Character levels of competency - Page 5

Nils_Lindeberg · 08-08-2018, 08:32 AM

First I am a little confused about Steve's table. High average and above average is misleading. Call above average something else in the line with Superior. In my world above average is basically average but a little better. And here we already have several levels of average. Maybe Talented, Gifted, Promising, Person of note, Expert, Experienced, Somebody, Important, Up and coming, etc.

And secondly, you all seem to assume that a person needs any talents at all. When I have started low xp campaigns my players have gotten maybe half of their IQ filled up with talents and then we use the rule about study talents that gives you some advantage in that area compared to others.

And a farm boy with IQ can still study Farming and be a little bit better at it than a fisherman's son and so on. Even a talent like Farming should be considered a career and not all farmers have the talent. They might rely on their old man or uncle for the serious decisions, or just be a hired hand, or the farmer's son that wants to do other things with his life and only goes through the motions, or studies the talent but will never actually get it, etc.

And also average attributes include children, the sick, and old. So a man with a good upbringing and in his prime, should definitely be on the higher end of average, even though his talents might be focused in one area and maybe he hasn't filled out all the talents his IQ allows for. And as I understand it IQ doesn't have to be filled out since it is not only memory and learned abilities, it is also time needed to keep those abilities ready for use.

So a lazy person or someone who spends 16 hours a day as a serf doing menial labor or have "saved" slots for his studies at higher IQ or never got an education or apprenticeship to begin with, might have big "holes" in his talent set or no talents at all beside the free ones like his own language. We have had loads of fun playing zero to hero campaigns. And my next campaign will definitely be that or a funnel type of a thing. Fast xp gain and fast campaign time, like prelude play, will guaranteed that the players can spend most of the actual playing time playing at normal levels. But they will always remember those introductory scenarios from their youth or before the big event that turned them into would be heroes. And TFT can work well even if you start play as a group of childhood friends. :-)

JLV · 08-08-2018, 01:10 PM

I don't know that "[we] all seem to assume" anything, Nils. Maybe not be so broadly general in your condemnations of us. We are discussing rules, and as such, we tend to focus on "edge cases" where the rule can potentially experience problems, not the general execution of the rule in non-edge case areas.

~~Jim Kane~~ · 08-08-2018, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nils_Lindeberg

And secondly, you all seem to assume that a person needs any talents at all.

Would you agree that might be a beneficial idea to assign at least *one talent* to a non-combatant/Mundane NPC; if only to flesh him out beyond a list of three stats, and if for no other reason than to give him some dimension and justify his function as a character within an adventure story - if only in the mind of the creating GM?

I think so, as I believe that the *Willing-Suspension-of-Disbelief* occurs in the mind of the composing GM first, and is transferred to the players second via osmosis; and if this quality is not present in a high enough concentration, it makes *selling the reality of the fantasy* that much harder - at least in my case.

No?

08-08-2018, 08:32 AM	#41
Nils_Lindeberg Join Date: Jul 2018	Re: Character levels of competency First I am a little confused about Steve's table. High average and above average is misleading. Call above average something else in the line with Superior. In my world above average is basically average but a little better. And here we already have several levels of average. Maybe Talented, Gifted, Promising, Person of note, Expert, Experienced, Somebody, Important, Up and coming, etc. And secondly, you all seem to assume that a person needs any talents at all. When I have started low xp campaigns my players have gotten maybe half of their IQ filled up with talents and then we use the rule about study talents that gives you some advantage in that area compared to others. And a farm boy with IQ can still study Farming and be a little bit better at it than a fisherman's son and so on. Even a talent like Farming should be considered a career and not all farmers have the talent. They might rely on their old man or uncle for the serious decisions, or just be a hired hand, or the farmer's son that wants to do other things with his life and only goes through the motions, or studies the talent but will never actually get it, etc. And also average attributes include children, the sick, and old. So a man with a good upbringing and in his prime, should definitely be on the higher end of average, even though his talents might be focused in one area and maybe he hasn't filled out all the talents his IQ allows for. And as I understand it IQ doesn't have to be filled out since it is not only memory and learned abilities, it is also time needed to keep those abilities ready for use. So a lazy person or someone who spends 16 hours a day as a serf doing menial labor or have "saved" slots for his studies at higher IQ or never got an education or apprenticeship to begin with, might have big "holes" in his talent set or no talents at all beside the free ones like his own language. We have had loads of fun playing zero to hero campaigns. And my next campaign will definitely be that or a funnel type of a thing. Fast xp gain and fast campaign time, like prelude play, will guaranteed that the players can spend most of the actual playing time playing at normal levels. But they will always remember those introductory scenarios from their youth or before the big event that turned them into would be heroes. And TFT can work well even if you start play as a group of childhood friends. :-)

08-08-2018, 01:10 PM	#42
JLV Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Arizona	Re: Character levels of competency I don't know that "[we] all seem to assume" anything, Nils. Maybe not be so broadly general in your condemnations of us. We are discussing rules, and as such, we tend to focus on "edge cases" where the rule can potentially experience problems, not the general execution of the rule in non-edge case areas.