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After a pretty abstract first article/manifesto (Narrative Materialism), let’s actually write about some tabletop ideas and mechanics for my current preferred system, Pathfinder 2e!
This is still something I’m testing with my players and reflecting upon, but it’s also very flexible and easy for anyone to adapt. In general, I’m in favour of the idea of “failing forward” for action and roleplay (failure still moves stuff forward), as well as allowing the players to participate in the worldbuilding in small ways, so a lot of these ideas reflect that.
I might come back to this and add more of these options, there’s a lot of room for more.
These rules are available as a PDF at this link.
The follow-up article [PF2e] Fate Variant Rule contains an additional variant rule as well as an updated PDF.
Hero Points are a great and simple system which can easily be tweaked and expanded upon, as is already the case at many homebrewer's tables.
The original rules for Hero Points can be found in the Core Rulebook (2.0) on pg. 467, and on the Archives of Nethys.
Described here are a few new options you can use at your table.
Gaining Hero Points
Knowing when a PC is supposed to earn a Hero Point is always difficult and will depend on the group, but here’s a few ideas to encourage players.
Awesome Moments
As explained in the Core Rulebook (2.0) on pg. 507 and on the Archives of Nethys, look for moments when everybody at the table celebrates or sits back in awe of a particular action or dice roll; that's your cue to issue that character a Hero Point.
Accomplishments
As explained in the Core Rulebook (2.0) on pg. 507 and on the Archives of Nethys, moderate and major accomplishments are good moments to award Hero Points.
Belief, Flaw & Goal
Try to help each player establish a strong belief, a flaw, and one long-term goal. Each of those should be written on their character sheet and kept in mind.
Whenever a character expresses or follows their belief in a meaningful way, they gain a Hero Point.
Whenever a character voluntarily makes a decision or acts based on their flaw, in a way that has negative consequences for them or the group, they gain a Hero Point.
Whenever a character makes meaningful progress on their goal, they gain a Hero Point.
While the GM will be aware of those, it's up to each player to declare when they have expressed either their Belief, Flaw or Goal and to explain how. If someone feels a given explanation is cheap or inconsistent, don't scrutinize, rather make it an open question to be answered honestly by all players as a way to explore their characters and the relationships between them.
Take Me Instead!
You can give the players access to this uncommon Reaction which rewards the player with a Hero Point.
Spending Hero Points
You can give the players access to these various uncommon actions and activities which let them spend their Hero Points in interesting ways.
Thank you to a few users on the pathfinder subreddit and elsewhere for a lot of neat ideas about Hero Points that I drew some inspiration from, and huge thanks to Kyle Pulver, maker of the amazing pf2 tools such as template.pf2.tools, this was a lot of fun to make thanks to that template tool!
What are your thoughts on these options and do you have your own homebrew ways of gaining/spending Hero Points?
These rules are available as a PDF at
this mediafire link
The follow-up article
[PF2e] Fate Variant Rule
contains an additional variant rule as well as an updated PDF.