Houseruling the Runner's Companion, Tweaking advanced character options. Options

[HappyDaze]

OK, after much complaining about Runner's Companion, I've decided to show some of my personal tweaks. I'll start with a Quality that seems to come up as a point of irritation to all of my players when looking at advanced character options - Distinctive Style.

I like Distinctive Style, really. But, as written I think it's a little off both mechanically and in the all-or-nothing treatment given towards advanced character types. Here's my very minor tweak to make it work better for my game, and I figured I'd drop it here for the usual reason - to get insulted for not following RAW to offer it up for those that might like to try it.

Distinctive Style
Bonus: 5 to 15 BP
A character that takes this negative quality possesses at least one distinctive physical feature or unique mannerism (note that what qualifies as a Distinctive Style may vary from group to group; see the What is a Distinctive Style? Sidebar, p. 104). The quality may represent a unique look, a peculiar fashion sense, a trans- or non-metahuman modification, a unique speech pattern -- anything that makes the character inconveniently attention-grabbing and memorable.

Whatever type of flair the character selects, it must enable other individuals to easily remember him. Any individual who attempts to identify, trace or gain information about him via Legwork receives a +2 dice pool modifier on all tests made during such attempts. The modifier does not apply to astral or Matrix searches. This quality may be taken multiple times by characters that possess multiple distinctive features, with cumulative modifiers. However, the maximum cumulative modifier is +6 dice.

Many of the advanced character options in this book include Distinctive Style. Such characters do not get a BP bonus for any rating of Distinctive Style inherent to the character's type, but may elect to increase the rating (up to the maximum modifier of +6 dice) for the usual BP bonus.

It's a minor change, but it feels better to me than the original. Next I'll be playing with some of the advanced character options, starting with the metavariants.