The Spock/Herminone Problem

[subplotkudzu]

 No, not slash fic. 

I'm absently noodling on ideas for the potential Potter game (remember fans, prospectus deadline is Thursday!), and I'm wondering how to stat out Hermione. She, like Spock before her, is just too good at everything in comparison to the other characters. She's smarter and better read than either of them (and most Ravenclaws!), better at magic in a casual casting and just as good if not better than Ron in magic in combat.  She's just as brave and steadfast as Ron (if not more so), and based on her boundless desire to do well and exceed the school's expectations does not lack for ambition - clearly she has more ambition than Ron as well. Finally, she's no less socially adept than her partners in adventure, in part because none of them are overly socially adept. 

She does have some weaknesses - she's muggle born, and unattractive thanks to her teeth and hair in the first few books. And she can come across as an insufferable know it all. But that's no worse than Ron's relative poverty and lack of confidence compared to his brothers, or Harry's eleventy-skillion ranks in the "enemy" disadvantage. We have no idea how good she is at Quidditch, but she isn't inept on a broom.

In short, she, like Spock (and too an extent Data) look like the PCs built by the players who had read the rulebook with an eye for point breaks - insanely good at key skills, not bad at anything that matters. I want my players to be able to build characters that can mirror the books' heroes if they choose, but the little red headed muggle is giving me grief.

Comments

[mamasays01.livejournal.com]

Make her strictly an NPC and off-limits for player use. She's usually the one with the clues so why not make her the clue-dropper or even the Muggle-ex-Machina if the players get really stuck somewhere.

Or you could give her an encumberance disadvantage from the sheer number of books she carries.

[mneme]

It's characters like Hermione (and Data, and Spock, and Morollan) that attract me to systems like Dogs in the Vineyard, PTA, and even OTE -- where what balance is in the game isn't in the characters' power level, but in the narrative control they give over the game. Hermione isn't balanced by her power level, but by the fact that her abilities don't actually cause her to have much more of an effect on the story than any of the other major characters -- and less than Harry does.

Taking devil's advocate for a moment, however -- Hermione is the best of the PCs academically, has the most flexible magic. Harry is better at Dark Arts, and is a huge plot magnet (luck? destiny? something like that), as well as starting with a substantial Fame advantage, along with his big enemy disad. By contrast, Ron is personally weaker -- he's a mediocre magician and academian, and while he eventually gains reasonable skills, he never gets a serious specialty like Harry and Neville, much less gain magical equality with Hermione in any real manner. However, Hermione and even Harry don't have the kind of personal connections that Ron have -- which is significant on a multitude of levels; while Harry is an orphan with a hostile foster family, and Hermione's muggle family is irrelevant, Ron's family helps him and his friends in a multitude of ways -- from providing allies in school to transportation, shelter, and even allies against the Ministry when things go south. Ron's chess ability may be all but forgotten after the first book, and his greater presence in several books may have much more to do with his relationship to Harry than any in-game ability, but his family is a huge asset.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Trying to stat Hermione is a lot like trying to stat Wesley, hint hint.

Putting it in the kindest possible terms, she's a DMPC.

[corylus-unbound.livejournal.com]

I'd keep her as a npc myself but if you were to go ahead and use her perhaps she should have some fatal flaw to compensate for her overall brilliance?