Heroic Characters in Whitehack

Atey Ghailan

After reading Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells, I'm coming away with lots of neat ideas for my games. There's a particularly neat bit on heroic* characters that can tackle obstacles that would normally take a full party of players. It's pretty minimal and is less work than applying something like Scarlet Heroes with its Fray dice and unique damage table. Perfect to steal and adapt for Whitehack!

*Heroic here has nothing to do with morals or inclinations; capability and potency are the focus!

Adapted from Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells

The normal WH rules tend to assume a group of characters. To make play more heroic and accommodate solo play, apply some or all of the following modifications as a template for player characters:

Character HP. Increase player HP by adding their HD for level 1 to their current HD.

E.g. a level 3 Strong has 4+2 HD, not 3 HD.

Enemy HP. Monsters and enemies will have HP equal to their HD. More important or skilled enemies will have 2-3 HP per HD. Bosses and other powerful foes roll normally for their HP (or may have max HP at the Referee's discretion).

E.g. the 1 HD street toughs have 1 HP each. The 3 HD big bruiser probably has 6 HP. Their leader is a noted foe of our hero and would be a Boss with 5 HD.

Enemy Damage. Most enemies can only inflict an amount of damage to characters up to their HD. Bosses and other powerful foes inflict their damage normally and may be subject to damage bonuses.

E,g, the 1 HD street toughs can't do more than 1 damage on a hit (even a crit). The 3 HD bruiser can smack for 3 damage at most.

Combat. Things are more abstract with blows being throw out everywhere. Characters may divide the damage they inflict amongst any enemies with HD equal to or lower than their level, as long as they are within the range of their attacks or powers. Yes, this makes Strong characters monstrous.

E.g. smacking a thug for 5 damage, our hero could drop the other four 1 HD goons piling on!

Tokens. Characters always begin each adventure with a number of Tokens equal to their level. Additional Tokens can be earned by performing daring actions and diving into situations that are dramatically appropriate to the genre of play. 

These Tokens can be used by characters to: 

• Perform an extra action of any type (attack, average move, or small action) at any point in the initiative order.
• Forfeit all actions in a round to regain 1d6 HP.
• Use luck and circumstance to gain a double positive roll for a task roll or attack.
• Before the consequences are clear, re-roll any die roll just made.
• Refresh a slot that's been used up.

Other creative uses for Tokens are encouraged! Work together to figure out what type of uses fit your style of game.

Defy Death. Unless facing a Boss or some suitable climactic danger, heroes who go below zero hit points usually suffer defeat instead of death. They can be treated as unconscious with 0 hit points. Whatever they were trying to accomplish is lost, however!

If you don't want to go full hero mode and just want to up the pulp adventure vibe, only use the rules for Tokens and have characters always begin an adventure with 1 Token.