold.
- Characteristic Modifiers : +5 Perception, +5 Weapon Skill, -5 Intelligence.
- Origin Bonus "Live By The Sword" : A Feudal World character gains the Weapon Training [Low Tech] Talent and the Parry skill at Rank 1 (Known).
- Origin Bonus "Omnissiah's Chosen" : A Forge World character gains the Lore [Technology] and Tech Use skills at Rank 1 (Known).
- Origin Bonus "Rely On None But Yourself" : A Frontier World character gains a +20 bonus to Tech Use and Trade (Any) tests when applying personal weapon modifications. They also gain a +10 bonus to those skills when repairing damaged items.
- Characteristic Modifiers : +5 Fellowship, +5 Perception, -5 Willpower
- Origin Bonus "Do You Know Who I Am?" : A Noble Born character begins play with any two Peer talents and one Enemy talent of their choice. They may take the Peer talent twice for the same social group, stacking its effects.
- Characteristic Modifiers : +5 Perception, +5 Toughness, -5 Intelligence
- Origin Bonus "Secretive By Nature" : A Quarantine World character begins play with the skills Deceive and Stealth at Rank 1 (Known).
- Origin Bonus "Pursuit of Data" : A Research Station character gains who reaches rank 2 (Trained) or higher in a Lore skill gains a +10 bonus to any Forbidden Lore tests made with that skill.
- Origin Bonus "Insanely Faithful" : Once per encounter a Shrine World character may spend a Fate Point upon failing a Fear test. If they do so they count as having passed with 1 Degree of Success, but also gain 1 Insanity Point.
Design Notes :
Ok, change by change from the top...
The alteration to the Origin/Homeworld bonus for Agri-Worlds is simply a case of me changing the ability to something that makes more sense. The first time I read that entry I was immediately confused, why on Terra does being a farmer or herder make you better at melee combat? A straight up buff to Fatigue Threshold makes a lot more sense to me, as such folk would in my mind be hardy, used to working long shifts in tough conditions.
For Feudal Worlds the characteristic modifiers had to be altered to reflect the removal of Influence, and I think that an Intelligence penalty is the best choice as a reflection of the lack of opportunities for education and the pursuit of intellectual passtimes on such a world. That's not to say there aren't any, but the Feudal Worlds of the Imperium are (in some cases deliberately maintained as) dark and violent worlds, where skill with a blade is far more valuable than scholarly ability. The Origin ability has been changed as it was already hilariously overpowered, being replaced with a skill and talent that I think are thematically very appropriate. Now, technically this origin can't represent everyone from a feudal world, it's not appropriate for the peasantry for example, but instead it should be used for characters who are men at arms, soldiers, warrior aristocrats and the like. Anything from a plate armoured knight to a 41st Millenium samurai.
The alteration to the Forge World origin is for fluff reasons, as the Origin Ability from the Core Rulebook only offers combat based abilities. To me it makes more sense to instead give characters from the Adeptus Mechanicus' worlds a basic education in the technology they surround themselves with, as it makes no sense to me that a character could have Weapon Tech yet know absolutely nothing about the weapon they're augmenting...
Frontier Worlds have just had a slight tweak to the phrasing of their ability, reflecting alterations of my own to the games skills and how they're used, again we'll get to that in the Skills section of this project.
Highborn has been altered a few times, the Characteristic Modifiers being altered both due to the removal of the Influence characteristic and my opinion that the aristocracy of the Imperium are not necessarily physically frail. They do however seem prone to excesses, to aberrations of behaviour, to moral failings and the like and replacing the T penalty with a WP penalty and giving a bonus to Perception both plays into that and makes them better at taking advantage of others, to sensing blood in the social water. Their Origin Bonus has been changed for similar reasons, with Influence removed it was useless as it stood, so giving them talents that reflect their web of social contacts as well as the enemies of both an Aristocrat and their family, dynasty or clan. This is closer to the 1st Edition version of the Homeworld/Origin, which in my mind better reflects this particular character archetype.
Penal Colony is another Origin that's had to be changed due to the removal of Influence. It took me a while to settle on a negative Characteristic, and with none of the physical characteristics being appropriate I ended up undecided between Intelligence, Willpower and Fellowship. In the end I went for Intelligence as it seems to me the least essential characteristic for the scum of a Penal Colony, with a lack of smarts potentially being the reason they succumbed to their base natures and committed crimes against the Imperium in the first place... Remember, a plea of Innocence is guilty of wasting my time, Guilty!
Quarantine World as an Origin has been altered due to my personal dislike of highly circumstantial bonuses. Subtlety is a characteristic that not all players even make use of, and for those that do there is a time when a mere 2 point reduction isn't necessarily of much use. Replacing that with skills appropriate to a character who spends their time slinking for place to place and evading both local threats and Imperial authorities makes a lot more sense to me.
Research Station has been another Origin altered due to my changes to how the game works, specifically Lore skills. Again I'll get to the specifics of that when I get to writing that section, but for now I'll mention that I've collapsed the Common Lore, Forbidden Lore and Scholastic Lore skills into a single "Lore" skill, with Common and Forbidden Lore being made with bonuses and penalties as appropriate. I'll go into more detail of that when we get there but that should give you a little insight.
Finally we have the Shrine World Origin, the alteration to this Origin being due to both the weakness of the existing Bonus and that due to it being incredibly luck based its entirely possible (if somewhat unlikely) for it to never come into play. Instead I've taken the Origin Bonus from Ossuar (Enemies Beyond p89) and applied it to Shrine Worlds in general, echoing the option from the original rules to take the Insanely Faithful talent. In my mind it's a lot more likely to come into play, and is in general a far more useful and characterful ability.
And that's all for now, in the next post we'll be moving on to Backgrounds, and thank the Emperor there are fewer of them than "Origins".
Until Next Time
Happy Gaming
Michael
3 comments:
I was thinking about the Forgeworld and wondered why it only lets you save a couple hundred experience points (half a single game session), while other Homeworlds get something unique and not achievable in any other way. It feels very underwhelming. So i was thinking what could i give a Forgeworld character of unique and the most balanced thing i could think of was of letting Forgeworlders ignore up to a -10 or -20 penalty on Tech-Use and Trade (Technomat) tests when operating complex machines, to reflect the fact that they are more at ease with recalcitrant machine spirits.
Do you think ignoring a -10 would be underpowered or that a -20 would be overpowered?
EDIT: Sorry for deleting and reposting, i needed to fix some grammar.
That's a very solid point, and something for me to consider when I go back over the assorted homeworlds and backgrounds. Essentially that they should all give a fairly unique bonus, and not something that can simply be acquired with XP, hmm...
As for your suggestion that's solid. I'd say take the -20, and apply it to Tech Use and Trade (Characters Choice), as depending on their forge world and place in the priesthood they could have [Armourer], [Shipwright] or anything else.
Yeah I've done that before :P
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