Niche Protection

In many genres of roleplaying, it's important to protect players' niches so that they can feel like their character is the best at something. I've come up with the following rule to provide niche protection in Wushu:

Each player defines their character's niche and the group discusses each of the niches and comes to agreement. In any game session in which that player is present, no other character gets full effectiveness of their abilities in that niche, instead rolling against a target number of 2, as if they had no skill at all.

This system allows characters to be the best at their niche, while not hamstringing the other characters when they don't show up.

Example

Bob is the GM for his three buddies, who are playing a supers game using Wushu. His three buddies are Bruce, Clark, and Barry.

Bruce plays a detective type whose niche is "Detective."

Barry plays a super-speedster whose niche is "Superspeed."

Clark plays an overall superior character who is good at everything and is the most powerful ever. His niche is "Idolized."

One week, Bruce can't make it. Barry and Clark's characters foil a bank heist, but the robots that were trying to rob the bank evaporate. Barry uses his Police Scientist 4 to figure out where the robots must have come from.

The next week, everyone is able to make it to the session. They have tracked the robots back to the factory and they defeat more robots. While Bruce is fighting a villain, Barry decides to search the factory at superspeed for clues using his Police Scientist 4. The GM tells him that each die will only succeed on a 1 or 2 since Bruce is here.

NicheProtection

Niche Protection

Example