Cinematic hero's journey character development

hcobb · 09-20-2018, 08:59 PM

This is the story of a hero. He starts out with few skills but he's strong, or quick, or clever, or has a special talent.

He sets out on an adventure either because home seems to be lacking something and/or there is an acute danger there.

He undergoes a jump sequence where he learns to channel his raw abilities into a useful fighting technique. Then he returns home and wins some small victory, but his lack of well roundness soon has him on the run again.

He engages in many minor battles to finally return home able to face his greatest challenge.

The way I'd model this in TFT terms is with the following. On creation a character can freely allocate his 8 swing points to attributes, or all on talents with just a paragraph of back story at most.

The character can then trade his first 100 XPs for an attribute point freely, but to spend it on a talent level requires adventuring. Trained by a master as backstory is fine, but if you want to gain this boon while the cameras are rolling you've got to play it out.

The cost for every further attribute point or talent level increases by 50 points for every attribute point (but not talent level!) you've purchased since character creation. This makes talent development affordable for new characters while old hands simply grind up towards higher attributes, content to stay in their lanes with the ever increasing costs of new talents.

For example a character who's (since creation) purchased five talent levels and four attribute points would now pay 300 XP to purchase one of either. And if he boosted an attribute then his next increase would be at 350 XP.

Skill/spells are simply a matter of allocating memory (equal to IQ). Again these are fairly freely available at creation, but require some adventuring thereafter. (Nobody around knows that spell, but there are rumors of a hidden library.)

Terquem · 09-21-2018, 08:45 AM

This sounds good to me - particularly if the players want to run a campaign that moves more quickly, like a movie, and reaches a climax in just a few sessions.

09-20-2018, 08:59 PM	#1
hcobb Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Pacheco, California	Cinematic hero's journey character development This is the story of a hero. He starts out with few skills but he's strong, or quick, or clever, or has a special talent. He sets out on an adventure either because home seems to be lacking something and/or there is an acute danger there. He undergoes a jump sequence where he learns to channel his raw abilities into a useful fighting technique. Then he returns home and wins some small victory, but his lack of well roundness soon has him on the run again. He engages in many minor battles to finally return home able to face his greatest challenge. The way I'd model this in TFT terms is with the following. On creation a character can freely allocate his 8 swing points to attributes, or all on talents with just a paragraph of back story at most. The character can then trade his first 100 XPs for an attribute point freely, but to spend it on a talent level requires adventuring. Trained by a master as backstory is fine, but if you want to gain this boon while the cameras are rolling you've got to play it out. The cost for every further attribute point or talent level increases by 50 points for every attribute point (but not talent level!) you've purchased since character creation. This makes talent development affordable for new characters while old hands simply grind up towards higher attributes, content to stay in their lanes with the ever increasing costs of new talents. For example a character who's (since creation) purchased five talent levels and four attribute points would now pay 300 XP to purchase one of either. And if he boosted an attribute then his next increase would be at 350 XP. Skill/spells are simply a matter of allocating memory (equal to IQ). Again these are fairly freely available at creation, but require some adventuring thereafter. (Nobody around knows that spell, but there are rumors of a hidden library.) __________________ -HJC

09-21-2018, 08:45 AM	#2
Terquem Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: Idaho Falls	Re: Cinematic hero's journey character development This sounds good to me - particularly if the players want to run a campaign that moves more quickly, like a movie, and reaches a climax in just a few sessions.