Output-Oriented Combat Talents Instead of Input-

[David Bofinger]

One reason I prefer TFT to D&D is that in D&D progress is a ladder: you climb from one rung to the next, and each rung you climb gives you a package of advantages, chosen not by you but by the system. Whereas in TFT it's a cliff that can be scaled by multiple routes, and when you get an advantage or a package of advantages it's a package you chose.

In this respect the advanced combat talents of Legacy follow the D&D paradigm, not the TFT one. A character commits early to a weapon (e.g. pole weapons) or a couple of weapons (e.g. sword and shield). When, sooner or later in their career, they decide to buy an advanced combat talent, they choose from a menu that might have just one item, and probably no more than two. Soon they've bought every item on their menu, at least at the moment. They get a package of advantages chosen by the system, not the player. Their only path of progress is then to step to the next rung.

I think a big part of the problem is that the ACTs are input-diverse (using a sword vs using an axe), but output-uniform (same advantages whether sword or axe). So the effect is the same on every character and does little to make the characters functionally different. I think what we want is a variety of talents that are useful in different ways.

This is an attempt to sketch out how output-oriented talents might work.

The ACTs let you do a few things better:

• Do more damage for free
• Do lots more damage at a DX penalty
• Make you harder to hit.
• Stop hits (for Shield and Fencing).

So why not start with talents that are like the ACTs, but more effective and only one benefit.

• Vital Point: Like the shrewd blow. It doesn't need a DX minimum because without a decent DX it's not much use.
• Parry: Gives enemy DX penalties, or hits stopped, or both. Maybe more effective with some weapons (shield, sword) than others.
• Giant Slayer: Does more damage against multi-hex figures.
• Hand-to-Hand: Helps with HTH: getting into it, staying out of it, getting out of it, keeping other people from getting out of it, hurting people in it, stopping people hurting you in it, pinning, not being pinned, etc..
• Sweeping Blow: Reduces penalties, increases damage.
• Disarm: Makes you better at it.
• Defensive: Makes it one die harder to hit you.
• Find a Chink: Can reduce the effect of armour somehow.

We can have cinematic abilities:

• Missile Parry: Apply defensive advantages of parrying to arrows as well as melee attacks.

Though of course we can always throw a bone to a specific weapon when it's warranted:

• Shield Bash/Push: Knock people down, push them back during movement, etc.

And while we're here, something for our archer friends:

• Archer: Extra damage for a bow.

The cost of the talent should be mostly paying for the talent itself, rather than mostly the cost of buying its prerequisites. That way different characters buy a different subset of the menu, they are different from each other to play, and the variety of playable characters is increased.

We could also have some basic level talents that all warriors are expected to have. They'd be cheap or free for heroes, but maybe not all wizards would have them? Nor might the average peasant or pampered princess or unworldly scholar you're trying to keep alive during a skirmish.

• Fighter: If you don't have this: enemies roll two dice to hit you.
• Two Hands: If you don't have this: you can't use two-handed weapons or shields. You're like the guy front and centre on the Classic cover, or the woman with the mace on the Legacy cover. Nothing to be ashamed of, lots of fantasy characters use just a sword. You're just a loser, that's all.
• Used to Pain: If you don't have this: you aren't used to being hurt. You take -2 DX from 3 wounds, and get knocked down by 5.

Comment solicited.

[TippetsTX]

I think this makes alot of sense. Under the old rules, the FENCING talent applied broadly to all swords but at its heart it was really just an IMPROVED CRITICAL style ability that could reasonably be applied to any weapon the PC was trained in (assuming you had a GM willing to think outside the box a bit).

As a minor counter-point, however, I do think some weapons will be more suited to certain ACTs than others, but on the whole, I think the proposed concept is worth additional development.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

I do think some weapons will be more suited to certain ACTs than others

That occurred to me but I wasn't sure how to implement it. Maybe the different talents are slightly more effective when applied to their preferred weapon. So Giant Slayer might work better with an axe, and a defensive ability better with a sword, etc.