Cost of HT.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by McAllister

Personally, 5-pt Talents seem like a really good deal.

5-pt talents are usually a good deal, unless highly redundant with Perception or Charisma, which is often the case. 10-pt talents are rarely a good deal. 15-pt talents are only a good deal if they cover both physical and mental skills.

Originally Posted by McAllister

Sure, it's not as many skills as DX/IQ, but it's cheaper and the other perks aren't worthless.

Part of the problem with talents is that lots of people actively dislike the 'other perks'. There should be a 'clean' talent (adds to skills, nothing else), and the current talents should be a metatrait.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anthony

...

Part of the problem with talents is that lots of people actively dislike the 'other perks'. There should be a 'clean' talent (adds to skills, nothing else), and the current talents should be a metatrait.

Many talents' other perks are sometimes the only reason to take them.

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by Anthony

5-pt talents are usually a good deal, unless highly redundant with Perception or Charisma, which is often the case. 10-pt talents are rarely a good deal. 15-pt talents are only a good deal if they cover both physical and mental skills.

5, 7, and 9 would be better prices for the three sizes of Talents, if we're willing to abandon pentaphilia. And I suspect you would see more people take them at those prices.

[Lamech]

Yeah, 10 point talents can be a decent deal, especially if you have a fairly decent chance of picking up the reaction bonus. Or in a campaign with plenty of downtime for study. 15 point talents should always include physical and mental skills.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Yeah, 10 point talents can be a decent deal, .

10 pt Talents that cover 7 Skills very seldom look like a good deal compared tom 5 pt Talents that cover 6. Especially when one of those Skills appeared artificially tacked on.

[McAllister]

Originally Posted by Xplo

5, 7, and 9 would be better prices for the three sizes of Talents, if we're willing to abandon pentaphilia. And I suspect you would see more people take them at those prices.

GURPS PU3: Talents actually suggests making the cost 1/skill if the players are willing to put .6 of a second into thinking about it. Would you suggest 1/skill up to 8 skills, 0.5/skill past that?

As for clean "Talents," are we trying to play a game where every extrapolation of the mechanics is possible, or one where they all represent something that's present in reality or fiction? I ask because, if it's the latter, there may not be a clean "Talent."

Alternatively, Talents as Training introduced Job Training, which is basically [Template] Talent, benefiting the skills found on a given template. Scrubbing the perks from Job Training makes a lot of sense.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by McAllister

GURPS PU3: Talents actually suggests making the cost 1/skill if the players are willing to put .6 of a second into thinking about it. Would you suggest 1/skill up to 8 skills, 0.5/skill past that?

I'd probably go with 4 + skills/2 (so a 2-skill talent is 5p).

Originally Posted by McAllister

As for clean "Talents," are we trying to play a game where every extrapolation of the mechanics is possible, or one where they all represent something that's present in reality or fiction? I ask because, if it's the latter, there may not be a clean "Talent."

I can't come up with a situation where a clean talent is less accurate than the existing rules.

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by McAllister

GURPS PU3: Talents actually suggests making the cost 1/skill if the players are willing to put .6 of a second into thinking about it. Would you suggest 1/skill up to 8 skills, 0.5/skill past that?

What I would suggest (and did, some months back) is (#skills^.5)x2, with an optional 5 CP minimum cost to limit abuse of small Talents.

[Anthony]

I'd be somewhat tempted by the range/speed chart; something like 6 + range/speed modifier for number of skills affected, +50% if it affect skills from more than one stat.

[DouglasCole]

Rounding up 4*sqrt(number of skills) puts a single skill at 4/level (which is, of course, both pointless and the point), and then scales. Going every 2 points from there:

1 sklil: 4 points
2 skills: 6 points
3-4 skills: 8 points
5-6 skills: 10 points
7-9 skills: 12 points
10-12 skills: 14 points
13-16 skills: 16 points
17-20 skills: 18 points
21 skills and up: just buy STAT, darn it.