Re: (TFT) Skill, knowledge, tricks and talents

[Michael Taylor <MichaelTaylor1@compuserve.com>]

Message text written by INTERNET:tft@brainiac.com
>
>>>>>>While I agree with most of your last post, I have to disagree just a
touch
>>>>>>with this line of reasoning. Sure, your character could have this
background
>>>>>>story, and the Thief talent, but they sure don't have to.

>>>>>>How about a character who takes the Thief talent, not because they're
a
>>>>>>criminal, but because they're a stage magician (this has happened,
you
>>>>>>know)? Yes, they can pick a pocket and a lock, but don't have the
>>>>>>underground knowledge. Instead, they have more knowledge about
creating
>>>>>>(non-magical) illusions, putting on a stage show, etc. than your
>>>>>>garden-variety thief would. They'd probably have some other Talents
to help
>>>>>>their story along.

Yeah! That's it! That's EXACTLY what I mean! As a GM, your character having
the Theif talent means that you get to roll less dice on any saving rolls
that are appropriate to your background! Whatever your background is.

Theif talent can mean your a computer hacker, a 2nd story man, an espionage
agent. Whatever the character wants. For the GM its just a rough guideline
how to give the player an appropriate bonus. 

But definitely, roleplaying wins out! Whatever the player says goes. The
mechanics are just the 'props' for the story. 

So as a player Theif talent means whatever you want it to mean in
relationship to that specific characters history. 


>>>>>>That is one of the things that I like about TFT. That is that I don't
think
>>>>>>that their are specific bits of baggage or history that MUST go with
the
>>>>>>knowledge. If it's reasonable (and sometimes unreasonable) for a
character
>>>>>>to have some talent, then they have the talent.
>>>>>>I'm just trying to point out that there are many ways in which a
character
>>>>>>may have some particular skill.
Neil Gilmore<

No, I didn't mean that EVERY Theif has THOSE specific bits of baggage. I
meant that ANY talent can mean WHATEVER baggage the player wants to come up
with. If he can make it work --- without crossing too far into another
talent - the GM should allow it. 

Atlas Games "Over The Edge" took the concept even further. Every character
had 5 Talents which were COMPLETELY definied by the player. It was pretty
interestng but a little *too* open-ended. It wound up with characters that
were kind of extreme and unbalanced. 

Michael 
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"