New Skills

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

Any particular talents you feel are overpriced?

Here are some thoughts about several talents...

-- Languages. 1 mIQ each is too high. Many people know several languages and TFT does not handle that well. I suggest you get 2 languages per memory point.

-- Mimic: is too expensive. I've lowered it to 1 mIQ in my campaign and still no one takes it. This is a talent I would consider simply dropping.

-- Monster Followers i and ii: It has been ages since anyone took these talents. These and New Followers really need more space to describe how they work than there is room for in the Talent write ups. A lot of GM's just don't allow them. I think that they need to be supported with more rules. (I also multiply the value of the follower by the size in hexes, so a 2 hex Dire Wolf counts as two followers.)

-- Two Weapons (3): It does allow you to attack twice, but the second attack is at -4 DX. (Not like the hyper powerful Missile Weapons which gives you +3 to an attribute. And with +3 DX you likely can attack twice / turn with a bow, with +3 DX on each attack. To add insult to injury, Two Weapons requires a higher IQ than Missile Weapons.)

-- Boating: A typical human has 10 IQ. Does Boating really take up 1/10 of everything he or she can learn???

-- Horsemanship, Swimming, Climbing: Many physical skills seem to take a lot of memory. I would include Running in this, but the game effect of Running is so powerful that people are happy to pay that much.

-- Priest and Theologian: Unless these have some game effect, they are over priced. If you are intending to release a Cleric supplement that would give them holy powers their price is OK, or perhaps you could get both for 3 mIQ by including Priest in Theologian.

-- Spying: I think that this talent should be reworked. What the talent describes is not really what spies do. (And I have a hard time describing how someone can crack open a door to a lit room and not have people inside notice.) But being able to understands and use 'trade craft' is a lot easier than 3 mIQ would suggest.

-- Mundane Talents: A lot of these could be made 1/2 mIQ talents. Many of them are only for history / roleplaying effect and if they were cheaper they would be more likely picked.

Warm regards, Rick.