A while ago I said
that I would get into my system for handling Heroic Paths in GURPS Midnight.
In the original D20 Midnight, Heroic Paths were a way to augment your
character in a setting where magical items and magic itself are both rare and
illegal to possess. Each level, your Heroic Path would give you a bonus,
or a spell-like ability or free Feat that fit with the theme of the Heroic
Path.
At the beginning of the campaign, I had the
players go through a few pages of images I'd picked to represent each Heroic
Path. These were just culled from Deviant Art or wherever - my apologies
to dozens of artists, but I didn't charge money or anything. For the list
of Heroic Paths, I went with the Midnight Campaign Setting, Second Edition.
The players chose:
Chanceborn, Faithful, Fey-blooded, Shadow Walker, Spellsouled and Sunderborn
What I decided that I wanted to do is to have
various powers from the Heroic Paths manifest at dramatic moments during the
game. At the end of each session, each player gets 5 character points,
and I also put 5 character points into their Heroic Path. (This leads to
faster-than-average development for GURPS, but we only play once a month on
average, and I actually haven't found it to be unbalancing or anything so far)
When there are enough points in a Heroic Path to justify something
manifesting, it happens. Usually this is around 15 character points or
so, so once every three or four sessions for each character.
Here's what I've done so far. Most of the
characters are in their third manifestation, and the Heroic Path totals are at
about 50 character points. Again, this is pretty powerful, but because it
is incremental, I haven't found it to be unbalancing. I can still
threaten the PCs pretty easily because it is GURPS after all. When
choosing powers to manifest, I'm looking at what is offered in the Midnight
core rulebook and expanding on those ideas. I'm also thinking "What would
this player enjoy?"
Chanceborn
Jin is a Sarcosian smuggler and
horse-trader who has a strong penchant for fighting and a great deal of pride.
The player playing Jin is also a big fan of fighting characters with a
lot of braggadocio and taunting who rely on luck. Perfect.
First manifestation: Serendipity Level 1 [15pts]
Second manifestation: Hard to Kill +2, Hard to
Subdue +2, Damage Resistance 1, Fearless +1 [15pts]
Third manifestation: Incredible Luck (every 1/2
hour of game time), Damage Resistance 2 [20pts]
Faithful
Callan is a Halfling ex-slave who went to
Baden's Bluff to free his wife and daughter. Callan's player loves
cooking, and tends to play characters who are excellent cooks. When he
chose "Faithful", which in the core rulebook means kind of religious,
he meant it as faithful to his family ties, that sort of thing. This
player hasn't been with us in a while, so I haven't had a lot of input on his
powers.
First manifestation: True Faith [15pts] -
representing not religious faith, but sort of like true love
Second manifestation: Regeneration (1 HT/hour)
for those who eat special food he prepares, and he can also now roll Cooking
and have it count as being under the care of a medical professional, restoring
1d-3 HT per day [30pts?]
Fey-blooded
Maeve is a half-Elf, which in the
setting is not something that is supposed to be possible, but her mother was an
Elf and her father an Erenlander. She was taken as a slave and was
liberated by the other PCs. I imagined this Heroic Path as her becoming
more and more Elf-ish.
First Manifestation: 15 Perfect Balance; 5
Illusion Disguise @12 [20pts]
Second Manifestation: 5 Dodge +1; 5 Move +1; 5
Night Vision +5; 5 Shape Plants @12 [30pts]
Shadow Walker
Kenneth is a rogue, sneaky and thief-like,
living off of what he can steal and dealing with horrible memories of what
happened to his family. He really found his niche, though, as someone who
stabs servants of the Shadow in the throat. I liked the idea that this
Path would have him kind of walking the line between hero and villain.
First manifestation: Chameleon +3 (modified:
functions through clothing, only functions near ambient shadow) [15pts]
Second manifestation: Blind Fighting 12, Dodge +1, Fearless +1 [21pts]
Third manifestation: Shadow Step @ 12, High Pain Threshold [15pts]
This Heroic Path introduces an idea that I
imported from GURPS 3rd Edition - the idea of magical Knacks. You can do
the same in 4th Edition with a lot more work, but basically my rule is that as
a 5pt Advantage, you can take a spell as a Knack, at either a skill level of 12
or IQ+Magery, whichever is higher. That's where he gets the Shadow Step
from. He also gets Blind Fighting without being Trained by a Master -
part of the Heroic Paths is that you get Advantages and Skills and so on that
you wouldn't normally be able to get, those included.
Spellsouled
Emre is a business-Gnome and an
accomplished smuggler at this point. He has a natural talent for
channeling, and can manipulate minds and emotions with ease, but what he really
wants is "elemental kill-you magic", so that's just what I give him
through his Heroic Path. What his Spellsouled path provides is access to
spells that no one in the current setting could teach him. He already has
Magery 3.
First manifestation: Ignite Fire, Create Fire and
Shape Fire at IQ+Magery [12pts]
Second manifestation: Purify Air, Create Air and
Shape Air at IQ+Magery; also the ability to spell-sing (lower cost, 10x longer
casting time) and Singing at HT+1 [14pts]
Third manifestation: Seek Earth, Shape Earth,
Earth Vision, Seek Water, Create Water, Icy Weapon all at IQ+Magery [24pts]
Sunderborn
Verrick is a bureaucrat, and has been
incredibly effective as such, shuffling around paperwork and records and
committing dozens of forgeries for the Resistance. He has also
successfully infiltrated the Order of Legates, and is posing as a Legate, doing
damage from the inside. For his Sunderborn Path, it took me a while, but
I eventually decided he would be manifesting powers of a Star
Archon.
First manifestation: Power Investiture +1,
Bravery and Sense Spirit at IQ+PI [18pts]
Second manifestation: Tongues [15pts]
Third manifestation: Haste, Minor Healing and
Levitation at IQ+PI [12pts]
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