Re: New Talents
 

Why do I find it hilarious that I thought the exact same thing? Probably because I should have been born British. :)

Re: New Talents
 

One use for Talents is to emphasize style issues. Example: I could see separate Talents for Hard-boiled Detective and Country House Detective. After all, Mike Hammer and Miss Marple do things differently. If you throw in Superhero Detective, to allow Batman in the group, the three could spend most of their time driving each other nuts.

Still, the separate Talents would allow the characters to be in genre and work together.

Re: New Talents
 

My view is that's not a sufficiently strict criterion to reflect how Talents were originally conceived. For example, I don't think a 'narrative theme' would prevents the 'Singing Cowboy' Talent I posted here as an example of a faulty Talent.

I think more emphasis needs to be placed on the text in Basic Set:


In view of the text I bolded, I think that a mere coincidence of skills being used by a certain profession or even being common to a certain trope or role niche is not sufficient justification to be a Talent, since there is no believable natural aptitude that joins (to take the case of the excluded Ninja for example) Stealth and Poisons, or (to take the published example Born Spacer) Navigation and Vacc Suit. If Navigation and Vacc Suit can both be part of a "believable inborn aptitude", then so can Animal Handling and Guitar, or indeed, anything whatsoever.

The relaxation of criteria also creates a minmaxing issue, when Talent skill inclusion is driven by a desire for a specific cost for a Talent (e.g. wanting it to be 5 points instead of more), rather than the number of skills which an aptitude should believably assist, for example if a Talent that includes Gardening for no obvious reason excludes Farming.

Re: New Talents
 

Depends on whether you care about realism or not. In a non-realistic campaign (i.e., 90% of what people play)... well, you can ease that restriction.

Fisticuffs!
Boxing, Brawling, Judo, Karate, Sumo Wrestling, Wrestling. 5 points/level

Reaction Bonus: Fistfighters!

Re: New Talents
 

My concern, however, is not about realism, but about CP cost balance and character design.

Re: New Talents
 

Herr Doktor
Chemistry, Diagnosis, Pharmacy, Physician, Physiology, Surgery
+1/level to Fright Checks caused by body horror.

Witchcraft Works
Alchemy, Chemistry, Hazardous Materials (Magical), Pharmacy, Poisons, Thaumatology

Re: New Talents
 

Talents eventually cost more than just raising base stats, as such I stopped caring about "thematic" a long time ago. I'd rather see a PC with 80 points in Talents that provide anywhere from +1 to +6 to the different groups of skills covered than them buying IQ +4.



Agreed. I'm firmly in the "any group of skills with a moniker" camp.

For instance I recently put this one on a Character I made:

Assassin Craft [5/lvl] +1 Climbing, Connoisseur (Poisons), Escape, Poison, Stealth


Though upon reflection I should have called it Third Story Poisoner or something... leaving me wiggle room for other "Assassin" themed talents for the Character.

Re: New Talents
 

Racial Talents can already be made however the GM wants, and then PU3 went further into how to make talents in general (including the even more intense Job Training).

Re: New Talents
 

The Kid From Around the Way talent:

Bicycling, Games, Area Knowledge, Connoisseur (e.g. candy, kids shows), Diplomacy


Inner City Teen talent:

Streetwise, Area Knowledge, Heraldry (Gangs), Sports, Current Events (e.g.Pop Culture), Fast-talk


Homeless Wino talent:

Urban Survival, Streetwise, Filch, Panhandling, Connoisseur (e.g. cheap booze, restaurant dumpsters), Scrounging


Alpha Ape talent:

Area Knowledge, Survival, Intimidation, Brawling, Leadership, Brachiating

Re: New Talents
 

Actually, some of those aren't entirely bad. If I need to explain Talents, one of the things I can say about a lot of them is that they can represent innate general intelligence which has been developed in a limited, focused, but effective form thanks to obsessive interest or narrow education.

So the "Kid From Around the Way" could be a very bright kid who lives in the moment and has never been persuaded to study more broadly, but whose intelligence comes out in the things that interest him. Likewise, the "Inner City Teen" could be a darker version of the same; a smart kid, but one who's so focused on surviving in that street gang environment that his innate potential expresses itself in very limited ways. The "Homeless Wino" is similar, though I suspect that a serious booze habit would burn out that potential quite fast, so I'd rename it "Street Person" or something; it's someone who found themselves in the gutter and rapidly learned to focus down hard on their immediate urban environment and how to endure there, to the point that they can't think outside that box, because that would be pointless and dangerous.

The "Alpha Ape" would of course be a fine racial talent for a primate species with strong hierarchical and dominance-oriented impulses. (I mean, worse than humanity.) Evolution would favour that sort of wiring. A sapient race evolved from that ancestry would have some trouble forming large-scale societies, mind you.