Using Talents in Old Age

[JohnPaulB]

Since old age is severe in TFT (ITL p 10), when character's normal IQ of 12 lowers to IQ of 10, I'm assuming he loses some ability with those higher IQ Talents.

Are the Aging Rules a guideline or are they fixed? If you are creating a new 'old age' character, do they have to lose 20 points (aside from increases by XP) by age 70?

So if you have a 38 point character at 50 years old, he is an 18 point character at 70 years old? A 30 point non-adventurous NPC at 50 years old would be a 10 point character at 70 years old. Doesn't fit the demographics of the elderly, at least not currently. Probably not in centuries past. Some are still going to be spry in mind and body.

Seems to me it should be at least a flip of the coin (50%) at least, to see if it is reduced each year.

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So now on to the Talent problem.

40 year old Joe has IQ of 12 and Assess Value (ITL p 42).

Now 60 years old, Joe has been reduced to IQ 10. What happens to his Assess Value Talent of IQ 12?

• He totally forgets how to use it.

He no longer possesses the talent.

• He becomes unskilled at it (ITL p 8)

He is required to roll additional dice to succeed.

• He has it at penalty of -2 IQ (basically, he has IQ 10 worth of memory of it. This is in addition to any other Attribute Penalty he might have with the Old Age.)

The penalty becomes related to the new level of IQ and not to rolling additional dice. His memory of it is faulty, but can still be attempted.

• Other possibilities?

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

Since old age is severe in TFT (ITL p 10), when character's normal IQ of 12 lowers to IQ of 10, I'm assuming he loses some ability with those higher IQ Talents.

From my perspective, the aging rules are too harsh.

Are the Aging Rules a guideline or are they fixed? If you are creating a new 'old age' character, do they have to lose 20 points (aside from increases by XP) by age 70?

It seems practical to just assume that if the GM is having you make an X-point character, those are how many points they have, regardless of age.

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So now on to the Talent problem.

40 year old Joe has IQ of 12 and Assess Value (ITL p 42).

Now 60 years old, Joe has been reduced to IQ 10. What happens to his Assess Value Talent of IQ 12?

• He totally forgets how to use it.

He no longer possesses the talent.

This would be consistent with the effects of the Confusion spell.

• He becomes unskilled at it (ITL p 8)

He is required to roll additional dice to succeed.

This would be mechanically identical to forgetting the talent, no?

• He has it at penalty of -2 IQ (basically, he has IQ 10 worth of memory of it. This is in addition to any other Attribute Penalty he might have with the Old Age.)

The penalty becomes related to the new level of IQ and not to rolling additional dice. His memory of it is faulty, but can still be attempted.

This is more realistic. I'd give a penalty of -2 per points of IQ below the prerequisite level, which would be consistent with my house rule for using spells above one's IQ.

[hcobb]

c.f. ITL 47 Losing Abilities When Attributes Are Reduced

The current aging rules are the same as first edition other than the cheats for elves and reptile people are gone and the lost attribute points are exponentially more expensive to replace.

My question is how much can you dump ST over age 50? Shapeshifting (ITL 33) seems to suggest that you can only drop one point of ST so a human at ST 7 or a Halfling at ST 3. This means that humans age out at ST 7 and DX 7 until their IQ goes to zero.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by hcobb

c.f. ITL 47 Losing Abilities When Attributes Are Reduced

Thank you hcobb, That is what I was searching for but couldn't FIND.

"The figure may lose the ability to use some of their spells or talents.
A character whose stats are reduced will retain all her abilities – but she cannot use those for which the original, higher stats were prerequisites."

So if your DX permanently goes below 12, but you have Fencer (IQ 12) Talent, you still know how to do it, you just don't gain the benefit in the rolls. But since you still retain the knowledge, perhaps you can teach Fencer to someone? Perhaps it takes longer?

The current aging rules are the same as first edition other than the cheats for elves and reptile people are gone and the lost attribute points are exponentially more expensive to replace.

My question is how much can you dump ST over age 50? Shapeshifting (ITL 33) seems to suggest that you can only drop one point of ST so a human at ST 7 or a Halfling at ST 3. This means that humans age out at ST 7 and DX 7 until their IQ goes to zero.

I don't see there being a limit on reducing ST. It just means that if you have old age, you gradually get weaker and weaker; your ST goes down if you apply it to that attribute.

Perhaps Shapeshifting is a metaphysical problem, independent of any lower than Minimum age induced problems.

[hcobb]

What happens when you shapeshift the princess into a 70-year old version of herself?

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by hcobb

What happens when you shapeshift the princess into a 70-year old version of herself?

You break the game and can't play anymore?

I thought you could only shapeshift into the equivalent representational age of the thing that is converting. A 2 year old dog will convert into a 14 year old person (if you are using the old 7 dog years to a human year.)

Because if you can shapeshift into a younger version of yourself, you wouldn't need to buy Youth Potion.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

Because if you can shapeshift into a younger version of yourself, you wouldn't need to buy Youth Potion.

Until you crit fail to dust...

[Steve Plambeck]

Add to the list of Greater Magic Items: a painted portrait of yourself that does the aging for you. The wizard who could make such a painting could charge anything they wanted.