Starter Characters

[xane]

I've played a few games where everyone starts as a "zero level" character, in class based rules this means before the character even chooses a class (or has it chosen for them). In some games it is suggested to have three or more characters as "natural wastage" will be a major problem with such a weak party.

You could start a basic character at only 28 points, with a couple of Talents or Spells, a good guide is to use the Jobs table to determine starting Talents, and perhaps throw in Knife or Axe/Mace if none are required. Maybe restrict to the non-dangerous jobs to avoid a party of ex-army or hardened criminals.

The legacy rules allow experience to acquire new Talents and Spells, so this could be done initially to build the character up to a "starting" level (32 points) with the full compliment of IQ.

[Chris Rice]

Originally Posted by xane

I've played a few games where everyone starts as a "zero level" character, in class based rules this means before the character even chooses a class (or has it chosen for them). In some games it is suggested to have three or more characters as "natural wastage" will be a major problem with such a weak party.

You could start a basic character at only 28 points, with a couple of Talents or Spells, a good guide is to use the Jobs table to determine starting Talents, and perhaps throw in Knife or Axe/Mace if none are required. Maybe restrict to the non-dangerous jobs to avoid a party of ex-army or hardened criminals.

The legacy rules allow experience to acquire new Talents and Spells, so this could be done initially to build the character up to a "starting" level (32 points) with the full compliment of IQ.

This is something I too have been thinking about. I'm just playing with Melee at the moment, but some characters who survive a few encounters might be developed into full TFT characters with Talents. I haven't exactly decided how to do this yet. Maybe I'll just allow them to choose 8 points worth of Talents (or 9 if they put their initial experience into IN).

[Steve Plambeck]

It's always been a bit of a problem (or call it a feature) transitioning characters created and played too long under just the Melee and Wizard rules to the full ITL system. You end up with fighters that have used weapon classes (and bought and paid for arms) they suddenly can't "know" how to use anymore, because they can't afford all the needed Talents on an IQ of 8. Tamper with the other attributes the character has already been using, well then you might as well just call it a new character.

It's even worse transitioning wizards from Wizard to ITL rules. If you had an IQ 12 wizard for any length of time, then she knew and had used up to 12 spells in combat. Maybe she also spoke a 2nd language, knew how to swim, ride a horse, and handled a light sword when she had to. Bring her into an ITL campaign, she either has to "forget" most of those skills or unlearn at least half the spells. Either way, she doesn't really remain the same character.

[Tywyll]

Originally Posted by xane

I've played a few games where everyone starts as a "zero level" character, in class based rules this means before the character even chooses a class (or has it chosen for them). In some games it is suggested to have three or more characters as "natural wastage" will be a major problem with such a weak party.

You could start a basic character at only 28 points, with a couple of Talents or Spells, a good guide is to use the Jobs table to determine starting Talents, and perhaps throw in Knife or Axe/Mace if none are required. Maybe restrict to the non-dangerous jobs to avoid a party of ex-army or hardened criminals.

The legacy rules allow experience to acquire new Talents and Spells, so this could be done initially to build the character up to a "starting" level (32 points) with the full compliment of IQ.

I wouldn't go below 30 points, as that is an 'average person' in the TFT world. 1st level characters, at least in old school games, aren't below average, they are certainly above it (fighters are veterans after all at first level!). 'Average' townfolk are d4 hit die people, which is where 0-level characters typically start. So if I mapped that to TFT, I would give them 30 points.

I would also give them free talent points for IQ increases (though I do that any way) up to 32 points.