Familiarity with Talents

[JohnPaulB]

This idea is for those who want to get a broader background for their characters but don't need or can't afford to spend Creation Points on them. (Creation Points is the term for spending IQ points on Talents/Spells during the creation of your character.)

Familiarity with a Talent is just that. You are familiar with that subject, either through constant observation, long process of dilettantism, or it's part of your culture.

• It costs 0 points to get Familiarity with that Talent.
• It could be a Talent or a Mundane Talent, but not spells.
• You can acquire ½ your IQ in Familiar Talents.
• It doesn't give you that Talent and any game mechanic benefits of that Talent. (though some GMs may be inclined to give a slight edge on their Unskilled Rolls (ITL p 8).

An example of this in modern times would be driving a car.

Modern Society culture is familiar with cars. You could recognize a car or any automobile style thing like a truck or a tank or perhaps even a motorcycle. You might have an idea on how they operate having seen it done as a passenger, in theatrical movies and perhaps even in videogames. You might even know several ways of troubleshooting a problem with cars having seen this done many times (you wouldn't know the actual process of doing it, just a vague idea).

But unless you buy the “Car” Talent, you use the game mechanics of Unskilled Roll to do the driving.

Another example is riding a horse.

Any fool can sit on a nag; The Horsemanship Talent gives the ability to ride a good horse. Familiarity with horses indicates that you can ride a horse well, but not to the calibre of someone with Horsemanship and will not get their bonus mechanics. You might know that there are ways to be cheated when buying a horse (but you know what they are.). Combat on a horse is still a problem for you (-3 DX), but when combat is not occuring, the GM might allow for a longer falling check of perhaps an hour or so.

If he grew up on the streets, he could be familiar with what it might take to live on the streets, but he would not get the benefit of the mechanics of Streetwise Talent unless he bought the talent. He might know that there are places where you don't want to go, urchins who bump you while taking things, funny talk that has other meanings, and possible groups that cooperate in illegal activities, but he could not get the die roll benefit. He might get a bonus on witnessing some of these things while they occur though.

Another possibility: Maybe he has had to regularly threaten others or defend himself with a knife, but has not used it enough to buy Knife Talent. He still wields a knife like an amateur (unskilled) but is not afraid to use it and is comfortable using it.

The same occurs with Mundane Talents. If you don’t have the Mundane Talent, you are Unskilled in that field and do that talent like any unskilled person. So unless you buy that Mundane Talent for 1 to 3 points, you are assumed to know it at an amateur level. Some amateurs are pretty good (because of high DX or ST or IQ).

Familiar Talent may give a wizard character a bit more credibility for his history. He could be Familiar with Farming because his family were farmers and he had to do planting too. He did not train to be a farmer (he didn't buy the Mundane Talent: Farming), but he could talk about it with other farmers.

[Bill_in_IN]

Hmm...Interesting.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

• You can acquire ½ your IQ in Familiar Talents.

In TFT the choice of talents is a tradeoff: e.g. you can have Courtly Graces or Tactics but not both, and the player gets to choose which. The alternative philosophy is for the game designer to decide which of these you will have, which is largely how a class-based system like D&D works. I greatly prefer the TFT philosophy to the D&D one.

I therefore think it's unfortunate that you've specified the number of familiar talents the PC gets, rather than making it a tradeoff against regular talents.

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

In TFT the choice of talents is a tradeoff: e.g. you can have Courtly Graces or Tactics but not both, and the player gets to choose which. The alternative philosophy is for the game designer to decide which of these you will have, which is largely how a class-based system like D&D works. I greatly prefer the TFT philosophy to the D&D one.

I therefore think it's unfortunate that you've specified the number of familiar talents the PC gets, rather than making it a tradeoff against regular talents.

My familiarity with D&D is 40 years old. However, I remember it to be as you describe. I think that the trade off that you mention goes even deeper.

The class based system seems to benefit beginning characters by ensuring that they have a list of pre-determined abilities. The difference between beginning D&D characters and TFT characters is very evident in wizards and the strength of their magic. I don't know if it makes the beginning D&D characters any more survivable but the creator of the PC doesn't seem to require as much thought and planning as creating a TFT character. This is especially true for nerds like me that like to experiment with various character builds, teaming with other builds, and their development.

I like TFT for the fact that you can start one's exposure to the game with a decent canned creation from an experienced GM or the GM can spend the time to help them create a well-thought out character that has a good base for a development path. I just didn't get this feel from D&D. My experience went like this. Here is your level one fighter with the weapons and armor closest to your preference as allowed. As he went up in level (I got to 10 before losing interest), here is how it affects your stats, armor, and weapons. There was very little choice involved in character development. That didn't appeal to me at all.

Your point about talents being trade-offs in TFT is very true. It pushed me into creating beginning character parties to fill out talents/abilities. However, the idea of a character with a certain background having some pre-determined mundane talents is a reasonable GM call that doesn't upset the balance of beginning TFT character unless they are given a huge list of them.

An occasional mundane talent given out by the GM as the PC builds new background story can also be interesting. I have a Reptile Man that is a good crossbowman and developing along an Unarmed Combat path. Being a non-so-liked Lizard, he took a job at the local orphanage to protect the place because the Orc woman that was running it didn't want the children to see her killing miscreants intending to do harm. Orcs are shunned enough but a Reptile Man is probably even more offensive in appearance. After some time on the job, our GM gave him the mundane talent of Babysitting. I guess that may come in handy if he ever comes across a baby in his adventures. It will definitely make the situation more comical than normal. He probably won't change diapers because of his claws.

[Helborn]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

In TFT the choice of talents is a tradeoff: e.g. you can have Courtly Graces or Tactics but not both,

I'm missing where this rule appears. Why can't I have both?

[timm meyers]

I like this idea. Anything that helps "form" a character/personality is a positive thing.
These "Familiarities" are not talents, they are helpful notes to a character's history.
The only real game effects they might have would be something like giving a character who has "familiarity" with talents the ability to use the rules of "-4DX without the talent". Those without "familiarity" could only use the item like a club.

Example- Joe grew up in "modernville" and new "what" an arquebus (guns talent) was. Fred lived in "lowtechville" and has never even heard of such a thing as guns (maybe not even crossbows). Joe can pick up the arquebus and at least point the right end at the enemy with -4DX penalty. Fred however has no clue and couldn't even try to fire it, but still could swing it like a club.
Obviously these "familiarities" could be very easy to acquire. The above example that Fred might easily become familiar with the gun concept after watching a few (or one?) shot.

I could see a great use for this concept in describing national or cultural backgrounds. You could have a standerd list of "Familiarities" for different regions/cultures that at the minimum might give some flavor to a player's choice of origins for a character.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Helborn

I'm missing where this rule appears. Why can't I have both?

I mean, "You have one talent point left, you can buy this or this but not both." Tradeoffs.