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My group has been using the Hero Points optional rule for PF1e since they were introduced in the Advanced Player's Guide. We are about to embark on the Strange Aeons AP and we will still be using them. They will still work the same way and give the same bonuses for use with the same limitations and maximum point limits. However, overly heroic actions can easily lead to death in a horror-based campaign. To compensate for this, Hero Points will NOT be given out for heroic actions at all. Instead, they can be gained by the following actions, some of which require a Will save:
Going up an Experience Level: PCs get one each time they level up, as normal.
Witnessing a Victim of the Horror: Whenever a PC directly witnesses a victim (or the victim’s remains) who has fallen prey to the menace (the main threat of the adventure or one of their chief minions), the PC can make a DC 12 Will save. Success earns a Hero Point.
Gaining a Clue to the Horror’s Nature or Evidence of its Existence: Each successful research result gains the PCs involved a Hero Point.
Seeing the Menace: The first time they lay eyes on the menace, the PCs can make a DC 12 Will save to get a Hero Point.
Fleeing from the Menace: Each time a PC successfully escapes from a confrontation with the menace, they get a Hero Point.
Brooding: As soon as a PC gains a Hero Point from any of the above reasons, they can choose to brood about the horror. The PC can take no other actions for eight hours other than brooding. At the end of that time the PC gets a Hero Point.
There will be two new Feats to go along with this (along with the rather obvious ones already in the game enhancing perception and speed when running away):
Reflective: You tend to mull threats over in your mind in a moody, temperamental manner.
Benefit(s): You can brood over the nature of a menace for four hours and gain a Hero Point. The PC can take no other actions for during this time other than brooding.
Normal: It takes eight hours of brooding to gain a Hero Point.
Outright Sullen: You are the king of brooding.
Prerequisite(s): Reflective, Level 8
Benefit(s): When you finish brooding over a menace, you can attempt a DC 15 Will save. If successful, you receive 2 Hero Points instead of 1.
These rules were adapted from the optional Resolve point system of Chill 2nd Edition.
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Swamp Gaslighting: For every NPC you convince that it never happened so they can live a happy life, you get a point. This may involve psychotherapists, and or memory loss drugs.
Good Enough: Just containing the problem till the stars are right again is often the best plan, as is recording the methods you used in a fiction book. One point per person involved.