Because we have no classes or alignment in the H&S RPS, it seems to be an inherantly immoral system. Is there some way we can reward characters for consitantly doing the morally good thing, through our usual PPV and ability system?
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The best idea I've had so far is to have an ability called "virtue." One of my martial arts instructors one time told be that religous people and internal martial artists can often sense weather or not someone is likely to attack them. (I have also found this to be true in some situations... coincidence?) I've also noticed that people consider "having good judge of character" to be an important aspect of "having good character." If you say that somone "does not have a good judge of character", you are inherantly implying that they are also morally flawed.
Perhaps we should have an ability called "Virtue", and it is developed by the character doing what he percieves to be "the right thing" inspite of opposition. The ability would be for detecting weather or not someone is knowingly working against the character's cause or planning to harm him in any way. (If it's a "yes" to either of these questions, than the virtous character would "be suspicious" of that other character.)
An important aspect of Virtue would be that Virtue PPV could be lost quickly, perhaps by entire half ability levels, by a single obviously unvirtuous action. A "crime spree" (sudden series of extremely unvirtuous actions) could render a previously pious character utterly without his "good sense" (no Virtue ability what so ever.)
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The opposing ability to Virtue would of course be Acting. If you want to hide your ill will towards a virtuous character, you use your "acting" ability. This roll would be made basically every time a character encountered someone new, regaurdless of wheather or not the new individual had capeable acting ability, so as to not give away good actors simply because they rolled in the first place.
Both Acting and Virtue could be developed individually by a single character. However, it would be very easy to use acting in a unvirtuous way, losing precious virtue PPV.
(Of course, Virtue PPV could also be easily lost from misuse of the combat abilities, not to mention slight of hand and stealth. It would be important to note that each situation is largely circumstantial. For example, telling lies is typically not virtous, but telling lies in a self defense situation, instead of using violence, in some value systems, would be the lesser of two unavoidable evils, and could thus be a virtuous enough action, in that situation, to not loose PPV.)
Another thing is that this ability should not make the characters "tip toe around" desperately trying not to sin, or always trying to find a good-deed to do. It only effects their PPV when decisions are made, or when the character is doing something unusual for him (like the town sheriff decide's he's going to break into the gunsmith's shop that evening to upgrade his arms collection.)
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I beleive the virtue fills an important nich in the system, especially when it comes to diminishing the duties of the GM. I will begin playtesting this soon.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Because we have no classes or alignment in the H&S RPS, it seems to be an inherantly immoral system. Is there some way we can reward characters for consitantly doing the morally good thing, through our usual PPV and ability system?
The best idea I've had so far is to have an ability called "virtue." One of my martial arts instructors one time told be that religous people and internal martial artists can often sense weather or not someone is likely to attack them. (I have also found this to be true in some situations... coincidence?) I've also noticed that people consider "having good judge of character" to be an important aspect of "having good character." If you say that somone "does not have a good judge of character", you are inherantly implying that they are also morally flawed.
Perhaps we should have an ability called "Virtue", and it is developed by the character doing what he percieves to be "the right thing" inspite of opposition. The ability would be for detecting weather or not someone is knowingly working against the character's cause or planning to harm him in any way. (If it's a "yes" to either of these questions, than the virtous character would "be suspicious" of that other character.)
An important aspect of Virtue would be that Virtue PPV could be lost quickly, perhaps by entire half ability levels, by a single obviously unvirtuous action. A "crime spree" (sudden series of extremely unvirtuous actions) could render a previously pious character utterly without his "good sense" (no Virtue ability what so ever.)
The opposing ability to Virtue would of course be Acting. If you want to hide your ill will towards a virtuous character, you use your "acting" ability. This roll would be made basically every time a character encountered someone new, regaurdless of wheather or not the new individual had capeable acting ability, so as to not give away good actors simply because they rolled in the first place.
Both Acting and Virtue could be developed individually by a single character. However, it would be very easy to use acting in a unvirtuous way, losing precious virtue PPV.
(Of course, Virtue PPV could also be easily lost from misuse of the combat abilities, not to mention slight of hand and stealth. It would be important to note that each situation is largely circumstantial. For example, telling lies is typically not virtous, but telling lies in a self defense situation, instead of using violence, in some value systems, would be the lesser of two unavoidable evils, and could thus be a virtuous enough action, in that situation, to not loose PPV.)
Another thing is that this ability should not make the characters "tip toe around" desperately trying not to sin, or always trying to find a good-deed to do. It only effects their PPV when decisions are made, or when the character is doing something unusual for him (like the town sheriff decide's he's going to break into the gunsmith's shop that evening to upgrade his arms collection.)
I beleive the virtue fills an important nich in the system, especially when it comes to diminishing the duties of the GM. I will begin playtesting this soon.