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Old 12-30-2018, 01:07 PM   #1
TippetsTX
 
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Default Immediate vs. delayed gratification

So here's a follow-up question for those few of you who are currently playing Legacy edition rules... are your players following the expected pattern of spending most of their initial XP on stat increases (immediate benefit) or are they saving XP for arguably more impactful but more costly talents, spells or lesser wishes?

And for demographic purposes, please state your session frequency, number of players, and whether you see any difference in the behavior of old vs. young players.
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Old 12-30-2018, 04:38 PM   #2
larsdangly
 
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

I've been running a party of 4 for about 3-4 months (maybe a dozen sessions), and so far the non-wizard PC's have been focused on stat rises, while the wizard rose to 35 points and then switched to an emphasis on staff Fatigue points
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Old 01-07-2019, 12:58 PM   #3
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

I'm running a Friday night game online. One player is always present and 5 or so other drop in/out as they can.

Most of the players are very experienced TFT players/gms with many years more experience than I have.

I think that they are all pretty much spending points on those attribute increases at this point. But it is very early on, 3 or 4 sessions into it.
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Old 01-13-2019, 11:33 AM   #4
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

A similar question I have is if people who play wizards would advance several IQ levels without learning any new spells, in order to learn many high-level spells while meeting the 1 spell per IQ point limit?
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Old 01-13-2019, 01:53 PM   #5
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

Quote:
Originally Posted by ParadoxGames View Post
A similar question I have is if people who play wizards would advance several IQ levels without learning any new spells, in order to learn many high-level spells while meeting the 1 spell per IQ point limit?
That does not apply in the new rules.

An IQ 10 wizard could over time learn every spell and talent of IQ 10 or less.

The average character on their 50th birthday should have 40 attributes and 13 skill points above their starting IQ.

So a wizard who starts at ST 8 DX 12 IQ 12 should wind up around ST 8 DX 12 IQ 20 with 12 talent+spells at IQ 12 or less and 13 more talents+spells at IQ 20 or less.

Just remember to use the NPC-only stat of "Mana" in order to not give away powerstones to the player characters. (There is no other justification for giving up skill points for Mana.)
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Old 01-13-2019, 11:45 PM   #6
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

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Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
The average character on their 50th birthday should have 40 attributes and 13 skill points above their starting IQ.
Not if the average attribute point total is still 30, which the book still says it is.

It'd be pretty bizarre compared to the real world, too. All the professional athletes would be 50-year-olds...
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Old 01-14-2019, 07:52 AM   #7
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skarg View Post
Not if the average attribute point total is still 30, which the book still says it is.

It'd be pretty bizarre compared to the real world, too. All the professional athletes would be 50-year-olds...
The average 50 year old on Cidri would have died twice so that's 10 attribute points right there.

2-hex Flying Carpet: $10k, replace once a decade so weekly cost is $20
50 point powerstone $51k once a decade so weekly cost is $102
19 IQ wizard weekly wage: $350

At 8 deaths a weekday that's a sunk cost of $12 plus $250 to recharge the gem.

Add in the overhead of having apprentices around the city to create image of phoenix to fly into the sky as a beacon and the cost to the consumer to defeat death and cure all illness is $500, which is most likely included in the $25/week cost of not being dead.
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Old 01-14-2019, 09:56 AM   #8
Skarg
 
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
The average 50 year old on Cidri would have died twice so that's 10 attribute points right there.

2-hex Flying Carpet: $10k, replace once a decade so weekly cost is $20
50 point powerstone $51k once a decade so weekly cost is $102
19 IQ wizard weekly wage: $350

At 8 deaths a weekday that's a sunk cost of $12 plus $250 to recharge the gem.

Add in the overhead of having apprentices around the city to create image of phoenix to fly into the sky as a beacon and the cost to the consumer to defeat death and cure all illness is $500, which is most likely included in the $25/week cost of not being dead.
Sounds like the expectations of the richest 1% in a dystopian campaign setting where insurance companies and their accountants and financial planners rule supreme. ;-D

I'm imagining healthy young warrior adventurers whose prime survival skill is stealthily avoiding flying-carpet-riding patrols of 50-year-old supermen with 50-point powerstones.
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Old 01-14-2019, 06:20 PM   #9
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

This seems to be getting into "piracy isn't profitable in Traveller" territory. My question is therefore: is this actually a problem in play, and is there a solution or is it just something long-term campaigns have to be aware of?
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Old 01-14-2019, 06:47 PM   #10
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

Leaving aside the rules as written where the Revival spell isn't actually useful. (Compare "If an hour passes" on page 10 to "as long as death took place less than an hour ago." on page 33)

Back to skill points and XPs I can make the job progressions on page 58 work of moving up to the next job every five years and needing about five more skill points to qualify for the next job if each weekly job roll grants 10 XPs. The exponential attribute costs then give you 49 year olds who all have dozens of spells or talents.
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