i’ve played a couple of BE campaigns, and i distinctly remember the GM FONs having 2 more lifepaths than the PC FONs… in my burning i’ve failed to build FONs with that many LPs up on my PCs. is that gonna cause me problems in the long run? should i stick to this un-written rule, go back and add a couple LPs each?
in our High Index worldthe PCs FONs i’m facing off against include
a 7 LP First Speaker of the Circle of 10,000
an 8 LP Anivl Captain
a 9 LP Chief Executive of a Merchant League
(we also have a 4th player - a 6 LP Hammer Lord)
my GM NPCs include
a 7 LP Circle of 10K Justicar
an 8 LP Forged Lord (Vaylen Captain/Commander)
a 9 LP Physicist turned Criminal Genius
and my ‘extra’ NPC is a 8 LP Lord Steward
We’re dealing with the same sort of thing for our game-in-the-works. On the same page Luke mentions, it’s an option, not a requirement, to have two more LPs. If you don’t want to mess with the LPs, you can also raise the exponent cap by one to give them a bit of an edge on some key skills.
In the game I last GMed, my Vaylen-side FoNs had 5, 8, & 9 LPs. The 5 LP guy (only 5 because age was a crucial piece of his concept) was at a disadvantage in terms of broad experience, but with the extra exponent, he was a social monster - using several key skills like Persuasion and Propaganda to very powerful effect, including breaking a FoN PC’s Belief and turning him into a friend, and chipping away at his brother’s (another FoN PC) rock-solid, very-public reputation. Everyone was so busy with the fallout, revenge, and changing their goals, no one noticed that he had fewer LPs then all of them. It’s all in how you use what you’ve got.
I’ve found (especially playing against YOU) that I need to stiffen the competition. It’s too easy for the players to gang up on one FoN at a time and take them out. A LP boost helps mitigate some of that.
