Re: New Skills
 

I would observe that these are not exactly talents in the sense of things that you can learn; they might make sense if taken as initial choices, but less so if taken later.

Re: New Skills
 

The Count of Montecristo begs to differ...

Re: New Skills
 

My feeling on things like this is that if they can grant consistent mechanical advantages, they should cost points and there are usually ways to rationalize characters getting them late in the game.

Re: New Skills
 

I agree and posted earlier that I think if such a talent simply removes the need to ready a weapon, then it is mainly removing an interesting element of play for those characters.

And, I generally dislike all the things that remove elements of play. (e.g. High DX - yay, I almost always hit everyone I attack. Magic healing - poof, no one needs to rest. Magic Light or Dark Vision - poof, no one needs to worry about lighting. Magic Food - poof, no more food supply issues.) It makes improving your character make interesting parts of the game go away.

And, it shouldn't just remove all meaning from having your weapon ready or not. It should still be better to have a ready weapon than not.

Seems to me a DX penalty for attacking on the turn you fast-draw something would tend to work well. There could be levels of mastery that reduce the penalty, but I'd never have it go away entirely. Maybe start at -5 or -6 for the first level of the talent, and let people dump points into it to reduce the penalty.

Of course, there should be some consideration for the type of weapon. One or more of the classic "TFT is broken" articles was about people abusing the fast-draw ability included in Thrown Weapons to have people with many boomerangs, nets and bolas using them every turn (sigh). Can someone quick-draw a crossbow, load and shoot it in one turn? Can they fire a bow twice per turn?

Also, should the talent apply to all weapons, or do you need to train it in each weapon type, as in GURPS?

Re: New Skills
 

A new skill I'd suggest is "Riposte"

Prerequisites: Sword and Fencing

If the character with the skill chooses the "Defend" option, each time they are attacked and the attacker misses they may immediately make a counterattack, also rolling 4 dice vs DX.

This makes the idea of a skilled "counterpunching" or "counterstriking" swordsman viable (Think about Inigo Montoya vs the six-fingered man in the Princess Bride)

Re: New Skills
 

I think you're being excessively hostile here.

Re: New Skills
 

Hi Zot, everyone.
This is an interesting idea. To gain high ranks in a hierarchy, it costs you an experience 'block' to gain.

This is a bit like GURPS spending character points to gain the advantages of military rank, ecclesiastical rank, etc. (Of course, I think in GURPS if you earn it thru roleplaying, you get the advantage for free.) Perhaps if you pay an experience block, you get fast tracked for promotion? Would you have to pay 2 experience blocks to fast track to the second level, and 3 for the third level? How do you see this working?

Zot, you might want to start a new thread of other uses for experience to discuss this idea and others like it.

Warm regards, Rick.

Re: New Skills
 

>> Rick Wrote:
>> "Oh, maybe? Chris would you like to weigh in?"

Hi JLV,
No hostility was intended. I had not considered the idea that you brought up and considered it possible, (tho certainly not certain from what Chris had said). I asked Chris, and he was kind enough to clarify.

Warm regards, Rick.

Re: New Skills
 

Roger that Rick; I later read his response, which was calm and well-reasoned. And your response to same. It just seemed like you were getting very defensive there and I was concerned that we were pushing past the cooperative stage here...

My apologies for the misunderstanding.

Re: New Skills
 

Actually I'm thinking it's the opposite of a fast track -- moving up in an organization (usually) takes time and effort and the talent point represents all the effort you have put into it, just like when you "spend time studying" for any other talent.