Talents

[CRMcNeill]

I've had this idea in my head for a while of allowing a character to be better at some skills than others, in that they could improve the skill faster without the attendant CP cost. I wasn't aware until last night that the idea had been suggested elsewhere, and had actually been published. Specifically, the Talents Optional Rule found in Challenge Magazine #63.

The tl;dr of the linked article is that, using some dice rolls, a character gets a certain number of skills that they improve at double the normal CP rate. Say, for example, a character has the Blaster talent, and has Blaster at 5D. The player wants to improve the character's Blaster skill, and spends 5 CP to move the skill from 5D to 5D+1. However, because he has the Blaster talent, he gets a double boost from the CP expenditure, so instead of going from 5D to 5D+1, he goes to 5D+2.

Now, the linked article uses percentile dice to randomize Talents, but I'm thinking that the players should be allowed to select Talents that align with their Character Template. The article also posits that the number of Talents available to a character should be randomly generated - roll 3D; for every result of 1-3, the character gets one Talent - and I'm generally okay with that (although I think Talents should be awarded on a result of 4-6, not 1-3).

Anyway, this idea has been on my mental back burner for some time, but seeing the Challenge article made me decide to put it in writing. Thoughts?
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The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Raven Redstar]

This is sort of the idea that I've been doing with my modified "specializations", but instead of double advancement, they get a +1D bonus to rolls associated with the Spec. I'm thinking I might change the name to talents, since I don't want to confuse the two and do away with the splitting skills up.
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[Naaman]

I have toyed with just cutting the cost to raise talented skills. Either reduce by 1 or reduce in half, etc..
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[garhkal]

If i was to implement a talent situation, i'd offset it with some sort of weakness to balance it out. Much like how in white wolf games you have merits and flaws.
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[Whill]

[CRMcNeill]

[MrNexx]

I'd lean towards talents being purchased, but giving every human 2 free talents.
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[CRMcNeill]

[MrNexx]

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

How's about If you wish to give up one die of the starting skill allocation, you can gain one talent.
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[MrNexx]

[CRMcNeill]

I'm okay with capping it at three for PCs and major NPCs, and two for minor NPCs. Maybe it could be tied to Attribute dice; 1 Talent for every 6D.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

That could work..
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[Grimace]

I don't know what to think of "easier advancement" in certain skills.

In another game I played called "Epic", they had an interesting mechanic for advancement that I really liked and have decided to include in my version of D6. Basically, it has a variety of levels of detail in skills.

You have a base skill that is rather open, say "Weaponless Fighting". A character can increase that up to a value equal to the die number of the appropriate attribute. So if Strength was the attribute, as the character had 3D in that, they could raise Weaponless Fighting up to a maximum of +3D (meaning 6D would be roll in total).

Then there is Focus skills that fall under the base skill. In the case of Weaponless Fighting, you might have a Focus skill of Karate, or Boxing, or Wrestling. Those Focus skills are raised like normal skills, but they add on to the base skill when you are using them. So if you had the Focus skill of Karate at +2D, then you would add the 2D to the 3D of the base skill and then add that to the attribute of 3D, for a total of 8D. But 8D only when using Karate. You could raise the Focus skill up to a maximum of +4D.

Now the DIFFERENT aspect is what happens when you reach a certain amount in Focus skills. When a Focus skill reaches +2D, the player has the option of taking a "side journey" in skill advancement. Instead of increasing the Focus skill up to 2D+1, they could instead decide to spend 20 character points to instead gain an Expertise in that Focus skill.

Let's use Karate as an example. There might be an Expertise of Quivering Palm. That expertise might read like this: If the character takes 1 action to focus their power, they may make a Moderate roll to strike and if they do so, the target is immediately stunned and forced back 1 meter. The target must make a Difficult Strength/Constitution (depending on what is used) roll to avoid losing consciousness. If successful, the target will take 1 full round under the Stun effect and then return to normal.

This Expertise is always available to the character as long as they meet whatever the parameters are.
But the trick is, if the player decides they don't want to spend 20 character points on this, and advance their Focus skill up to 2D+1, then they will never get the Expertise.

And finally, IF the character has picked up the Expertise in their Focus skill, and then progressed their Focus skill up to the maximum of +4D, they then have the opportunity to spend 35 character points and gain a Mastery in that Focus skill.

The Mastery is even more advanced than the Expertise ability. So in this case it might be something like Fight Awareness. This would do something like: When fighting more than 1 enemy, may make one attack on each target, up to a maximum number of enemies equal to your Attribute + Base skill, and not suffer any Multi-Action Penalties for any of your attacks. The entire act of attacking those enemies is considered one action. You also may opt to take one successful dodge per combat round, that you make against the enemies, to deflect that attack and instead propel the attacker into another attacker, stunning both and knocking both down.

Basically, the concept of Expertise and Mastery added benefit (or talents) to skills but did so in a way that was open to anyone who decided to take the option, and provides benefit without adding a lot of complexity. It adds uniqueness to characters so that not every character is just a cookie cutter of the other characters. You might have multiple characters with 6D in Dodge, but one might decide to put in the extra CPs to get the Expertise while the other one decides to put it toward advancing the skill.
(The expertise for Dodge is: Quick - allows one additional Dodge roll per round without suffering a multi-action penalty. The Mastery is: Sixth Sense - You are never caught unaware of an attack. You can make a Dodge roll against attacks from behind, attacks from long range, ambush attacks, and attacks from unseen attackers.)

TL/DR: Adding something like Expertise and Mastery to give benefit is probably better than having variable "talents" that simply increase the number of dice that people will be rolling. It'll make them feel better than having just more dice to roll.