"Choose your own stuff" proposal

[Don Frew]

Most adventurers embarking on a Campaign would choose their own items to take with them.  If we can choose Heroes appropriate to the tasks of a Campaign, why not Assets and Spells?

 

Before the start of a Campaign, each Hero can pick their own starting Assets/Spells from an approved list of Assets/Spells …
1)    that aren’t unique to a particular Campaign/scenario.
2)    that aren’t specific to another Hero (e.g. Conan’s Great Sword if you aren’t Conan).
3)    that won’t be part of the Asset decks in the scenarios of that Campaign or belong to the NPCs of that Campaign (e.g. Thaug uses the Spell Dagon's Attack in the Red Nails Campaign).
4)    that have a total Encumbrance + Casting Cost less than (for Warriors & Rogues) or up to (for Sorcerers) the lowest Encumbrance limit on their Hero Sheet.  (This is because Sorcerers tend to start with lower Encumbrance limits and the cost of Spells adds up quickly.)

 

The approved Assets/Spells also include those that the Campaign would assign to the Heroes, but otherwise no items with Enc 0.

 

Each Hero is usually able to start the campaign with one offensive Asset/Spell and one defensive Asset/Spell, and little more than that.  We've found that this reduces the frustration with being assigned items you don't really want, while not significantly affecting the balance of the game - at least no more so than being able to pick Heroes.  

 

What do you think?