[crimfan]

Originally Posted by madwabbit

Not sure if this comment is directed specifically at HEX, or the review... or whatever.

If you're referring to HEX, what I can tell you is that the character generations are far from "chintzy", whatever implication you meant by using that word (and one assumes that it's not meant positively or as a compliment).

I don't have HEX so I can't speak to it specifically. I was reacting to the characterization in the review (which may be wrong), but also to the chargen rules in many other games, which feel decidedly cheap (hence my use of chintzy in the second definition of "stingy, miserly": http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chintzy).

In HEX they don't become gods... far from it... but they certainly can develop along a line where they are more mature and powerful than when they first started out. Which is good, and I can't imagine why anyone would have a problem with that.

I don't, per se, but often times the points you've got to make starting characters are so dear that it feels awfully hard to stat out myself. I'm not trying to stat myself like Bill Gates in the classic Onion article ("Bill Gates Gives Self 18 Dexterity, 20 Charisma" http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29743), but give myself the skill points I'd have in a lot of areas, including my professional expertise (teaching, statistics, writing, giving a good presentation, etc.), serious hobbies (cooking, playing guitar, singing, playing/running a good RPG game, a reader's knowledge of history, a bit of martial arts, etc.), and everyman skills (driving, basic finance, computing, etc.). IMO statting myself as a starting character would be quite difficult in most games and I don't consider myself to be particularly extraordinary. (Of course, one argument to be made is that I am not, in fact, a "starting character" but have built up some XP, but this just goes in a circle.)

You mentioned Indiana Jones -- he's the furthest thing from a super-hero you can get, but what makes him stand out is what he does, how he reacts, and the risks he takes to either get what he's after or who he wants to protect or save.

I disagree that Indy's just an ordinary guy. Indy is a professor, and one of the leading ones in his field. This will mean a heck of a lot of his creation points will be gone simply to be competent in that. He's also tough enough to survive his adventures, kick ass (not the absolute best at it, but decent enough to beat up a truckload of Nazis and not just by luck), etc. I bet making Indy in most game systems' chargen rules would be VERY hard, though it would probably be possible in Storyteller Adventure!. Now Indy is probably an experienced character and thus one could meaningfully ask "so what?" He's certainly more of a solo character and RPGs usually aren't solo endeavors, which changes things too: niche protection becomes an issue, for instance, and huge imbalances of power among the characters often piss players off. But I just get a sense from a lot of game designers that the only chargen rules provided make for pretty chumpy characters.