New pulp alley character class?

[Samulus]

Interesting idea Malebolgia -  I'd like that too.

@ Mr Peabody -  good point, didn't think about that. Definitely not D10. Probably D8. Maybe even D6. Needs to be somewhere between Ally and Sidekick. I think I'd probably go D8 to give them a little bit of staying power.

@theoldscool - musketeers with PA sounds spot on. Really want to give that a go given the excellent BBC series of the same title. Imagine 7th voyage might work also, but have no experience with those rules so can't really comment. To any 7th voyage players, what's the main selling point of those rules over PA (if any?).

[FramFramson]

By the way, there does exist a playtest ability which isn't too far off what you guys mentioned: "Notable (lvl 2) - Shift two of this character's D6 skills up to D8. At least one of these skills must be Might, Finesse, or Cunning."

This might be coming out officially in Vice Alley (sorry Dave, if I spoiled a little fun ).

[religon]

I think Notable was canned for Vice Alley.

I recently posted an AAR on the Pulp Alley forum featuring a flattened model for league construction. A 1 point league perk called a "Peerage." The leader is a 3 slot figure and the heroes are mostly 2.5 slot characters. See the Rebel heroes for an example of how I addressed this issue.

http://pulpalley.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1090&sid=6bce5d07d04ed273ebef2d5975ca3fb9

[religon]

Rhelyk suggested...

To deal with everyone having more health levels we don't allow recovery checks except for the final out of action roll and the recovery action cards, so wounded characters generally stay wounded. Another necessary result is turning all the "1 success" challenges into "2 success" challenges or they would be trivial.

I like the idea of hampering Recovery rolls. I had thought one minor tweak would be that all would be on a d6, but your idea seems even more effective. Perhaps adding another "Get Up" card to the fortune deck would be necessary. A little more challenge in the challenges might apply to the buffed league but not one that sticks to RAW league construction rules. Hmmm....

[FramFramson]

I think Notable was canned for Vice Alley.

Yes, I just saw it's not in the book. So it was okay to share after all!

I quite like it as an ability and I think it's very fair. Though ironically, I'm not using it much at all because my preference has been to give characters abilities with a bit more personality.

[religon]

I think Notable is fine on basic Allies, but may have made some very nasty Sidekicks and Companion Allies. (In a Tarzan league I had Kerchak the gorilla as an Animal, Fierce and Notable. A mighty statline for a level 2 Companion figure.)

[d phipps]

Rhelyk suggested...

I like the idea of hampering Recovery rolls. I had thought one minor tweak would be that all would be on a d6, but your idea seems even more effective. Perhaps adding another "Get Up" card to the fortune deck would be necessary. A little more challenge in the challenges might apply to the buffed league but not one that sticks to RAW league construction rules. Hmmm....

Dropping the Recovery checks makes lots of sense in a more purely skirmish based scenario. We used to do that in our Rainbow-Six scenarios to make the combat more gritty and unforgiving.

In Vice Alley, you'll find one of the special rules for "Gang War" is that characters in a certain area don't get to make Recovery checks after turn #4... very brutal! 

Yes, I just saw it's not in the book. So it was okay to share after all!

Ayup, 'Notable' did not make it through playtesting. I was not happy with the balance when it was stacked with some other abilities. Please feel free to use it if it makes sense and fits your own style/setting.

[FramFramson]

Ah, makes sense. I can see where you'd be creating a pseudo sidekick (possibly in multiples!) for free. I'll be sure to use it only solo on allies then.