Quote:
Originally Posted by luguvalium
Zot- You've done a great job listing many different situations that could have talents, but I think I would only rarely use them as a GM. Using these situations to create examples of how these situations could be done with existing talents ( and then creating only the talents that are not covered by others ) would be a help for players. For example, I don't see Intimidation ( maybe based on a contest of ST ) being not covered by existing talents. I would see torture as just intimidation against a weakened opponent.
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Not to get into a detailed discussion of torture but it's a complex, er, "art" to know how to cause maximum pain with minimum damage or danger of death in order to keep the victim suffering and in fear for the longest time.
The talents I listed though are ones I've used as a player or had in games I've GMed although, just to clear this up right now, I've never actually used torture in any stories I've been involved in. Nope, didn't inhale, never even in the same area with it :).
One of the best examples of Intimidation I've seen in a movie, by the way, is in Unforgiven where Clint Eastwood's character clears out an entire room just by speaking in a reasonable manner. Nothing at all to do with ST.
Sense Motive, the knowledge talents, and some of the culture talents I listed aren't covered by talents that I can think of. That's probably 10 or 12 talents there (7 for Sense Motive and knowledge talents and 5 for culture), plus at least 5 ranking membership talents that can potentially give you access to resources and man power through your position. So that's 15 new talents at a minimum.
These talents would all work fine with contest rules for the situations I list under the categories, at a minimum: finding things out, declaring things your character knows, getting people to do what you want, and using your reputation. If people want to use the small set of rules I laid out in my Research and Knowledge post, so much the better, it provides a formalized way for the GM and player to play out the results of a research/knowledge talent use.
Some people object to ranking membership as a talent but it does take a lot of time and experience to gain rank in a guild; I think it's a perfect example of buying a talent with XP.