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In connection with another post regarding characters ending up too small - Short build is by far the biggest problem with creating a character of a ‘reasonable’ height. The other day I tried to roll up a badger with full human looks, and there was no way I could create a character that had a chance of passing as human. By taking ALL the vestigial traits available to me and paying 40 Bio-E for full human features, I can get to size level 12, which gives me a height of 4-5 ft (and by the way, makes me massively overweight at 256-300 lb; plus it leaves me with no Bio-E at all to spend on powers, psionics etc.). While there are plenty of short humans around in modern times, I would think that unusual shortness in the time of after the bomb would be a definite implication of being a mutant (even if untrue), and would cast suspicion on the character. And once suspicion is cast, it is only a matter of time before he is found out.

So, as I believe others have done in the past, I propose a Bio-E cost for changing build. As it is really only a cosmetic change, whose main benefit is looking more human, I don’t think the cost should be too high. So I propose two options:

1. As with size levels, the character can spend 5 Bio-E points to move one step up the build table, i.e. it costs 5 Bio-E to move from short to medium, 5 Bio-E to move from medium to long, and 10 Bio-E to go from short all the way to long. In addition, the character can gain Bio-E from moving a step down the ladder, so a character with long build can gain 5 extra Bio-E for moving down to medium or 10 for moving to short, and a medium build character can gain 5 Bio-E for taking short build.

However, the problem I have with that is that characters lucky enough to begin with long build get an easy extra 5 Bio-E for moving down to medium, without actually incurring any disadvantages (if anything, medium build could be seen as ‘better’ than long build in some ways, most notably in human appearance).

2. So my second proposal is that a character has to pay 5 Bio-E for each change in build, regardless of the direction they go, so a short build character can pay 5 Bio-E for medium build or 10 Bio-E for long, a long build character can pay 5 Bio-E for medium or 10 Bio-E for short, and a medium build character can pay 5 Bio-E for moving either up or down to become short or long build.

So which option do you think is better? Or does anyone have a third or fourth option? Or do you think the build system should remain unchanged?

An alternative that I and others have used in the past is to use long build for everyone.

Why long build? If you want to scrap the build system, far enough that's up to you, but why isn't everyone medium? Seems a bit weird that in your ATB world everyone is tall and thin.

G wrote:An alternative that I and others have used in the past is to use long build for everyone.

I have to wonder about that myself, Medium build would seem to be the one to go with if you settled on any of the three and tossed out the other two. I know it's the build I replace Short with.

Because everyone is always too short.

Well I ran a game awhile back it was heroes unlimited, one of the players decided to play a mutant racoon. Looking back on it I should have suggested he play a human sized character. It caused some problems and changed the way I wanted the game to go. Now if you are asking purely cosmetic, within reason I see no problem with allowing a player a foot in height.

So most of the replies seem to be centred around simply letting the players pick a build or adding to their height regardless of Bio-E.

But does anyone have any feedback regarding my options for using Bio-E to change the default build of a charatcer? Which idea works better? or are they both dumb?

Of the two, the option where you gain or loose bio-e is better.

Technically you may well be better off to spend the bio-e to become a larger size, which negates the point of having the rule.

I can't see either getting a lot of use, its hard to convince people to use house rules or adopt one - and there are a very small number of people who are currently playing ATB.

My alternative was that everyone is always long.

The short build is for animals that are supposed to be short. People forget the TMNT were short. 5 foot or so. In the 'stats' in TMNT and other strangeness they made them between 5 and 5'5" but they were supposed to be short. Badgers are short and squat creatures. Wide and powerful. If you want something tall, you might be looking at the wrong creature.

That being said, I give a bonus of 10-30 bio-e to players so they can make "intresting" characters.

If you're going to size level 12 though, you might be shooting for big huge Arnold type guys that are also mutants. Might wanna start with a grizzly bear instead of a creature that's like 6 inches tall. lol