Character creation question

[Ian]

Something came up while going over character creation rules this weekend;  Where gifts are concerned, are the gifts and flaws received based on prioritization of gifts absolute?  That is to say, if you have a rating of E you are required to take one minor gift and one major flaw.  Is it possible to take additional flaws on top of that to gain additional gifts, though?

Thanks!

[svenlein]

Some say yes some say no.  Jake would say do whatever you want.  Beware min maxers.

[Ian]

Thanks =)  And, believe me, we do beware of them ;)

[Brian Leybourne]

I do it like this:

Major Gift = 2 points
Minor gift = 1 point
Minor Flaw = -1 points
Major Flaw = -2 points

The priority you put into gifts gives you a number of points (A is listed as 2 major gifts, so it's really 4 points, E is a major flaw and a minor gift so it's really -1 points, and so on).

Players can then buy up Gifts and Flaws as long as their final tallied up score equals the priority.

So in your example of a priority E, you could take a major flaw and a minor gift, total -1 points. Of you could just take a minor flaw and nothing else (also total -1 points). Or you could take a major gift, a major flaw and a minor flaw, total -1 points again. And so on.

As long as you don't let players get carried away, it seems to work. I have not had a player try to take advantage of this, but if one did I would probably limit them to -4 points worth of flaws total, or something like that (so on priority F they could take 4 points worth of flaws and a minor gift, totalling -3 points which is F, and so on upwards. Could cause problems if they had taken an A priority in gifts admittedly, because that could mean 4 points of flaws and *8* points of gifts, but then who in their right mind takes an A priority in gifts? :-)

As I said, this is not canon or anyhting, just the way I do it.

Brian.

[Thirsty Viking]

I like your approach,    I think what I'd do is establish a hard cap of  oh..   lets say Point Value +3 in total GIFTS.

At F where points is -3 ...  no gifts are possible  IIRC.

At A you could have 7 gift points  with -3 flaw points.

Just my first thoughts,   You have to code something.

Yes i realize the min maxer arguments...   but i believe the TROS system is flexible enough to handle them.

[Jake Norwood]

Actually, while I do advocate the "do what works for you" policy, I have an opinion on this one. I say no, leave it exactly as written. Too many gifts and flaws make it hard to concentrate on the SAs, which is where that effort should be placed. Gifts and flaws are usually pretty important things, and are really only there to spice up a character. Too much spice and you can't taste the main dish anymore.

Jake

[Bob Richter]

Actually, while I do advocate the "do what works for you" policy, I have an opinion on this one. I say no, leave it exactly as written. Too many gifts and flaws make it hard to concentrate on the SAs, which is where that effort should be placed. Gifts and flaws are usually pretty important things, and are really only there to spice up a character. Too much spice and you can't taste the main dish anymore.

Jake

Then again, some of us like it spicier than others. :)

In my games, I allow just a LITTLE flexibility. I let you get ONE gift and ONE flaw outside that listed if you BEG me hard enough and CONVINCE me that you MUST have THIS gift/flaw/whatever.

Remember that the Seneschal may grant Gifts and Flaws whenever he deems it appropriate.

[Ron Edwards]

Hey,

I'm with Jake on this one. My applied-to-my-game answer is "No."

Best,
Ron

[Valamir]

The only exception to Ron and Jake's stance I'd use in a game I run is that the letter limits restrict the possible combination of major and minors in a rather arbitrary way.  So if a particular combination seems to make sense for the character but isn't strictly the precise combination mandanted by the chosen letter, I'd certainly consider it on the grounds that that combination doesn't really seem to have any deep philosophical meaning and is just what got written down on the chart (correct me if I'm wrong there Jake).

[Brian Leybourne]

*shrugs*

Fair enough. I'm of the counter opinion that being hard-assed and thus preventing a player buying what he needs to make his character special to him is counter-productive to the game as a whole. As I said, I would be wary of mix-maxing etc, but I don't see how saying no for the sake of it improves the game. Gifts/Flaws don't define a character, SA's do, I accept and agree with that, but SA's define the character NOW, while gifts and flaws help define the characters background and provide "legacy", if you know what I mean.

To each their own.

Brian.

[Buzzy Bee]

I'm actually an example of the exception to the hard-nose rule.  Jake let me take a few extras (it was actually the flaws I needed to make the character just right).  I agree that too many allowances and things can get out of hand, but in certain situations it can really add to the whole group.  Just keep it from getting out of hand or you could end up with a whole group trying to make their own "superman."

Buzzy Bee

[Brian Leybourne]

(it was actually the flaws I needed to make the character just right)

Thank you. Just what I was trying to get at :-)

Brian.