Designer's Notebook: Complications Replacing Drawbacks
Drawbacks are a bit complex, and can be fairly subjective. When applied to the whole character in the previous edition of the rules, they tended to be simply seen as a way for players to squeeze a few more points out for characters. That wasn't the intent: they were meant to reward players who chose interesting limitations for their characters. Instead, it rewarded players up-front for problems that may never have arisen in-game. Complications instead reward a character only when problems cause setbacks for the character.
So the new edition focuses on this angle: by merging the old concepts of Complications and Drawbacks, we arrive at a more defined and functional outline for how groups can hand out Hero Dice while keeping character creation simpler. Players can choose how their characters are limited, and are rewarded when those limits become problematic for the characters. Especially big Complications are treated as being Common Complications, and do reward a character up-front for what is presumed to be a constant problem. A blind character, for example, deserves a Hero Point at the start of every session to compensate them for the difficulty of getting by without eyesight.
This gives players an incentive to create interesting, flawed characters while minimizing the ability to game the system and earn rewards for irrelevant complications.
JackelopeKing (talk) 16:39, January 8, 2012 (UTC)