Update on "Trading In" House Rule

DF Whiterock uses a house rule for character advancement: you can "trade in" points spent in advantages or secondary attributes or skills when buying bigger attributes or advantages that in some sense include the previous attributes, as long as nothing gets worse.  It's a "zero-to-hero" game where I gave starting PCs fewer than normal points for a DF or DFRPG game, so this makes raising attributes to heroic levels during play more attainable, without running the risk of keeping lots of character points unspent rather than helping the character survive Right Now.

As an example, a PC can spend 2 points to buy +1 HP.  Then later they can spend 3 points for +1 Lifting ST.  Then still later they can spent 5 points, plus cash in the HP and the Lifting ST, for +1 ST (costs 10 points).

For another example, a PC with 4 points each in 5 DX-based skills can take 2 points out of each of those skills, plus spend 10 points, to get +1 to DX (which costs 20 points.)  Those skills end up at the same level.  (Minor technical nitpick: you can argue that those skills didn't get worse when based on DX, but they did get worse when shifted to another attribute, so maybe I shouldn't allow this since some aspect of the PC did get a tiny bit worse when they moved points from skills to attribute.  I think that's a reasonable objection, but I allow it anyway, because it's so minor.  It's like letting a PC get away with not defining one of his quirks until the third session.)

As a counterexample, I would not let a PC trade Fit (5 points, +1 to HT rolls and also double FP recovery) plus 5 points for +1 HT.  Because that would lose the double FP recovery, which is significant.

I've used this rule in two campaigns, with both new and experienced players.  The experienced players use it more, because they plan their character advancement more and know the rules better.  But I don't think it's abusive.  I don't think it's hurt anything.  It just makes the improvement curve a bit smoother, since the PC raises DX skills for a few sessions before buying DX, or raises spells a bit before buying Magery, or gets the Basic Speed the session before the full point of DX or HT.  And it encourages players to spend points a bit sooner, since that doesn't cost them the chance of a bigger win, which helps them survive.

Most house rules are designed to stop players from running roughshod over their enemies, so this is one of the few that works in the players' favor (but only a little bit), which makes it popular. 

I think I'll continue allowing this in future games.