In the course of their perilous lives, our heroes will need replacement gear, new armor, healing herbs, new skills, magic elixirs, wagons, war horses, hired thugs, bribe funds, beach huts and court fi nery to survive and thrive. CROWN and SKULL uses hero points for players to buy items and upgrade their characters.
You’ll be using hero points to create, and later grow, your character. The GM will award hero points after each session, granting more for ‘session mvp’ or other momentous elements of play. In CROWN and SKULL, this replaces the heaping of treasure. As such, you’ll be looking for a chance to spend these gathered points on new skills, spells, improved equipment, or even an animal companion. There is, however, a key limitation to your spending opportunities:
HERO POINTS CAN ONLY BE SPENT TO UPGRADE A CHARACTER WHEN RESTING IN A SAFE PLACE WITH REQUIRED FACILITIES OR SERVICES
At first, this limitation may not seem like much. Resting to regain resources is very common in many RPGs. Simple restoration occurs by the rules as seen previously. Spending hero points is a different matter, requiring rest, safety, skilled people, special equipment, training, or technical services to perform. In short, spending hero points is not just rest… it’s an active state of character development with more specifi c requirements than rest and safety.
- Upgrading or creating new armor may require a forge, anvil, or capable blacksmith.
- Improving a falconry skill requires meeting with a local expert.
- Upgrading a magic skill might be achieved by reading from ageold tablets or dusty tomes.
This limitation, combined with a life of travel and danger, should make the spending of hero points a milestone moment for any character. “Is that? Can it be? A TOWN? Gods above, let’s go! I’ve been sitting on a dozen points for ages!”