Typing up these posts has already helped clean up several things with my draft. We’ll see if that continues as we get into the meat and potatoes of character creation, the Edges. I’ll go through each of them one by one and talk about them a little.
Black Hat: You exude intimidation. Gain Talk as a bonus skill. Enemies have a -1 Morale penalty in your presence. Once per scene as a Main action you can force a target who can see and hear you to make a Morale check. Even creatures normally immune to Morale, like the undead, must make Morale checks in your presence. You cannot choose the Grey Hat or White Hat Edges.
We start with a brand new Edge. I wanted a “Hat” series of Edges thanks to the genre conventions of a western. And while Grey and White Hat modify existing Edges, the Black Hat is brand new. I’m not aware of any other Without Number features that mess with Morale checks, so there’s nothing to really base it off of. Morale is one of those things that the GM has to remember, so I think it gets overlooked. A failed Morale check usually means they run away, so Black Hat offers an original playstyle option of making people piss themselves. I also like the fact that they can be so intimidating that a zombie or whatever would crumble before them.
Crowd Pleaser: You work best in front of a crowd. Gain both levels of the Entertainer focus. Gain a +1 to your Charisma modifier (max +2). When you use the Entertainer bonus, you can use Perform in place of any other skill for skill checks or combat.
This is another new one, and a bit of an odd duck. I’m not sure it actually works. The Entertainer foci grants a +1/2/3 bonus to all rolls, depending how many non-participants are observing you. Crowd Pleaser takes it up a notch. The idea is talking is doing things like acting on stage, giving a stump speech, a wrestling match, a duel in public, that sort of thing. But it likely is too powerful in the situations it applies too, and not powerful enough otherwise, though the +1 to Charisma mod is a strong bonus regardless.
Danger Sense: You instinctively know when trouble is near. Gain a +1 to your Wisdom modifier (max +2) and Notice as a bonus skill. You cannot be surprised, and always go first in combat if you wish. Once per day, if you fail a save from a trap or other unexpected hazard, you can succeed instead.
This is essentially the Alert foci with a few extras. The goal is to avoid getting into danger, rather than avoiding danger once it’s happening. It’s defensive and not as active as I would like, but puts you in good positions.
Expert Learner: You have a specialized focus of study. Choose a non-combat skill. That skill is always the maximum rank for your level. Any skill points in it when you take this Edge are refunded and can be put into any non-combat skill.
The Expert ability that gives an extra skill point is one that is pretty weak in general. Making it an Edge with no changes really shows that it doesn’t measure up to other options. This is my attempt to fix that. It ensures that your favorite skill is always max ranked, and would probably be pretty powerful with something like Craft or another Edge that gives Effort based on a skill.
Focused: Gain a bonus Focus pick and two skill points. You may choose this Edge more than once.
The “choose an extra focus” Edge is probably the weakest Edge pick in the base books, but I can see why someone might want it for certain character ideas. I gave it a little boost. It’s still a weak option, but there if someone is trying to do something specific.
Forged in Fire: You are a mostly normal person, at least at first. This Edge can only be taken during creation and you can have no other Edges during creation. Instead, you gain an Edge pick when reaching 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level. This should reflect something you have done or learned about your character during play, so the GM may not allow all Edges, but can allow Class Edges. You still gain a bonus Edge of your pick at level 5.
This is essentially unchanged. One of the more fascinating Edge options out there.
Ghost: You are unnaturally elusive. Gain a +1 to your Dexterity modifier (max +2). You can use the Fighting Withdrawal action as an On Turn action instead of a Main action. Once per scene, you can reroll a failed Sneak check related to being stealthy. Once per day as a Move action, you can move up to 30ft without anyone seeing you move. You can do this twice at level 4 and three times at level 8.
This one is also mostly unchanged from the base books. My only change is to let it do it’s signature more often as you level. In conjunction with the Dex bonus and the other things it does, it seemed too strong to allow the “teleport” three times at the beginning, but I like things to have a little progression.
Grey Hat: You are an inconspicuous presence. Your Charisma modifier is set to 0, regardless of your stat, and cannot be changed. You are never directly attacked in combat if there is someone else to fight unless you are immediately threatening. NPC’s must make a Mental save to remember any interactions with you older than an hour, and even if they succeed they only remember you in vague terms. If in a group of 6 or more people, no one will notice any specifics about you unless you draw attention to yourself. You cannot take the Black Hat or White Hat Edges
The second Hat Edge, this is essentially the Faceless Edge from Ashes. The Grey Man name of the associated foci is what inspired the Hat Edges idea in the first place. I love the idea of setting a stat to 0 regardless of anything else; it’s so unique. As for the abilities, it might be too powerful in the hands of an assassin-type, but it has drawbacks as well. It’s an Edge that the GM needs to think about. What is “immediately threatening,” what draws attention, things like that. I don’t generally have an issue with that, but some GM’s need a clear cut list of rules on things like that.