Eidetic Memory using notes?

[stranger38]

Hi guys. I'm GMing a DF campaign and onfe of my players is a rapier wield palad... i mean holy warrior. And he had the most simplest and amazing idea: Taking notes of everything important.

I just made him pay a point for a perk (characeristic equipment?), so he can use his notes like a limited version of photographic memory. ]9as long he has his notes he can access past information.

How would you stat that? photgraphic memory with limitation (acess: notes)
SOP (takes notes)?

[Anders]

A perk seems like a good choice.

[Polydamas]

"Always writes it down" sounds like a Standard Operating Procedure perk. Note that most low-tech settings will not have a clear, permanent way of writing on a thin, lightweight surface without opening an ink pot or wetting a cake of ink, and this limits characters note-taking. In Dungeon Fantasy settings where kit is in 'a backpack' which never gets in the way except as abstract Encumbrance and torches provide Light with an abstract strength this might be brushed over.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by stranger38

Hi guys. I'm GMing a DF campaign and onfe of my players is a rapier wield palad... i mean holy warrior. And he had the most simplest and amazing idea: Taking notes of everything important.

I just made him pay a point for a perk (characeristic equipment?), so he can use his notes like a limited version of photographic memory. ]9as long he has his notes he can access past information.

How would you stat that? photgraphic memory with limitation (acess: notes)
SOP (takes notes)?

It depends on how it is expected to work. If it is expected to act as photographic memory with an accessibility limitation, a one point perk isn't even close to a fair value. The minimum cost for Photographic Memory with the maximum possible limitation on it is 2 points (Photographic Memory [10] with -80% limitation = [2]) One point would be a fair price as a perk for a maxed limitation Eidetic Memory ([5]-80% limitation =[1]) which would let the character remember what happened in a general, but not detailed, sense. In both cases, a maxed limitation of 80% should mean that the character doesn't have access to his notes in most circumstances. Even being unable to access his notes half the time would only be a 20% limitation making a fair price [8] and [4] points respectively.

As an SOP, it should take a considerable time to make detailed notes and they should not be nearly as good as having even eidetic memory. It would be close to:
Indy: Can't you remember it?
Professor Jones: I wrote it down so I wouldn't have to remember it, Junior.
and we saw Professor Jones spending several minutes just to create a partial page of notes.

[whswhs]

The low-tech way of taking notes is to have a wax tablet and a stylus. It helps if you have skill in a form of shorthand; that goes back at least to Rome. Then after the adventure is over you transcribe the notes into a more permanent medium, and erase the tablet by smoothing the wax.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The low-tech way of taking notes is to have a wax tablet and a stylus. It helps if you have skill in a form of shorthand; that goes back at least to Rome. Then after the adventure is over you transcribe the notes into a more permanent medium, and erase the tablet by smoothing the wax.

This is also (in games where these details matter) how you map the dungeon.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The low-tech way of taking notes is to have a wax tablet and a stylus. It helps if you have skill in a form of shorthand; that goes back at least to Rome. Then after the adventure is over you transcribe the notes into a more permanent medium, and erase the tablet by smoothing the wax.

Two limitations are that the tablets are heavier and more fragile than paper or parchment and that they are hard to read in poor light eg. a dungeon

In some DF games, a Perk might let you buy TL 4 Gnomish Writing Sticks (graphite pencils, which existed by the 16th century but were not cheap and widespread before the 19th - learning to write on a slate was still a thing)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Two limitations are that the tablets are heavier and more fragile than paper or parchment and that they are hard to read in poor light eg. a dungeon

I'd expect that incised text on a wax tablet could be read by touch like Braille.

[pawsplay]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

"Always writes it down" sounds like a Standard Operating Procedure perk.

This is how I would do it. If he could reasonably have written it down, he did, in as much detail as one can manage on the go.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I'd expect that incised text on a wax tablet could be read by touch like Braille.

Braille is going to be faster though: this was the original way the blind were taught to read (so its possible), but Braille is used for the blind instead because it has many advantages for reading by touch.