History GameBreaker / HollowEarthExpedition

* Allies and Followers, two Resource types, are completely busted when it comes to experience points economy. A basic Ally costs 15 points[[note]]Or you even start with one if picking as a starter a Resource rather than a Talent, but that's rarely profitable, given variety of Talents can be only picked during character creation[[/note]], which might sound like a lot, but really isn't. By total stat and skill count, it's a character just slightly weaker to a starting PC and can easily cover all the bases the "real" characters lacks. However, what makes them busted is the fact Allies start with their own slot for a Resource. They can't have their own Allies, but they can have their own Followers: either one strong one (which is an Ally in all, but name, having identical point counts), or ''two'' weaker ones (for a total point count above a starting character). Followers don't even have to be human, which is a ''great'' thing, allowing to use the otherwise fixed Size stat. The end result? For 15 points, you can get a ScarilyCompetentTracker with a pair of {{Canine Companion}}s or a raptor-riding Amazon warrior or even something as outlandish as [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers an assistant professor and two students of his]], competently covering skills that cost 45 points and can easily defend their "master" by sheer numbers alone. ButWaitTheresMore An Ally can be upgraded for additional 15 points, and that in turn allows the Ally to gain improvement of the Followers. By then, it's 30 points that turn into 90. This process can be done up to ''five'' times, and the number of Followers can be increased each time, too, turning into a real crowd - and by 3rd rank, you can get additional Allies, too (with their Followers, of course), putting everything on its head. Since players have full control over how those characters are build or develop, it's MinMaxing galore, given Allies and Followers can fully embrace CripplingOverspecialization as [=NPCs=]. Literally the only thing preventing Allies with their own Followers from breaking the game in half is the fact they can die and the points invested into them are lost.

* Skill synergy is a weaponised MasterOfNone that snowballs into a MasterOfAll in zero time, particularly when it comes to the broad array of Academic and Science skills. As long as the related Stat is at 3, it only takes a single level of any given Skill to get Skill Rating of 4 and thus qualify for a synergy bonus. So rather than using the otherwise crap rating of 4 for the tested Skill[[note]]Barely enough to pass default difficulty tests[[/note]], up to ''+10'' bonus from synergy can be added, offering up to the staggering 14 for the final Skill Rating - that's equal with having 5 in related Stat, Skill and also 4 ranks of Specialisation. All while in reality, your character is barely qualified in all the piled-up skills when treated separately. When taken to the extreme, a starting character can cover ''22'' different skills, out of the list of 50. This is also the sort of character that's going to thrive on having the otherwise useless JackOfAllTrades Talent, as it ''negates'' the -2 penalty of the remaining 28 skills and ties perfectly with the enforced KnowNothingKnowItAll playstyle. The only possible downside is that you end up with having to play as a [[Film/TheLibrarian Librarian]] - as if that was a bad thing.

* ''Secrets of the Surface World'' expansion introduced a wide variety of guns and their accessories. Among them are scopes. They respectively double, quadruple and ''octuple''the effective range of any given weapon that can mount them. Not a big deal with shotguns and pistols, but rifles have effective range of 100 feet. Sure, it takes an aim action to use a scope (so decreasing attacks to every other round), but who cares, if you are outranging with the resulting SniperRifle whoever is on the other side by such ridiculous margain, you might as well take extra aiming actions to further improve the odds of hitting while doing so with complete impunity. It is so broken that most players either ignore scopes as range multipliers (giving a flat +1 to a weapon's stopping power) or simply re-stat the ranges they add. And yes, scopes are cumulative with the mentioned above Long Shot talent.

* In the basic ruleset, Instant Reload unique Talent fall squarely into CoolButInefficient territory, as there aren't too many weapons and mechanics to interact with it and thus making it a worthy choice to not have to use actions to reload. Come expansions and their expanded arsenal, along with other talents to interact with, or even the simple re-focus on the surface world affairs and Instant Reload can make designated gunslingers and ''artillerymen'' just as cool as you think operating with BottomlessMagazines is.

* Long Shot, a unique talent from the basic ruleset, doubles the effective range of ''any'' ranged weapon. It has immense utility by itself, but most importantly, it completely negates ShortRangeShotgun, in a game where the ''only'' weakness of [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter shotguns]] is their somewhat lacking range. The talent even covers bows and antique firearms, so pretty much any kind of non-throwing weapon allows you to outrange opponents or keep a safe distance from them.

* In the basic ruleset, Instant Reload unique talents fall squarely into CoolButInefficient territory, as there aren't too many weapons and mechanics to interact with it and thus making it a worthy choice to not have to use actions to reload. Come expansions and their expanded arsenal, along with other talents to interact with, or even the simple re-focus on the surface world affairs and Instant Reload can make designated gunslingers and ''artillerymen'' just as cool as you think operating with BottomlessMagazines is.

** And last, but not least, a custom-made set of tools, the most basic custom gear possible to make, offers additional Skill rating to a selected skill. It's either +2 to someone who already knows that skill, or offering a free ''+4'' to someone who doesn't have a single rank of a related skill. [[note]]This method avoids not only the -2 penalty for untrained rolls (effectively providing a '''+6''' bonus), but also allows the use of Specialised Skills that are normally completely barred... and being just another reason why JackOfAllTrades Talent is useless[[/note]]. Even the most trivial example provided, an Advanced Toolkit (Craft), allows one to operate as if being a highly-trained mechanic, or significantly help the actual mechanics with their work. Designing your own [[MagicTool sonic screwdriver]] or [[TranslatorMicrobes translation lenses]] was never easier, while highly affordable.

