Talents

[MarkDunder]

My game design is based on an idea from Dave "Zeb" Cook.  He took out attributes and such and stuck everything under Talent Pools.  This allows you to create any character you want without restriction.  He also made up a resolution table cross referencing a d% roll with Talent level and resulting in a color that was used to see how successful you were.

I've taken it from there and pretty much redesigned everything.  My question is, what genre would you prefer to play in for testing a new game?  High fantasy or apocalyptic aftermath?

Magic is my weak point in the game system, but perhaps I can just let the basic design be used for the playtesters to make up their own magic.  Also, high technology is weak. I used to make up Talent Pools for everything, and made things from scratch, i.e. Lock, Stock, and Barrel, was the guns Talent Pools.  But this became cumbersome.  Magic may work this way, but I still keep having trouble on what Talent Pools to use for magic.

Anyway, most of the system I will try to post on my site pretty soon.  Hope you can help me playtest when I'm mostly done.

[dindenver]

Hi!
  I played Dave's Conan RPG that uses this system. I have adapted it for high fantasy and cyberpunk with VERY little modification. I love this systam and have played it all the way up til just a few years ago.
  I think you can use it for almost any genre that supports task based resolution. You just have to pick skills and name them according to your genre.
  What were you thinking about doing with it specifically, I am VERY curious to know.

[MarkDunder]

I love aftermath movies and RPGs such as Twilight 2000 and Aftermath!  But I have done a lot on high fantasy with the game.  Would like to develop guns and explosives with the system.

I have modified the system in this way.  Renamed the Talent Pools to:  Physique, Agility, Melee, Intuition, Judgment, and Craft (actually had Vitality as a seventh Pool once).  Talents such as Missile Weapon (choice of kind) are placed under Judgment.  I have some new types of Talents other than the General and Earned (Fame).  Figured Talents for each Talent Pool:  Shock, Move, Action, Notice, Wit, and Tech.  Levels for Figured Talents are figured by dividing sum of the levels by 5.  They are not used as default Talents like General Talents, but are treated as unique Talents.  I have other types of Talents also that I will explain later perhaps.

I have changed the damage system to Wound Severity:  Negligible (Blue), Light (Green), Major (Yellow), Severe (Orange), and Critical (Red).  As you may have noticed I redid the Resolution Table and now call it the Action Resolution Matrix (or ARM).  You no longer keep track of the total number of Damage points (Damage is still a Talent but it is not used the same way anymore) you get, but you do not have a Wound Talent but a Wound RATING).  A wound (Light, Severe, etc.) is added towards your total Wound Rating.  The Wound Rating is not a Talent, because you would not want to give yourself wounds!  Whenever you receive Severe or Critical Wounds, you see if you survive the Shock by subtracting the Wound Rating and checking on that column with the ARM.  Negligible Wounds add to the Wound level, but otherwise have no real effect on the PC.  Ten Light Wounds will add one Major.  Five Major adds one Severe.  Three Severe adds one Critical.  If you're lucky, you could carry on for some time before going into shock or dying.  Or your first Severe could knock you out.  Wound types are assigned to the Aiming Point struck.  You also keep track of each Aiming Points Rating.  Each Aiming Point influences one of the Talent Pools.  Severe and Critical Wounds changes the levels of every Talent in the Aiming Point's Pool.

Weapons have been designed with a new feature:  Strike Bonus.  This allows you a better chance to increase the color result to Red enabling you to get a Specific Wound.  A Broadsword may have a Strike Bonus of 2.  If you got a Yellow result, you would be able to change the result to Red and cause a Specific Wound.  The original color would still be used to determine the Specific Wound result.  A natural Red would enable the weapons Unique Attack.  A Beheading Axe may have a Cleave of 30.  This would allow extra Wounds and a Red would cause the Aiming Point to get cleaved through.  The Strike Bonus may be used for determining the Unique Attack.  Poison would NOT be considered a Unique Attack.

I've done more, but need to work out several problems.  Should magic be created with it's own Talent Pools or done up like weapons?  I've done it both ways.  Doing them like weapons allows faster builds, but Talent Pools give more realism.  I guess it all depends on the genre?

Will try to get the partly completed system up on my site, still editing right now.

[MarkDunder]

Ok, I give up.  What's up with this forum?

[greyorm]

Ok, I give up.  What's up with this forum?

How do you mean?

[dindenver]

Hi!
  Well, you're not asking very specific questions.
  The original system divides Magic into identifiable domains and then treats them like a normal talent. I don't see any real advantage to doing it differently than that. Seems to me by splitting up the Magic domains across the various Talent Pools, then you start to move away from archetypical I'm good at magic and stink at everything else cliche...

[MarkDunder]

Magic Talents remain basically as they are.  I should have made it more clear and I apologise.  What I tried to do is create Talent Pools for "Spells" such as Source, Components, and Effects.  You would use these three Talent Pools to create a spell from.  Under Source you would list perhaps, Endurance, Strength, Mana, or maybe even Damage.  Under Components you would list perhaps Yellow Lotus, Dead Women's Hair Collected at Midnight, Swamp Gas, etc.  Under Effects you would list such things as Put to Sleep, Explode, Extra Strength, etc.  This would not be part of the make up of a character's Talent Pools, but would stand on their own.  One of the Talents under Source would have to be the Magic Talent needed to used the spell.

Sorry about my remark about what this forum was about, I perhaps was getting a little selfish in my need for feedback.  Perhaps I need to post more to other postings as well.

Thank you for your questions.  Soon I will post the entire game as far as I have done it up at my forum at "talent.myfastforum.org" which by the way is a fantastic free forum service.  I'm choosing the forum method as a way of getting my game on-line.  It is easier than putting it up on my own site.