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.