Standard for memory points?

[larsdangly]

I see that trade off as very gamey and very good. It applies an appropriate pressure on all character types to consider IQ. Basically, in the new rules every point shift from something like an 11-11-10 starting character is hard to justify. That's the mark of a game that has given serious thought to balance.

[Skarg]

What's hard for me to justify is the enormous XP incentive to get advanced talents during creation rather than from experience, the weak ST/DX that end up going along with those advanced talents, and the extreme difficulty of picking up a one-point talent after creation, compared to raising several attribute points.

[hcobb]

Character X starts with ST 6, DX 12 and IQ 14. This way she can pick those DX 12 talents. She then levels up DX first and IQ later when she can afford to buy talents.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by Skarg

What's hard for me to justify is the enormous XP incentive to get advanced talents during creation rather than from experience, the weak ST/DX that end up going along with those advanced talents, and the extreme difficulty of picking up a one-point talent after creation, compared to raising several attribute points.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how you can eliminate that problem w/o also getting rid of the ability to buy talents and spells directly with XP... unless you do something more drastic w/ the ruleset, that is.

[larsdangly]

The design principle of the new edition seems to be 'you will never be able to get it all, so just make a choice and get on with it'. Unless, of course, you pile on the magic items, in which case you can have whatever you want. But that's on you.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

The design principle of the new edition seems to be 'you will never be able to get it all, so just make a choice and get on with it'. Unless, of course, you pile on the magic items, in which case you can have whatever you want. But that's on you.

Exactly. Just come up with a character concept, build that character, and enjoy playing them as they work to achieve their goals.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how you can eliminate that problem w/o also getting rid of the ability to buy talents and spells directly with XP... unless you do something more drastic w/ the ruleset, that is.

One simple step is just to restore the original ability to learn talents up to your IQ during play by studying them (where logically possible) for about 3 months per point. That way, figures who haven't reached their limit, and figures who increase their IQ, can learn talents.

Another somewhat more complex step could be to use a house rule like many people developed before Legacy, where you can increase your talent capacity without increasing your IQ. Typically this was charged some fraction (e.g. half or 1/3) the XP cost/effect of raising IQ itself.

An alternative to that, which I personally find rather attractive, is allowing learning talents by studying them (again, where logically possible) by spending enough time in-game doing so, perhaps increasing that time to something more than 3 months per point if in excess of IQ, and/or requiring some amount of time/effort to maintain practice on some known talents.

[KevinJ]

As a GM I control all official character sheets. This isn't as bad as it sounds. I created character sheets that exist on my computer. I print them out for my players. When they make significant, or just enough small changes, I modify the original to reflect these changes and print out new versions.

One section of the character sheet is the Talent list. This has the name of the Talent followed by the cost, either 1PT or 250XP, and the IQ needed to 'learn' the talent. The way a Talent is learned is pretty unimportant during play.

Another section is the full text of each Talent or Spell the character knows. This reduced the need to pass books around, since the player can just consult the text in their character sheet booklet to determine if something does or does not fall under a given talent.