[Skarg]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

You may be right and w/o clear guidance from Mr. Jackson we're left to make our own assumptions about the intent of those rules. As you know, my own clear bias is that the aquisition of IQ grants the character new talents/spells and I'd prefer not to re-hash all of that here, but since the group consensus thus far seems to be in opposition to my personal preference the proposed XP costs for Powers are designed to be in line with the approach that talents and spells can only be acquired post-creation thru the expenditure of 500 XP.

Yes, I agree. The issue just becomes for other GMs who think of 500XP as normal to learn any talent, then these start to look slightly easy to get compared to some talents (or low-IQ spells considering these have no prereqs other than lower tiers, well, and very importantly, GM rationale for allowing each one to be gained), but that's mainly the fault of the 500 XP is the only way to learn a talent thing.

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

This is another reason why I think that a flat XP cost of 1000 points per Power (regardless of tier) may be better than the escalating costs I initially proposed.

I don't follow why?

I like that the increasing costs makes the more powerful costs more costly and less common/accessible.

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

I'll have to give this more thought, but my intent is that Powers should only be made available at the discretion of and with guidance from the GM. And while odd mis-mashes of lower tier powers from different portfolios is certainly possible, doing so will limit the player character's access to more powerful abilities as well as the increased potency of Powers they initially selected.

Yes, assuming they survive and the game goes on that long, but they get to have five abilities for 500 XP less than a one-portfolio person would spend to get three.

I think the GM discretion and guidance would be quite significant.

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Another approach, I suppose, could be to allow GMs total control over when Power unlocks occur (i.e take character XP out of the equation entirely), but I dislike the removal of player choice in the ultimate design of their characters.

Removing XP from it wouldn't necessarily also have to remove player choice. It could still be things their characters choose that lead to the powers. I've actually played in such games before, in GURPS, where players'/PCs' choices led to them discovering lines of study/devotion/development that led to them gaining particular abilities, which either did or didn't cost GURPS character points (the more I have played GURPS, the less I care about or want to use its character points, and the more I want to have actions determine character development, and I'm starting to think maybe the same thing would work better than XP for TFT) - i.e. you have Tier 2 powers in a Zen Archery portfolio because you spent a year studying with a Zen Archery master in the remote magical mountains... no XP involved, or you got "Zen Archery XP" - only usable for that).