Gun Fu One Shot

[ValhallaGH]

As the title implies, I'm putting together a Gun Fu one-shot adventure for a soon-to-be rainy day. Obviously pre-generated characters are the way to go. I was hoping that someone here could provide some advice on just how ridiculously powerful to make the stats on these folks. I'm thinking fifth level, with a mix of Defensive and Aggressive characters of various archetypes for them to choose from.
The part that's holding me up is ability score generation, odd as that may seem. I just can't choose how powerful to make them.

Thanks for the help.

 

[jezter6]

Ability scores aren't the end all, be all of RPGs (IMHO).

I'd rather make them more powerful by giving extra feats that are limited, but allows cool options.

If you try the old Blood and Vigilance way, the 'Advanced Training' origin added some better stat bonuses, but also gave bonus feats every 2 instead of every 3 levels. In your game, that might make 2 extra feats that could be used for neat stuff like martial arts feats from Blood and Fists.

 

[takyris]

It's definitely a trade-off. Not enough points, and PCs can't do the cool things they want to describe themselves doing. Too many points, and they get artificially inflated in some ways to a higher level. The problem with the latter is that they're only inflated in some ways, not all -- so they coast in a lot of fights and then suddenly all die at once in an unlucky fight.

It also depends what rules you're using for skill checks and feats of coolness. If you're going by the core D&D skill check rules (or the d20 Modern skill check rules) for Jump, Climb, Balance, and Tumble, then they need fairly high stats to make up for only being 5th level. If you're making up your own rules (or using someone else's cool-stuff rules -- pardon me if Gun Fu is an official game and not just a genre), you can probably get away with something more normal.

(Note: Acrobatic maneuvers I like include:

Chimney-Jump: Running Jump check, Climb check DC 15, and on a success, you can make another running Jump check -- this would be the Jackie-Chan-esque "Jump up, hit a wall, spring off and jump even higher" move.

Move while prone: Balance check, DC 20 -- on a slick surface, you can drop prone while continuing to move. This makes you harder to hit with ranged weapons and allows you to slide under obstacles.

Wall-Run: Balance check, DC 20 -- run at your normal movement rate along a wall, avoiding obstacles on the ground. At the end of your turn, you drop to the ground.

Charging swing: Climb check, DC 20 -- change direction during a charge by grabbing a beam or bar.

General attack bonus: Climb (for swinging), Jump (for jumping), or Balance (for sliding) check, DC 15 -- gets you a +2 bonus to attack, damage, or defense on your next attack (or for the next round). For every 5 by which you beat the DC, add another +1.)

I used these rules in an acrobatic-fighting game, and people had a ton of fun.

Barring any other information, I'd go with 32-point buy, or 36 if it's a one-shot with a ton of fighting and you don't want to worry about killing people unless things go horribly wrong.

 

[ValhallaGH]

or using someone else's cool-stuff rules -- pardon me if Gun Fu is an official game and not just a genre

It actually is a product that I'm planning on using. It can be found here. Obviously I didn't explain well enough as at least two people have made that mistake.

I used these rules in an acrobatic-fighting game, and people had a ton of fun.

Good rules. Thank you for sharing.

Barring any other information, I'd go with 32-point buy, or 36 if it's a one-shot with a ton of fighting and you don't want to worry about killing people unless things go horribly wrong.

Thank you.