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View Full Version : Negative talents



xan
02-22-2011, 01:05 AM
I was thinking that it could be cool if there were some talents that had a negative effect on the character, and by choosing one of these you'd gain an additional talent point to spend on one of the positive talents.

They could add flavor for people wanting to RP and could provide additional challenges for people so inclined.

Maybe like:
Unhealthy - Increased chance to contract sickness, reduced natural healing rate.
Hungry - Requires 10% more food.
Magically inept - Casting spells costs health points as well as power points.
Short sighted - sight radius reduced by 1/3, missile attacks half as likely to hit.

Aielyn
02-22-2011, 12:56 PM
As starting Talents, maybe. I'd push it a little further, though, and actually require a negative starting Talent, with some positive talents being dependent on negative ones.

I'd probably call them Flaws rather than Talents.

Just to give you an idea of how I'd do it, I'll list a few examples.

Short-sighted: Pe - 1, sight range reduced by 1 or 1/4 of max, whichever is larger. Effects can be countered by wearing new headwear Glasses (which are incompatible with other forms of headwear), or temporarily by drinking Carrot Juice. Choosing this Flaw enables player to choose the Great Listener Talent and the Bookworm Talent - both starting Talents.

Huge Appetite: Requires 10% more food. Enables the player to choose the Nutritionist (starting) and Fast Eater Talents.

Disease-prone: To - 1, Increase chance to contract sickness - small side effect is slightly reduced chance of final fit. Enables the player to choose the starting Talent, Medicine Maniac. Prevents player from choosing the Talent Healthy.

Obsessive: Wi - 1, All actions other than walking take 10% longer. Enables the player to choose the starting Talents Meticulous, Dedicated, and Compulsive.

I've mentioned a few ideas for Talents... here's where I'll explain those:
Great Listener (starting, requires Short-Sighted Flaw and Alert Talent): PC starts with Listening at 100, also recieves the Alertness skill if wouldn't have had it already, or boosts the Alertness Skill.
Bookworm (starting, requires Short-Sighted Flaw and Learned Talent): PC gets Literacy if otherwise wouldn't have, otherwise gets boost to Literacy. Reduces time necessary to learn or cast from spellbook.
Nutritionist (starting, requires Huge Appetite Flaw and Healthy Talent): PC gets 10% more satiation from all food, and 20% greater chance of getting non-guaranteed special effects from corpses.
Fast Eater (requires Huge Appetite Flaw and Quick Talent): Eating of all food requires only half the normal number of turns.
Medicine Maniac (starting, requires Disease-Prone Flaw and Wealthy Talent): PC starts with knowledge sufficient to identify healing and related potions, including Healing, Ultra Healing, Extra Healing, Cure Poison, Berzio, Carrot Juice, Water, Booze, Longevity, and Troll Blood.
Meticulous (starting, requires Obsessive Flaw and Good Looks Talent): Ap + 1, more items are generated on the ground.
Dedicated (starting, requires Obsessive Flaw and Pious Talent): It is harder to change alignments, prayers are 10% less expensive.
Compulsive (starting, requires Obsessive Flaw and Skilled Talent): One additional dice roll for every skill raise.

xan
02-27-2011, 08:41 AM
Flaws is a good name and I really like your idea of some talents being dependent upon flaws.

ScooterSkittles
03-10-2011, 09:07 PM
Talents that are dependent on flaws? I like it! Thumbs up.

I do agree that flaws is a better name then negative talents.

But of course each flaw would have at least 2 talents then available. If a flaw opened up just 1 talent, you might as well just write it all into one single talent. (But that probably went without saying.)