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Skip Navigation LinksHere There Be Monsters>Paradigm>House Rules
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House Rules
In addition to the custom abilities assumed to be in us in Here There Be Monsters, following are a collection of optional but recommended House Rules.
DEATH (5e & 6e)
PC's and significant NPC's (as determined by the GM) use the normal rules for determining character death.
All other NPC's die when they reach -1 BODY. At 0 BODY they are on the verge of death and, depending on the circumstances, may "bleed out" or succumb with undue exertion or rough handling at the GM's discretion.
UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND KNOCKED OUT (5e & 6e)
PC's and significant NPC's determine Knocked Out categories in increments of the character's CON. For instance, a character with 15 CON recovers Every Phase and Post Segment 12 at 0 to -15 STUN, Post Segment 12 only at -16 to -30 STUN, and so on.
All other NPC's are in the "GM's option" category at -1 STUN or below. At 0 STUN they are in the "barely Knocked Out" category and can still recover.
SPECIAL RESOURCE POOL SFX (5e & 6e)
In addition to any other concept driven SFX, abilities taken in the Special Resource Pools (Believer, Psychic, Mystic, Professional, Innati) have a broad SFX tied to the Resource Pool they are in. Thus a Psychic's pyromancy ability might have the SFX of Fire, but as the ability must be taken in a Psychic Resource Pool it also always has the Psychic SFX.
Adjustment Powers that allow an extended target group to be taken as an Advantage can work against all special abilities of a given Special Resource Pools SFX as a +1/2 Advantage.
Some Enhanced Senses, such as properly defined Detects, can work against Special Resource Pool SFX.
SPECIAL RESOURCE POOL RESTRICTIONS
PROFESSIONAL POOL EXCLUSIVES
In Here There Be Monsters the following kinds of abilities can only be taken in a Professional Pool:
  • Military grade weapons and gear, such as high end sniper rifles, ordinance, heavy machine guns, etc.
  • Significantly improved / customized weapons and gear, such as a "normal" pistol with unusual modifiers or increased damage classes. Where the threshold for this lies is left to the GM's discretion.
  • The Deadly Blow Talent
  • The Weapon Master Talent
  • The Professional Edge Talent
DISPEL (5e & 6e)
DISPEL DICE OF EFFECT + DICE ROLL
When used as per the rules, Dispel suffers from point disparities which generally result in a Dispel ability either being very narrowly defined and corner case, or so encumbered by advantages that the dice of effect are too low to be reasonably capable of affecting equivalently pointed target abilities.
Due to this lack of teeth, Dispels are rarely ever actually taken by player characters, unless their cost can be subsumed into a Multipower or Variable Power Pool, and in general Dispels tend to go unused during play as they hardly ever work vs creditable opponents.
This house rule allows a reasonably defined Dispel with some degree of Expanded Effect to still be viable vs abilities with equivalent Active Points.
Dispel grants a base effect equal to the number of dice the character has in Dispel, plus the roll. Thus a 6d6 Dispel confers +6 points of automatic effect, while a 12d6 Dispel confers +12 points of automatic effect, and so on.
ABORT TO DISPEL
Even though Dispel has a defensive use (countering attacks before they can take effect), the Power is not flagged as a "Defensive" ability, and is flagged as an "Attack". The rules more generally allow a character to Abort to a defensive action, but does not allow characters to Abort to an attack. It has been a long standing house rule of mine that a character can abort to a Dispel if it would protect them from harm.
A character with a relevant Dispel can Abort to Dispel an incoming attack that would harm them.
ENDURANCE RESERVE (6e)
In earlier editions of the rules, Endurance Reserves were fairly easy to abuse. HERO System 6e reworked the costing of this ability in an effort to make it more balanced. However it is thought by some (including me) that the "nerf" went too far in the other direction, leaving Endurance Reserves no longer viable. The following house rule(s) are an attempt to fairly price Endurance Reserve and return them to usefulness, but curbing against excesses.
PRO-RATED RECOVERY
The GM's option to allow the REC on Endurance Reserves to be pro-rated across a TURN is on by DEFAULT. A character with 12 REC on their Endurance Reserve recovers 1 END per Segment, for instance. This occurs at the very end of each Segment after all actions have been taken.
CANNOT BE DISPELED
While the abilities using an Endurance Reserve can potentially be Dispeled, the Endurance Reserve itself cannot be.
ADJUSTMENT POWERS MUST BE EXPLICIT
An Adjustment Power that affects END or REC Characteristics cannot affect the END or REC of an Endurance Reserve. An Adjustment Power that specifically targets Endurance Reserves can, however.
DRAIN PROTECTION
The END in an Endurance Reserve is Drained at the rate of 1 END for 1 Character Point.
USE BOTH RESERVE AND CHARACTERISTICS
If a character doesn't take any Limitations on the Reserve or the Recovery of an Endurance Reserve, then that character's abilities may use either the Endurance Reserve or the character's own Endurance Characteristic. The decision of which to use to pay the Endurance of an ability is under the characer's control and is made with each use.
MULTIFORM (6e)
The following restrictions apply to a character with a Multiform.
CANNOT EXCEED POINTS OF TRUE FORM
An extra form from Multiform cannot exceed the point total of a character's true form.
EVERY 6TH POINT TO MULTIFORM
After play starts a character may spend every sixth experience point on a Multiform, but no more.
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Talents
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PowersExpand Powers
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Warding
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Exorcism
Intervention
Invocation
Hex
Autodidactism
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MysticExpand Mystic
PsychicExpand Psychic
BelieverExpand Believer
InnatusExpand Innatus
Professional
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Alchemist
Occultist
Wizard
Mysterian
Spellbinder
Elementalist
Invoker
Necromantist
Daemonologist
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Suppressor
Scroll up
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Exorcism
Intervention
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Daemonsouled
Demimonde
Eld Folk
Immortal
Lycanthrope
Prophesized
Vampyrii
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Iconic \ Pregens
NPCs
DossiersExpand Dossiers
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The Morrigan
The Ancient Mariner
Tudor Brezak
Baraerazil
Cult Of The Red Hand
No Face Man
L'Éminence Nocturne
Scroll up
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Zombie Apocalypse
Bjorn To Ride Easy
Banshee Troubles
Tomorrows Passed
Venus Malefica
Tears of Tierrasola
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We Too Unto DarknessExpand We Too Unto Darkness
Be At Ease, Hunters
Scroll up
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Jon BreggExpand Jon Bregg
Miles HendricksExpand Miles Hendricks
Ebon BelaskoExpand Ebon Belasko
Jonas MailerExpand Jonas Mailer
Clark Dugard
Arc 1Expand Arc 1
Arc 2Expand Arc 2
Scroll up
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Shticks
Dossier
Best Served Cold
On The Road Again
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Shticks
Dossier
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Shticks
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Shticks
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Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
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Session 1
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