I just thought I'd comment on some changes I've made to the complex debate rules in Dynasties and Demagogues.
Overall the system works really well and draws the players in. This was a little bit of a surprise for this particular group since they lean a bit towards the 'kick in the door' style of play.
However, there were a few changes we made as a result of a couple of runs.
The first problem is that players reduced to zero political points had nothing to do; battles tend to be a bit shorter than debates so there was boredom to contend with.
We fixed this problem with the house rule that characters with zero political points can take one support action a round (Build The Argument, Support Ally, Shore Up Defenses, etc). Of course this necessitated an additional house rule that the benefits from support actions can be applied to any designated speaker.
Second house rule allows characters with Void Use (from Rokugan campaign setting originally) to spend a Void Point for a +2 void bonus to political defense for one round or to the next political attack roll. Per the standard rules they can already spend a void point for a bonus to the Will save.
I'm mulling over a third house rule to allow courtiers (core class from Rokugan) extra political points and/or defense. I'm not sure at this point whether this should be another courtier ability or if it should be level-dependent. If the latter, I'd need to take into account prestige classes like Mastermind and other classes such as Aristocrat.
There's also the question of whether or not the character's leadership score should count towards political stats. Maybe some sort of bonus to political defense based on the score?
Any suggestions on these last points would be welcome.
Overall the system works really well and draws the players in. This was a little bit of a surprise for this particular group since they lean a bit towards the 'kick in the door' style of play.
However, there were a few changes we made as a result of a couple of runs.
The first problem is that players reduced to zero political points had nothing to do; battles tend to be a bit shorter than debates so there was boredom to contend with.
We fixed this problem with the house rule that characters with zero political points can take one support action a round (Build The Argument, Support Ally, Shore Up Defenses, etc). Of course this necessitated an additional house rule that the benefits from support actions can be applied to any designated speaker.
Second house rule allows characters with Void Use (from Rokugan campaign setting originally) to spend a Void Point for a +2 void bonus to political defense for one round or to the next political attack roll. Per the standard rules they can already spend a void point for a bonus to the Will save.
I'm mulling over a third house rule to allow courtiers (core class from Rokugan) extra political points and/or defense. I'm not sure at this point whether this should be another courtier ability or if it should be level-dependent. If the latter, I'd need to take into account prestige classes like Mastermind and other classes such as Aristocrat.
There's also the question of whether or not the character's leadership score should count towards political stats. Maybe some sort of bonus to political defense based on the score?
Any suggestions on these last points would be welcome.
