Re: (TFT) long talent/skill lists

[PvK <pvk@oz.net>]

--- raito@raito.com wrote:

>>So, how do I create, for
>> example, a capable character in terms of skills, who isn't terribly smart?
>
>You don't. I really haven't found those people in nature, either.

I think one _does_ find people with various Talents that don't have 
"high IQ" for other purposes, though I suppose it depends on how you
define talents. If you say everyone has general competence in expected
areas that aren't Talents, then that's something else. But if you are
going to require several points of IQ just not not be incompetent in
various skills, and then make people "run out" of IQ points and be unable
to learn something compared to someone else, because they know how to 
climb and swim and so somehow can't fit another talent in their brain,
but someone like them who didn't ever learn swimming might have more 
room, well that seems entirely incorrect to me.

>> Most of these are numbers details, where it's specified exactly how good
>> the character is at different skills, or different aspects of the same
>> weapon (e.g. knife, knife throwing, fast-draw knife being three skills) or
>> aspects of a range of abilities that would just be one "has it or not"
>> Talent in TFT (e.g. one healer has not just "Physicker" but different
>> levels in First Aid, Physician, Physiology, Diagnosis, Poisions, Surgery).
>
>And does that actually add to the gameplay itself, or just to the
>complexity? It is true that TFT tends to aggregate smaller skills (as you
>mention with Physicker) together. It's a different level of abstraction.

Since it's a character I was playing for years, it added to record-keeping,
but it was spread out over years so it didn't add much to complexity, it
seems to me. In a sense, it helped, because the story was complex, and 
the skill system gave a way to record what had happened in an organized
way and have it make sense.

It definitely added to the gameplay, in that practically all of the skills
were relevant and used at some point or another, and were at the levels they
were at because of a consistent system that seems to make sense. It's not 
like D&D or Palladium where "Ah, you are a 13th Level Druid/Bard, so you
now get a Roundhouse Kick attack and you take 10% less damage when you fall
from 50' or higher, and you have 20' infravision". No, it's that this PC had 
to learn to fight with a broadsword because he trained with it (and in various
other skills also on the sheet) for several specific months of game time with 
certain mentors. And he has Hiking skill at a certain level because he's
spent the better part of six years hiking around. He has cooking skill 
because he's had to cook in rotation with his comrades, and people make fun
of each others' cooking, so he paid attention to it, and the regular checks
on people's specific cooking skills as they slowly got better over the years
was material for recurring comedy. If he hadn't specifically trained in fast
drawing knives, and entire prison/capture encounter would have gone entirely
differently than it did, because I was able to kill the honcho interrogating
me before he could react because he didn't realize I had conceal throwing
knives in my boots. I also have Griffon Riding at a specific level from a
very unique adventure where that was needed. The various knowledge and 
social skills were all used, and it was important just what levels they 
were at because it determined who we were able to fit in with, what we knew
or didn't know, where we stood out or could blend in, when we embarrassed
ourselves, etc. etc. etc. If I had to spend limited IQ points to be able to 
record each ability, I'd have run out long ago.

Of course, in TFT, you can and do just use "GM discretion" and player memory 
and inventiveness instead of actual point systems. It's just a different 
approach, and an overly-literal or inexperienced GM in either system can
have problems with either system.

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