Re: (TFT) House Rules?

[Matthew Skipper <tywyll@yahoo.com>]

Hey!
It's in Googlegroups, just search for TFT-JME.  There's some interesting stuff
up there, especially the breakdown of spell casting by Talents.  Essentially,
he dispenses with the idea of Hero or Wizard figures.  If you want to learn
spells, you need to learn a talent that gives you access to them.  He has
Apprentice, Mage, Hermetic (for the traditional generalist route that can
learn anything), Shaman, Diabolist, Fae, Bard, and Druid (if I recall).  There
are a ton of new spells and talents.  He's done some extensive modding of the
TFT rules.  Not all of it is stuff I'd adopt, but there is lots of good stuff
in there.
As to helping set up the distinctions, here are some ideas:Favored Element: +2
Dex to cast, all spells cost 1 less fatigue to cast (or maybe reduce the cost
on a sliding scale... for every 2 higher your IQ is, reduce the cost by 1, to
a minimum of 1 or something... just talking off the cuff here).Neutral
Elements: 0 Dex mod, spells cost normalOpposing Element: -2 Dex to cast, all
spells cost 1 additional fatigue to cast (or maybe double?)
You might consider a Talent that allows you to dual specialize, meaning you
would have two favored and two opposed (no specializing in your opposed
element!) with no Neutral Elements.  

Cheers,Matthew
--- On Mon, 1/11/10, Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

From: Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: (TFT) House Rules?
To: tft@brainiac.com
Date: Monday, 1 November, 2010, 21:56

On Nov 1, 2010, at 4:10 PM, Matthew Skipper wrote:

> That sounds like a pretty cool idea!  I've never been that fond of magic
that
> is completely devoid of flavor, which I feel overly generalist magic
typically
> is (magic can do EVERYTHING!!!).  It also allows for different character
types
> and builds.  Have you seen the TFT-JME yahoo group's spell groups
breakdown?
> There are some interesting ideas in there I think.

I don't think so - where can I find it?

> I might see about trying something along what you are proposing.  Though I
> agree that determining the 'balance' mechanic is where the difficulty lies.
> You might want to consider having some generic spells (detect magic) that
all
> the elements can use.

That was in the plan. Staff, Detect Magic (as you mention), Aid, probably
several more. I hate to make Light a non-generic spell since we use it so much
in our campaigns, but it really seems like it should belong in the Fire
specialty, so...


On Nov 1, 2010, at 4:18 PM, raito@raito.com wrote:

> For one limited campaign, I did something similar, though I used an oriental
5 element system.
> I didn't especially limit the wizards to only spells in their own element.
Rather, the prerequisites were skewed pretty heavily towards specialization,
though it was fairly common for a wizard to have 2 elemental specialties, or a
major and a minor specialty. There were no inherent bonuses to specialization,
other than being able to get to more, and more powerful spells. About the only
sort of inherent bonus was for spells organized like Fire, where getting a
say, 7-hex version meant that the wizard had all the smaller versions.

The idea of being able to have multiple specialties is really cool, allowing
for more character customization, etc.. I'll have to see if I think of a way
to work it in...


>
> --- On Mon, 1/11/10, Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> From: Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: (TFT) House Rules?
> To: tft@brainiac.com
> Date: Monday, 1 November, 2010, 20:59
>
> I've been thinking about doing something similar, but with magic and based
on
> the four classical elements. The idea is that a wizard character can decide
to
> specialize in one particular element. Then, spells related to that element
are
> easier either to learn or to use, and he also gets to learn spells unique
to
> that element. So a wizard specializing in Fire might be able to cast the
Fire
> spell at no ST cost, or learn it at IQ 8 instead of 9, or get a DX bonus
when
> casting it, or some combination of those (Right now I'm in favor of the DX
> bonus idea, but something else might occur to me later...). Ty's site had
some
> ideas for elemental spells, which I'll probably use.
>
> The system would, obviously, have to be balanced, which means that a
> specialist would have more trouble casting spells outside their specialty
than
> a non-specialized wizard would have with those same spells. Hmm...
>
> On Nov 1, 2010, at 8:15 AM, Matthew Skipper wrote:
>
>> But they are written with the 'feel' of Medieval Christianity and praying
> for
>> miracles whose effects are minor and typically invisible rather than the
> idea
>> of a high fantasy world (or even a mythological one, say like Glorantha)
>> wherein the gods grant powers to their followers.
>>
>> As to making miracles a rule, its pretty simple, you base them off spells,
> but
>> you tailor the list to the gods in question.  A Fire/Sun god should
provide
>> different abilities from a Storm or Healing God.  You just need to create
a
>> spell/miracle list to fit the god and decide how to handle the talent that
>> gives access to such abilities.
>>
>> --- On Mon, 1/11/10, raito@raito.com <raito@raito.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: raito@raito.com <raito@raito.com>
>> Subject: Re: (TFT) House Rules?
>> To: tft@brainiac.com
>> Date: Monday, 1 November, 2010, 12:40
>>
>> I disagree. The Talents, as written, are pretty vague.
>> And I don't think that there's any good way to make miracles a rule.
>> Neil Gilmore
>> raito@raito.com
>>
>> Quoting Matthew Skipper <tywyll@yahoo.com>:
>>> It allows more divergence because the character types behave differently.
> A
>>> priest is a priest per the current tules, and their behavior is based on
>> fantasy
>>> 'Chrisrian ideology' more or less (i.e. Prayers create intangible
> benefits,
>>> reliance on faith, etc). If you want a world where priest perform
miracles
>> and those miracles are
>>> directly tied to the gods (so a war priest and a storm priest do
different
>>> things), then you have to jiggle the system somewhere. Further by
creating
>> those
>>> concepts and tying their benefits to mechanics you create more divergent
>>> characters because they are quantifiably different.
>> =====
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