Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#46): Eidetic Memory, Photographic Memory

dds_ks · 07-20-2017, 06:21 AM

We once played StarTrek in 3e: Even the basic training for a starfleet lieutenant costed 78 CP, and having one level of Perfect Memory for 30 CP cut the basic training's cost in half, leaving you 9 CP AND having the advantage of Memory AND saving further CP in future.
So when the GM decided that only one of us were allowed to have Perfect Memory, because not all should have the same advantages...
... well, Cheerio, Miss Sofie...

The 4e version that it does not support skills and spells is much more balanced.
Nevertheless we used it for mages in a fantasy campaign. The main problem was that learning new spells needs literature or a teacher. So you first scan the book at a library (but don't understand the spell). You save it in your memory, and at the very time you earn CP, you finally understand the spell and shout "Heureka", so you can use it immediately.

Well, not during an action sequence, that was. Otherwise you could "scan" 20 different spells (if you have the prerequisites) and save one single CP, and then decide in the middle of a battle which spell you should "understand" to most effect. So you couldn't prepare a fire spell, a water spell, an earth spell and an air spell long ago, then wait until you see your encounter, decide, what attack type might work best and then activate the relevant spell. But nevertheless, Perfect Memory was useful.

07-20-2017, 06:21 AM	#21
dds_ks Join Date: Jan 2010	Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#46): Eidetic Memory, Photographic Memory We once played StarTrek in 3e: Even the basic training for a starfleet lieutenant costed 78 CP, and having one level of Perfect Memory for 30 CP cut the basic training's cost in half, leaving you 9 CP AND having the advantage of Memory AND saving further CP in future. So when the GM decided that only one of us were allowed to have Perfect Memory, because not all should have the same advantages... ... well, Cheerio, Miss Sofie... The 4e version that it does not support skills and spells is much more balanced. Nevertheless we used it for mages in a fantasy campaign. The main problem was that learning new spells needs literature or a teacher. So you first scan the book at a library (but don't understand the spell). You save it in your memory, and at the very time you earn CP, you finally understand the spell and shout "Heureka", so you can use it immediately. Well, not during an action sequence, that was. Otherwise you could "scan" 20 different spells (if you have the prerequisites) and save one single CP, and then decide in the middle of a battle which spell you should "understand" to most effect. So you couldn't prepare a fire spell, a water spell, an earth spell and an air spell long ago, then wait until you see your encounter, decide, what attack type might work best and then activate the relevant spell. But nevertheless, Perfect Memory was useful.