Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - 3 Character Types: Fighter, Wizard, Mixed (Bard, Cleric, Monk)

David Bofinger · 01-13-2023, 05:03 PM

I have thought of a truly terrible way to implement the spell-talent trade-off.

Imagine that talent points are the x-axis and spells the y-axis. Wizards give us a line through (IQ/2, 0) and (0, IQ) and anything below-left of that line is a legal character. Heroes are the same except the points are (IQ, 0) and (0, IQ/3). We can imagine other classes that fill in the envelope, in combination giving us a curve rather than straight lines.

Those of us who remember original TFT might also remember the fad for "string things", which made curves by the envelope of straight lines. These produced curves like sqrt(x) + sqrt(y) = 1.

We could if we wished implement a curve like this as the limit on talents and spells. In a computer game it might almost be a good idea.

01-13-2023, 05:03 PM	#45
David Bofinger Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Sydney, Australia	Re: 3 Character Types: Fighter, Wizard, Mixed (Bard, Cleric, Monk) I have thought of a truly terrible way to implement the spell-talent trade-off. Imagine that talent points are the x-axis and spells the y-axis. Wizards give us a line through (IQ/2, 0) and (0, IQ) and anything below-left of that line is a legal character. Heroes are the same except the points are (IQ, 0) and (0, IQ/3). We can imagine other classes that fill in the envelope, in combination giving us a curve rather than straight lines. Those of us who remember original TFT might also remember the fad for "string things", which made curves by the envelope of straight lines. These produced curves like sqrt(x) + sqrt(y) = 1. We could if we wished implement a curve like this as the limit on talents and spells. In a computer game it might almost be a good idea.