Modifying the cost for talents?

Anders · 06-05-2009, 04:04 AM

I'm thinking about modifying the cost for Talents. As written, there are immense threshold effects - if you go from 6 to 7 skills in a talent, you double the cost. My suggestion is 1 point/skill (minimum 5 points). Has anyone else tried anything similar?

LemmingLord · 06-05-2009, 09:07 PM

I have not tried this but like the concept. I would actually prefer to cut the IQ (and maybe even dx) stat all together and replace it (them) with talents. :)

The Benj · 06-05-2009, 11:49 PM

I do agree that the thresholds are probably a bit too definite, but if I'm homebrewing new Talents I prefer to just kind of eyeball it, as there's lots of factors other than straight number of Skills, like:
-How much crossover is there between the skills? If the Talent covers ten Skills but some cover for others, that's not as good as if they were ten Skills that each serve their own purposes.
-Does the Talent cover Skills from different Attributes? If a Talent has both DX and IQ skills (like Hot Pilot) or even IQ, HT and Per Skills (like Smooth Operator) that makes it more valuable, as you couldn't easily get the same result by just bumping up one Attribute
-How big, common and useful is the group for whom you get a Reaction bonus?

~~Peter Knutsen~~ · 06-07-2009, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

I'm thinking about modifying the cost for Talents. As written, there are immense threshold effects - if you go from 6 to 7 skills in a talent, you double the cost. My suggestion is 1 point/skill (minimum 5 points). Has anyone else tried anything similar?

I've thought about it.

Instead of having 3 brackets of 5, 10 and 15 CPs per level, have 4 brackets of 6, 9, 12 and 15 CPs per level.

When players built their own Talents, there's an immense temptation to "land" just shy of the breakpoint values, meaning ending up with 6 skills in the Talent, or 12 skills (IIRC the second RAW bracket is 7-12 skills), because if you go up to 7 skills you double the cost of the Talent.

With my proposal, if you go over the first bracket, you increase the cost of the Talent by only 50%. If you go just outside the second bracket, you increase te cost of the Talent by only 33% (compared to 50% in RAW).

Alongside the re-do of Talents, I'd raise the cost of DX and IQ to 25 CPs per level (or perhaps, now that I think about it, 24 CPs since that makes selling down Speed simpler).

Also introduce combat Talents, not as something that players can take directly, but as building blocks for supernatural abilities (as discussed in anothe recent thread).

However, I'm not a GURPS GM, so I haven't actually done the work of deciding how many skills should go into 6/9/12/15 CPs Talents.

Sam Baughn · 06-07-2009, 04:24 AM

One thing I notice is that talents with fewer skills tend to be 'better' than those with lots of skills in the current pricing scheme. It's fairly common for someone to have high levels in three or four skills which can all fall under a single 5 point talent but much rarer for someone to invest a significant number of points in a dozen different skills all covered by one 15 point talent. They also get the same reaction bonus as talents which cost more points per level, which makes them even better.

You might want to charge more points for the first few levels of a talent (or give more skills at higher levels) to compensate for this.

06-05-2009, 04:04 AM	#1
Anders Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Gothenburg, Sweden	Modifying the cost for talents? I'm thinking about modifying the cost for Talents. As written, there are immense threshold effects - if you go from 6 to 7 skills in a talent, you double the cost. My suggestion is 1 point/skill (minimum 5 points). Has anyone else tried anything similar? __________________ “When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius

06-05-2009, 09:07 PM	#2
LemmingLord Join Date: Jul 2005	Re: Modifying the cost for talents? I have not tried this but like the concept. I would actually prefer to cut the IQ (and maybe even dx) stat all together and replace it (them) with talents. :) __________________ Villain's Round Table

06-05-2009, 11:49 PM	#3
The Benj MIB Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Platform Zero, Sydney, Australia	Re: Modifying the cost for talents? I do agree that the thresholds are probably a bit too definite, but if I'm homebrewing new Talents I prefer to just kind of eyeball it, as there's lots of factors other than straight number of Skills, like: -How much crossover is there between the skills? If the Talent covers ten Skills but some cover for others, that's not as good as if they were ten Skills that each serve their own purposes. -Does the Talent cover Skills from different Attributes? If a Talent has both DX and IQ skills (like Hot Pilot) or even IQ, HT and Per Skills (like Smooth Operator) that makes it more valuable, as you couldn't easily get the same result by just bumping up one Attribute -How big, common and useful is the group for whom you get a Reaction bonus?

06-07-2009, 04:24 AM	#5
Sam Baughn Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and some other bits.	Re: Modifying the cost for talents? One thing I notice is that talents with fewer skills tend to be 'better' than those with lots of skills in the current pricing scheme. It's fairly common for someone to have high levels in three or four skills which can all fall under a single 5 point talent but much rarer for someone to invest a significant number of points in a dozen different skills all covered by one 15 point talent. They also get the same reaction bonus as talents which cost more points per level, which makes them even better. You might want to charge more points for the first few levels of a talent (or give more skills at higher levels) to compensate for this.