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Old 02-15-2018, 04:43 PM   #38
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: The Fourth Attribute...

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post
I think HT is an obvious choice for literally dozens of reasons; but there seems to be a lot of hostility over it for some reason -- possibly because I'm some nobody and also the one suggesting it.
Maybe because that's what GURPS did?
I added an Endurance attribute in my first TFT campaign, about 1983, because I was adding in Gamelords' Traveller "The Desert Environment" which used one, and it was clear that hiking endurance (physical condition) should not be the same as Strength (because there were plenty of characters without high ST who marched around a lot, and plenty of big strong guys who weren't in good shape). However I treated it as a status level that just went up and down with your physical conditioning (in play, mainly from hiking or inactivity or illness) and wasn't part of experience or attributes. It felt like a really clunky add-on, and was only used for certain outdoor travel situations, but it filled a need for that distinction.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post
Similarly [...] adding "talent points" (the effects of which could just as easily, and more simply, be obtained by doubling or trebling the number of talents/spells a character can learn by multiplying the number of IQ slots by two or three) seem pointless -- and aren't actually "attributes" at all, anyway.
Talent points aren't attributes but they're currently determined by IQ, and create a need for high IQ. In house rules where you can use experience to get talents above IQ instead of increasing IQ, it can tend to effectively counter IQ bloat, which to me is the main point, whether or not one considers it an attribute. They can also reduce DX bloat or even ST bloat, if there are talents which can improve things you'd otherwise have to buy up DX or ST for (e.g. to overcome armor DX penalties with great ST or higher DX - if there were talents that do that that cost less than great ST/DX, characters can get those instead of having extreme attributes).
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