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David Bofinger · 12-27-2021, 06:38 AM

Some thoughts:

The main effect of such a system would be to make it possible, but very expensive, to be a real expert in a mundane talent.
It makes it possible to distinguish between a person who is an ordinary farmer and a person who is known as a very skilled farmer. I'm not sure that's something people are clamouring to be able to do, though I guess it does no harm.
It will tend to price PCs out of the mundane talent market. Instead of paying a small fee in talent points to be able to farm, it's now a small fee to be able to walk around behind a plough, and a more substantial fee to be a farmer. As it stands nobody much bothers to buy the mundane talents, so making them more expensive or less useful is almost certainly a bad idea.
The example given for a farmer is probably not a good one. The 3-point farming talent doesn't describe someone who runs an estate: that needs literacy and some kind of administrator talent but it doesn't require you to be a genius at the actual farming bit. In the same way that officers in the army or navy are not the best riflemen or most skilled knot experts but have special command talents, the genius farmer is likely to be a highly valued employee but not the manager.

12-27-2021, 06:38 AM	#41
David Bofinger Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Sydney, Australia	Re: Mundane Talents and Backgrounds Some thoughts: The main effect of such a system would be to make it possible, but very expensive, to be a real expert in a mundane talent. It makes it possible to distinguish between a person who is an ordinary farmer and a person who is known as a very skilled farmer. I'm not sure that's something people are clamouring to be able to do, though I guess it does no harm. It will tend to price PCs out of the mundane talent market. Instead of paying a small fee in talent points to be able to farm, it's now a small fee to be able to walk around behind a plough, and a more substantial fee to be a farmer. As it stands nobody much bothers to buy the mundane talents, so making them more expensive or less useful is almost certainly a bad idea. The example given for a farmer is probably not a good one. The 3-point farming talent doesn't describe someone who runs an estate: that needs literacy and some kind of administrator talent but it doesn't require you to be a genius at the actual farming bit. In the same way that officers in the army or navy are not the best riflemen or most skilled knot experts but have special command talents, the genius farmer is likely to be a highly valued employee but not the manager.