Why reset Hx?
So, this question came up playing our on the fly zombieapocalypse hack. There is this, when you hit +4 Hx, reset to +1. Which doesnt compute, not for my players and not for me. Why the hell should you know someone less, when you got to know them better….hmmm. So i said ill give it some thoughts for some other system and ll see what we can hack
I’m thinking in the lines: when you would go to +4 Hx with another player/NPC, you ell them an important secret about you and it stays at +3…Hx only goes down when there ist betrayal involved (instant success on any move for -2Hx, or you fail to live up to their expectations or failed to help them/somehow made their situation worse ( as a hard wired consequence for a failed help attempt – or hinder too … lets say -1 each)
Just Brainstorming, plz let me know what you think!
By not resetting hx, then it will be a very regular source of xp, but it also leaves less room for the relationship to build. If characters constantly learn each other’s secrets with no build up they start to feel devalued. The way hx was explained to me is that it isn’t how close you are with the character, it’s how well you think you know them. When your HX resets it’s because you find so much about the character that your mental image of them is shattered. You actually know that character better but you feel like your rediscovering who they are.
I’m sure you’ve had the experience where you spend an intense weekend with someone, but the next time you see them, even though you know them much better than you did before, it’s awkward and you don’t know what to say.
In the earliest, pre-publication versions of the game, there was a second, absolute history stat, that went up by 1 every time your Hx rolled over. There wasn’t anything for that stat to do, though, so I dropped it.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t find and try other rules, though, of course!
yep, the xp source, and the build up is a question…Maybe so :If you hit +4, reset to +3. You may opt to start a scene with the character (as part of your shared downtime or as recapitulation) and thereby learn secrets or some other details of your shared history. If so, mark xp.
Cool?
What I like about resetting (besides the obvious mechanical reason of having to work your way all over again to the + 4 that gives you xp), is that it opens the room for new relationships to develop.
Instead of sticking to the relationship with same character, you probably focus next on another one, that is higher than + 1. Say you have + 3 with the gunlugger at the table, + 2 with the driver and 0 with the brainer, once you’ll hit + 4 wit the gunlugger and reset to + 1, then you’ll focus on someone else, i.e. the driver that is already at + 2.
From the point of view of the story, this is better because it encourages you to work on different relationships.
Roland P that doesn’t seem to fix the mechanical problem, which is that if you let people keep bouncing between 3 and 4 it becomes too fast a source of experience.
Jeff Johnston yeah, true, so change the requirements for level up a bit, lvl +2 or 3 to account for the difference?
Somebody on the forum suggested that whenever you hit +4 with someone, the person would tell you a secret about his character. I kinda liked that.
(please take my notes with a grain of salt; I don’t claim to be an expert nor want to discourage you from hacking the Hx system)
Adjusting the Advancements scores is probably a half solution. You’re still going to get a game that encourages players to strengthens strong relationships and neglects others.
In other words, what are you actually trying to achieve?
If the issue is that Hx + 1 is not a correct representation of knowing the other character better, I’d say you are going to get a more realistic portrait by resetting to + 3, yes, but then you need to fix the Advancements… and perhaps a “realistic” representation is overrated if you compare it to drama and story-material you get by pursuing different relationships.
Is maybe the problem with the Help and Interfere move?
Perhaps instead of changing the numbers needed to reach the next Advancement, you can think of giving xp only once, until the next Advancement, for each different character. So if you hit + 4 several times, you don’t get more xp (somehow similar to Dark Age where you can take xp from the same element only once you’ve reached the next Advancement).
Christian Stenz yep, you just caught me hehe
Davide Pignedoli yes, the xp once per char and advancement tip sounds great!
So, thx everyone for the very constructive feedback here, ill give it a shot ( zombieapocalyptic pun intended) and well see how it works out. The fun in running a live hack is also to try out many ideas and keep the working stuff…