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Old 04-01-2020, 03:08 AM   #1
Steve Plambeck
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Default A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

We talked about this in an old thread, but rather than revive that one I'll post this as fresh idea that'll probably get better noticed. This isn't a house rule, but a suggestion for how to "track" the XP spent on spells and talents on character record sheets. It should make it easier to check if a figures Attribute total and career Experience point total add up correctly and makes sense.

The solution is a new stat, called Extra Memory, which can be abbreviated XM on record sheets. Mind you this is only a stat for record keeping, not a proposed Attribute. (All Attributes may be stats, but not all stats have to be Attributes!)

New figures start with an XM of ZERO (0). This should be noted somewhere near the IQ and/or Experience tallies.

Each time the character spends 500 XP towards learning something (ITL LE, 46), XM is increased by 1.

Then at any time in the character's career, the number of spells and/or talents they could have learned must equal IQ+XM.

That's it. If you want to know how many XP any character has spent on spells and talents so far, just multiply XM times 500.
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Last edited by Steve Plambeck; 04-01-2020 at 03:14 AM.
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Old 04-01-2020, 06:04 AM   #2
Shostak
 
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Default Re: A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

A neat idea, Steve. But what happens when a character loses a point in an attribute--say IQ?
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Old 04-02-2020, 03:03 AM   #3
Steve Plambeck
 
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Default Re: A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

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Originally Posted by Shostak View Post
A neat idea, Steve. But what happens when a character loses a point in an attribute--say IQ?
No reason it should be any different than now (ITL LE 47).

Under the current rules you don't lose/forget any talents or spells if a prerequisite Attribute becomes permanently reduced, but you cannot use the ones for which your new IQ, ST, or DX is now below the minimum for having used it before. You couldn't cast an IQ 14 spell if your IQ was reduced to 13, although you wouldn't actually forget it. Same for the Fencing talent if your DX became too low, etc. But you'd be able to resume using it if you ever increased the Attribute back to the minimum required.

Those spells and talents "paid for" with XP are no different -- you really don't even have to keep track of which ones were "bought" with IQ vs. which were paid for with XP.

Be weird though for awhile, as your current IQ (plus my suggested XM stat) might not appear to be large enough for the total spells and talents listed on your record sheet. But if you died and got resurrected with a lower IQ, you're pretty unlikely to forget it happened!
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Old 04-02-2020, 03:12 AM   #4
Steve Plambeck
 
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Default Re: A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

Huh -- not sure why this got moved to House Rules?!??

I suggested a trick for keeping easy track of XP on a record sheet, and how it was spent.

There's absolutely no deviation from the RAW even hinted at!
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Old 04-02-2020, 06:37 AM   #5
Shostak
 
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Default Re: A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

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Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck View Post
Be weird though for awhile, as your current IQ (plus my suggested XM stat) might not appear to be large enough for the total spells and talents listed on your record sheet.
Exactly. There are instances in which the stat will not provide the information you want.
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Old 04-02-2020, 10:12 AM   #6
hcobb
 
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Default Re: A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

"Other Information: On the back of this sheet, list personal information about this character, possessions which he/she is not carrying at
present, notes on where he has been and who he knows, a running total of experience points . . . and anything else you think is important"

c.f. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping
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Old 04-03-2020, 01:29 AM   #7
Steve Plambeck
 
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Default Re: A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

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"Other Information: On the back of this sheet, list personal information about this character, possessions which he/she is not carrying at present, notes on where he has been and who he knows, a running total of experience points . . . and anything else you think is important"
I can only speculate as to why you're quoting this here.

Are you implying that my suggestion to put a note to yourself in, say, the upper right corner of a record sheet constitutes a "House Rule", because I didn't suggest putting it on the back of the sheet?

Well, if anyone wants to call that a rule variant, I guess people have very different definitions of what is and isn't a rule in the first place. But hey, I'm fine and dandy with that.

I always kept a figure's XP total on the front of my record sheets and cards. Same for money and equipment weight. Guess I was being a radical! :)
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Old 04-03-2020, 01:44 AM   #8
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Default Re: A "memory stat" for record keeping purposes

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Originally Posted by Shostak View Post
Exactly. There are instances in which the stat will not provide the information you want.
The information wanted was the number of times 500 XP got spent on increasing learning capacity. I labeled it "XM" but it could be named however one likes. If I did it 3 times (1500 XP spent) to learn 3 spells, or 1 spell and a 2-point talent, or 3 talents that cost 1 each, I've still spent 500 XP 3 times.

That number will always be true, it will always be 3 regardless of what my IQ does or doesn't become in the future.

If the total of this spent, plus the current IQ, doesn't line up with the number of spells and/or talents listed, because IQ was reduced 1 by age or death later, you can always write "IQ was reduced 1 due to _____" somewhere on the record sheet too if you're worried about it.
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