** And last, but not least, a custom-made set of tools, the most basic custom gear possible to make, offers additional Skill rating to a selected skill. It's either +2 to someone who already knows that skill, or offering a free ''+4'' to someone who doesn't have a single rank of a related skill. [[note]]This method avoids not only the -2 penalty for untrained rolls, but also allows the use of Specialised Skills that are normally completely barred... and being just another reason why JackOfAllTrades Talent is useless[[/note]]. Even the most trivial example provided, an Advanced Toolkit (Craft), allows one to operate as if being a highly-trained mechanic, or significantly help the actual mechanics with their work. Designing your own [[MagicTool sonic screwdriver]] or [[TranslatorMicrobes translation lenses]] was never easier, while highly affordable.

** And last, but not least, a custom-made set of tools, the most basic custom gear possible to make, offers additional Skill rating to selected skill. Result? Even the example provided, an Advanced Toolkit (Craft), offers +4 to Craft rolls, which is equal to being a highly-trained mechanic, applied ''separately'' to the Skill rating itself. Designing your own [[MagicTool sonic screwdriver]] or [[TranslatorMicrobes translation lenses]] was never easier, while highly affordable.

* Using weird science rules, it is entirely possible to design weapons dealing just silly amounts of damage or operating at absurd ranges, while balancing it with trivial to manage "flaws", like extra bulk. Or just applying to them some special effects that go well beyond simply killing someone or something.

** The Inferior Damage Flaw [[CursedWithAwesome isn't really a flaw]], providing free Enhancement points to any UtilityWeapon that's "non-lethal" and deal "no damage" just in theory. A reinforced bola launcher that's gonna stop a charging Triceratops? Check. A [[EnergyWeapon ray gun]] disabling vehicle engines? Check. An earthquake machine opening BottomlessPits in the ground? Check. Not only they are easier to make, since technically they have a serious Flaw, but it leaves plenty rooms for highly useful Enhancements, like a Touch Attack or [[ViolationOfCommonSense even Increased Damage]] (it's extra ''non''-lethal damage of a stun gun, after all).

* Using weird science rules, it is entirely possible to design weapons dealing just silly amounts of damage or operating at absurd ranges, while balancing it with trivial to manage "flaws", like extra bulk. A particular broken combination involves a gun with +4 Damage Enhancement, Balanced with -4 Capacity Flaw, when used by a character with [[NotCompletelyUseless Instant Reload]] Talent. Who cares if your HandCannon holds only a single shot, if you ''reload it for free'', effectively having no flaws at all, while making the gun dirty cheap to construct and not requiring any rolls to make it whatsoever.

* Using weird science rules, it is entirely possible to design weapons dealing just silly amounts of damage or operating at absurd ranges, while balancing it with trivial to manage "flaws", like extra bulk. A particular broken combination involves a gun with +4 Damage Enhancement, Balanced with -4 Capacity Flaw, when used by a character with [[NotCompletelyUseless Instant Reload]] Talent. Who cares if your OneHandedCannon holds only a single shot, if you ''reload it for free'', effectively having no flaws at all.

* Basic, "minor" Bless offers a +2 to ''all checks'' for the duration of the scene. Keep in mind that when using average values instead of actual rolls, every two points in any rating translate into a single, but guaranteed success. Thus nothing comes even remotely close to such buff and the temporal aspect of it is a complete joke as a counter-balance. If that wasn't enough, it's the lowest tier of the WhiteMagic spells, and when cast on oneself, it requires ''zero'' successes - and it only takes 2 to cast it on the whole party. Pretty much everyone house-rules this spell to offer a +1 bonus or taking lethal damage to cast (often ''both''), which still leaves it very powerful, but at least up to a chance during rolls and not as game-breakingly powerful as a free, automated success for the whole scene to all possible actions, free of any charge.
* Under Continuous Combat rules, Quick Strike Talent provides an option to attack 2-5 times per single round. With a good enough starting Initiative, at least one rank of this Talent and using attacks or weapons labelled as Fast, it is all but ''guaranteed'' to have action twice per singe round. Rising Quick Strike or boosting it with Style points, along with taking Quick Reflexes (+2 Initiative) Talent, and the Initiative rate will go so high, your character can move every other phase of combat. Quick Strike Talent allows you to attack 2-5 times per round under Continuous Combat rules. With a high enough Initiative, at least one rank of this Talent and using attacks or weapons labelled as Fast, it is all but ''guaranteed'' to have action twice per singe round. Rising Quick Strike or boosting it with Style points, along with taking Quick Reflexes (+2 Initiative) Talent, and the Initiative rate will go so high, your character can move every other phase of combat, outpacing everyone by a huge margin. And since each consecutive attack on the same target causes -2 Defense debuff, it will pile-up really fast, allowing to use the sheer speed against some MightyGlacier.

* Due to the way how Style points can be used to invoke CutscenePowerToTheMax and massively enhance various aspects of the character, the game requires a pretty competent GM, or else the meta-currency can be freely abused. Especially if players gear their characters from a get-go for easy (and dirty) way of pumping those point - a cocksure EgomaniacHunter is probably the simplest of such pumps, but it's also ''perfectly fine'' within the context of the game.

* Basic, "minor" Bless offers a +2 to ''all checks'' for the duration of the scene. Keep in mind that when using average values instead of actual rolls, every two points in any rating translate into a single, but guaranteed success. Thus nothing comes even remotely close to such buff and the temporal aspect of it is a complete joke as a counter-balance. If that wasn't enough, it's the lowest tier of the WhiteMagic spells, and when cast on oneself, it requires ''zero'' successes - and it only takes 2 to cast it on the whole party. Pretty much everyone house-rules this spell to offer a +1 bonus or taking lethal damage to cast (often ''both''), which still leaves it very powerful, but at least up to a chance during rolls and not as game-breakingly powerful as a free, automated success for the whole scene, free of any charge.