05-21-2017, 02:15 AM | #1 |
Banned
Join Date: May 2017
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Talent + IQ Maximum levels
Hi there!
Today I came up with a new question. Realistically, I am considering any character with an IQ over 15 as unrealistic (one IQ-15 being in a frequency of a few billions people). Moreover, figures like Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci got IQ-14 + Talent 4... Do you think that even that might be unrealistic? I mean, having a character with IQ-15 + Talent 4 already takes applicable untrained skills to 12, 13, 14 and even 15 (expert levels)... that alone seems a bit weird. What are your considerations on this subject? Should I force characters to pick among Talent or IQ up to a maximum level of 15 altogether and allow them to buy Talent benefits alone on top of that? Thank you very much. Last edited by Alonsua; 05-21-2017 at 02:19 AM. |
05-21-2017, 05:11 AM | #2 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
This is more a question about how you want your game to work than GURPS rules. You can do any of these things, because GURPS is a toolkit for building a game, rather than a game in a can, ready to play.
It's up to you what you consider realistic, but you do need to try to make things consistent. If nobody has a skill at anything above 15, making complex inventions is very hard, and you may need to adjust the skill penalties in the invention rules. The fact that IQ15 + Talent 4 gives defaults in the range 12-15 for skills within the Talent doesn't bother me at all, because I expect a player to put at least a point into all the skills in any Talent that they take. Learning stuff within a Talent is quite easy for a talented character. This doesn't apply if there are cultural or TL barriers to learning a skill, but those would generally remove the default anyway.
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05-21-2017, 06:00 AM | #3 | |
Banned
Join Date: May 2017
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
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As a rule of thumb I assumed the text under Who´s Who which defends that "the best in history" at a particular skill will have it at 20-24, so 24 is the maximum (Techniques can go far beyond up to 30). Since I allow characters to buy their skills up to +5, IQ-15+Talent-4+5-Skill goes up to a perfect maximum of 24... Now I found another problem while checking Joan of Arc, who has Charisma +5 (I consider Charisma a Talent, with 4 being the maximum level, which actually turns to be the same than the maximum available Reputation). What do you think? Best regards. |
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05-21-2017, 06:27 AM | #4 | ||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
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05-21-2017, 06:48 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Southern New Hampshire
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
I agree with johndallman that it's a system you set up the way you want it. If what you're looking for is realism, and you want the limit of 15 on intelligence, that's great. If you're running a cinematic campaign with super geniuses running around, then the limit doesn't make as much sense.
Just to add my own bit, I agree with you that limiting intelligence is a good idea. I do that in my campaigns. But I have an additional reason: I don't like when the character is THAT much smarter than the player. Intelligence 20 would be a person who should change the world with their ideas. Giving that character a challenge in terms of thinking would be near impossible. Giving the player a challenge like solving the a mystery would be easier, and fun for the game. But if they can say "I want to roll against intelligence to figure out what I the player have been missing", it's not as fun. As for intelligence plus a talent... I have no problem with intelligence 15 plus four points of talent. Talent doesn't represent a general ability to figure everything out, and it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would make the game less fun. |
05-21-2017, 08:35 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
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05-21-2017, 09:05 AM | #7 | |
Banned
Join Date: May 2017
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
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Last edited by Alonsua; 05-21-2017 at 09:11 AM. |
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05-21-2017, 09:28 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
I almost always figure folks like Hawking, Einstein, Newton, Mozart, and DaVinci have/had IQ 14-15 + Talent 4, and when designing my settings I use 15 as my realistic cap on DX, IQ, and HT (ST tends to gets capped between 17 and 23, depending on the feel I'm going for).
Please note that there ware ways to discourage high stats even in high-point games. Saying "1,000 point game, no more than 100 points in primary attributes" or any similar cap on the core stats will make people think, "if I drop all my stat points in IQ, am I possibly crippling my character?" Best used in moderation, and YMMV of course.
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05-21-2017, 10:00 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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05-21-2017, 12:42 PM | #10 |
Untitled
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
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Re: Talent + IQ Maximum levels
Equating the IQ score to the Stanford-Binet scale is a house rule. (I know there are some websites out there that fail to mention this.)
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Rob Kelk “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” – Bernard Baruch, Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950 No longer reading these forums regularly. |
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