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

[Michael Taylor <MichaelTaylor1@compuserve.com>]

Message text written by INTERNET:tft@brainiac.com
>>>>>>charging wizards more to learn some talents than warriors and
>>>>>>vice versa feels 'kludgy'.  

>>>>>>dichotomy of character classes without having it imposed in 
>>>>>>such a 'draconian' fashion.<

First, since these are subjective values. Only those who agree that the
current system 'feels' wrong can offer alternatives that might "feel"
right. 

I personally feel that the current system is elegant and rather than being
"draconian" it feels painlessly simple. 

But that said, remember that whatever "feeling" you accomplish with new
rules - they also have to be "good" rules. They must be balanced, they
should be simple, and they should work for the widest variaty of campaigns
possible. 

TFT is elegant because instead of trying to take micro-calipers to each
talent and measure them exactly the same, it takes a "common sense"
approach.

Knife and Literacy aren't *exactly* the same kind of talents with *exactly*
the same measure of learning time and information. 

Anymore than Alertness and Mathematics or Running and Theif are "equal". 

But they *do* pass the "squint" test. Logically they work together in the
game at their point values without having to be "exactly" the same and
taking exactly the same time to learn.

By the same token the ability to cast spells doesn't neatly fit into ANY
kind of Talent. It's ramifications (ie Game Balance) falls WAY outside the
line of talents. 

So while it may not 'feel' right, it doesn't necessary *have* to feel right
to be the best solution. 

Of course, I'm still intersted in hearing what people come up with, but I
didn't want anyone to forget the forest (game play value) for the trees
(are the points representing the exact nature of the talent?).

Michael 
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