Some houserule systems have started replacing Attribute rolls for boons with rolls using an epic rating of the highest consecutive purview level, in order to facilitate a wider variety of character (IE, not all health Gods are stamina monkeys) Is this ever something you have considered, and what sort of advantages and disadvantages do you see for this ruling?
We have definitely considered it. In short, we dont like it. While Im answering this Im actually talking about this in the Fire and Ice post from what will now be 2 weeks in the past.
Pros:
Simplicity. Rolls are easier. You always know what your boon roll is.
PCs are better at things. If you buy a purview, you'll automatically be amazing at it.
PCs dont feel forced into some attributes that maybe they didnt prefer because they want one of their boons to work better
Cons:
Most of the cons are different variations on a theme.
Boring.
If every fire god is exactly the same level of good at all of their boons as every other fire god that also has all of those boons it gets real lame real quick. At that point the roll hardly has any meaning and should probably be removed. If we're dealing in the realm of 50 successes, and all that happens for the roll is we both roll 10 dice, and then we both add 46 successes.....that just sounds horrible.
I find it way more interesting to have gods using different powers, sometimes for reasons of "well Im better at this one and worse at that one".
We've also had interesting, sometimes unexpected character growth from characters getting attributes for boons they didnt think they'd like, or didnt think fit their character, but then added some growth. One character doesnt think they'd ever need charisma, or doesnt think itd fit their character. But then they buy some up to make fire work, and by the time they hit god, they find they're like a flame themselves, drawing others closer to them with the power of their charisma.
Im in no way saying that our way is perfect, Id actually like a bigger spread across boons and purviews of attributes and abilities. But we are of the very firm believe that using the boon as the epic for the boon is the wrong way to go for most purviews(hello mystery).
I havnt thought very seriously on it because its not something we'd do. But Im actually thinking that if you arent using attributes for boon rolls, it doesnt make any sense to have scaling successes on them at all. Just let all boons do things automatically based on the level of the boon. Yeah....the more I think about it, the more Im not sure scaling epics based on level of purview is the way to go at all. If the real goal is getting rid of attributes, Im muchmore in favor of getting rid of successes on the roll, or geting rid of the roll entirely.
