The Fantasy Trip

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

Sounds like the difference is that I generally assume the talent in TFT is the middle of the three, and you seem to assume it's the lowest of the three. I actually think the game needs talents at the bottom every bit as much as talents at the top.

I really don’t. The current talents are fine for starting (32 point) characters.

I don’t run adventures with weaker characters (nor would I think that they’d be much fun). But if someone wanted a basic familiarity with a talent, I’d handle it on a case by case basis. And I can’t ever recall that being requested. But if someone wanted a basic level of (say) Sword, I’d let them apply 1 point to the Sword talent and have them hit with -2 DX (or somesuch). When they added another point to Sword, it would behave normally.

But in probably hundreds of TFT games, this has never come up.* Therefore, I’d be reticent to clutter the game up with an additional tier of talents. However, TFT does have issues at higher levels. So I have introduced the expert and master he and weapon talents - they roll 1d less to hit and add 1d to an opponent’s hit number. They were ok, but nothing earth shattering.

TFT always hit a sweet spot for me. I would only add detail if I thought it addressed a serious issue.

*I suppose a Wizard who desperately wanted to wield a sword might see some benefit in a 1 point basic Sword talent (which would cost him 2 points). But I really think that this can be handled with a short rule - “Talents costing 2+ points can be bought at a basic level. They cost 1 less IQ point and have a -2 to attribute rolls when using that talent. They can be brought up to full strength by spending an extra IQ point later.” Note that an average figure with a 10 in the talent’s applicable attribute would have a 25% chance of success with the basic talent and a 50% chance with the standard talent (assuming 3d rolls). That seems about right to me.