07-11-2018, 11:53 PM | #41 | |
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
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But, combining all that into a big wilderness adventure pack? Brilliant! ;-) |
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07-12-2018, 01:08 AM | #42 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
The Woodsman talent could use some improvement just to work better and be clearer. It also seems like an odd place to stick the rules it has, inside a talent description. Seems like such things belong with other rules about travel (currently stuck on the sample map key) and that they should cross-reference each other.
Issues include: * it says having just one Woodsman seems enough to not suffer from lack of food or shelter (!?!) * it collapses exposure with lack of food, giving the same effect for lacking one or the other, or both. * it gives double/triple penalties for rain, swamp, desert & cold, but combined with the above issue, means you might have no problems with such if they have a woodsman or both food and shelter, but if they lose the woodsman and food, then they take double/triple damage even though they have shelter and the cause of the doubling/tripling seems to be about shelter, not food. * It says you need half or more Woodsmen in your group or else wilderness travel speeds are halved. (If there's a reason for that, I wish I knew it.) * Since many parties probably do not have 50%+ Woodsmen, the wilderness travel speed section should probably mention the half-speed effect of not having such. * Woodsman and Tracking and the travel section also want cross-references to the Lost In The Wilderness section, and/or to have all such rules in one place and the talents & other spots just refer you to that section. I'd say all of these things could be tidied up and improved, and the effect would, it seems to me, make the game easier to play rather than harder, because things would make more sense and/or be more findable and better explained. I tend to think it'd help to have each terrain and weather type get a sentence or three that includes such things in one central place, and again I think this could be easier to understand, learn, and play with. Last edited by Skarg; 07-12-2018 at 01:17 AM. |
07-12-2018, 01:12 AM | #43 | ||
Join Date: May 2018
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
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With the attribute cap, new talents is the only way highly experienced characters can continue to grow and people will want to keep playing their favorite character once it gets to 40 (gee, I guess 36 is "over the hill" for TFT characters). |
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07-13-2018, 11:50 PM | #44 | |
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
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And I concur with your reasoning, too - not that I'd mind a proper naval supplement down the road... provided it's compatible with history. (And that also excludes captains being axiomatically competent - historically, most weren't. It was a political and/or combat position. Which is why the QM and the SM ran the ship day-to-day.) |
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07-14-2018, 02:25 AM | #45 |
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
Thinking more on this, a list of jobs and existing talents they should require
Basic Seaman should be unskilled. Able Seaman needs Sailor Topman: Sailor and Climbing Lookout: Sailor, Climbing, Awareness Bosun's mate: Lasso, Sailor Navigator: Mathematician (for the Astronomy and the calculations) Carpenter: Sailor and Mundane Talent: Carpentry Cook: Mundane Talent: Cook Surgeon: Physicker Officers: any two of: Seaman, Business Sense, Tactics Captain: any 4 of: Seaman, Captain, Tactics, Business Sense, Charisma, Strategy Ship's Warrants: as type, plus Charisma or Whip. |
08-24-2018, 11:17 PM | #46 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
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I agree that for TFT survival should not be broken into different environments. I'll just list some missing wilderness skills and see if you think they should be plugged into Naturalist or Woodsman (2?). Set Wilderness Traps: This is distinct from Mechanician. Mechanicians know how to put spring loaded darts in treasure chests. This is not the same as what Rambo did in First Blood. Mechanician is too high a level of trap building skill and covers too broad a range. But the ability to build a deadfall for rabbits or a swinging spike trap for pigs or men should be available somewhere. Camoflage: The classic D&D "hide in shadows" thief ability, but in a wilderness setting. Indigenous people have been using this against invaders worldwide for centuries. Perhaps this is covered by Spying, but this should exist in a less costly form only employable in rural settings. This could also cover making a blind, covering a pit of spikes, or otherwise concealing something physical other than a person. Wilderness Awareness: This is a broader version of the naturalist ability, but for all creatures in a rural area, not just slimes. For instance, prairie dogs have a different alarm call for dogs, coyotes, hawks and snakes. Knowledge of bird and animal calls would make you aware (potentially pretty specifically) of other creatures nearby. Cross talent skills: Expert Horseman allows training riding animals as if he was an Animal Trainer and healing them as though he were a vet. Could Naturalist or Woodsman make a narrow set of nature based poisons or healing or antidotes as if they were a Chemist? What about Mimic, but only for animal calls? Alertness, but for only 1 point instead of 2 because it only works in rural areas, not town or dungeon (like Wilderness Awareness above). Aside from the skills above, I can't think of any more missing wilderness skills. But if Naturalist, Mechanician, Thief, Armorer, Seamanship, and Priest all have 2 levels, why not Woodsman? Right now the only way to become better at Woodsman skill is to bump your IQ. If Woodsman 2 reduced the number of dice or gave a roll bonus you could have people who are great in the woods without having to be geniuses.(especially if you added some of the skills I noted above). I really think it's reasonable to build up Woodsman a bit. Last edited by Tenex; 08-25-2018 at 12:27 AM. |
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08-25-2018, 11:48 AM | #47 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
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08-25-2018, 11:50 AM | #48 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
Re. the original purpose of this thread, I agree with SJ's conservative take on this issue. There may be some precedence for certain skill groups to be represented as a half dozen inter-related things (e.g., the full package of traditional 'Thief' abilities requires 5 or 6 separate talents). But that doesn't mean the whole game has to be turned into this sort of granular approach. I'd mostly leave what is there as it is, and add only things that genuinely expand the scope and/or fun of the game. That is, if a Woodsman is assumed to have a suite of abilities, just say what they are in so many words and leave it at that.
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08-25-2018, 01:59 PM | #49 | |
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Coquitlam B.C.
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
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Very nice post, thanks. I especially like Wilderness Awareness. A huge amount of wilderness survival is about finding water, finding food and staying warm. So a second level of Woodsman should make you better at doing all of these. In particular, you would require fewer hours to provide the basics, so you will have more time for other stuff. Warm regards, Rick. |
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08-25-2018, 02:07 PM | #50 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: The Woodsman Talent
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However, people, including all the SJG staff, who are arguing against expanding certain skills 'cuz simplicity haven't explained how they can be against an extra level of Woodsman while slavering over UC freakin' 5 and multiple levels of Priest. Priest/Theologian don't even have any articulated abilities in them. Why 2 levels of something with NO actual abilities? I'm very much for simplicity, but it needs to come with consistency! This new edition is supposed to be about clarifying the rules and eliminating conflicts and inconsistencies while still retaining the simplistic flavor of the original... right? Maybe I'm wrong and there's some other goal. So why so much inconsistency across skills that doesn't seem to be in the works for a fix? Last edited by Tenex; 08-25-2018 at 02:11 PM. |
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