Skill points -- too few?

[Deadstop]

Are people finding that 18 skill points is enough to start with?

I began to wonder this when looking through the TV characters' sheets. Now, of course the Tenth Doctor is not going to be whatever the game calls a "starting character," but upon counting I discovered that Donna has something like 30 skill points. This is the woman who is the poster child for the Inexperienced trait. Unless they were building her as DoctorDonna and I missed it (they do explicitly give us post-Pete's World Mickey, but Rose and Donna are both supposed to be the "ordinary gal" versions), that seems odd. If they don't feel they can reflect Donna without that many skill points, should starting characters be stuck with 18?

Seriously, I honestly thought that at least most of the TV companions' stats would obey the starting character rules (that's why we have Traits like Experienced, Inexperienced, K-9's Gadgets, and Jack's Immortality, right?), but none of them do, not even the ones that are specifically called out as inexperienced (and given the Story Point benefits of that trait).

I'm getting ready to run a game and wondering if I should stick with the "starting character" point allocations or hand out something closer to what the pregen characters have.

I don't have as big a problem with the starting character points, though I do wonder how practical it is to build a starting character that makes significant use of traits like Alien or Robot.

Examples, arguments, suggestions from those who've already created characters and/or run the game?

Thanks,

Deadstop

[allenshock]

Jan 8, 2010 18:31:13 GMT Deadstop said:

Are people finding that 18 skill points is enough to start with?

I began to wonder this when looking through the TV characters' sheets. Now, of course the Tenth Doctor is not going to be whatever the game calls a "starting character," but upon counting I discovered that Donna has something like 30 skill points. This is the woman who is the poster child for the Inexperienced trait. Unless they were building her as DoctorDonna and I missed it (they do explicitly give us post-Pete's World Mickey, but Rose and Donna are both supposed to be the "ordinary gal" versions), that seems odd. If they don't feel they can reflect Donna without that many skill points, should starting characters be stuck with 18?

Seriously, I honestly thought that at least most of the TV companions' stats would obey the starting character rules (that's why we have Traits like Experienced, Inexperienced, K-9's Gadgets, and Jack's Immortality, right?), but none of them do, not even the ones that are specifically called out as inexperienced (and given the Story Point benefits of that trait).

I'm getting ready to run a game and wondering if I should stick with the "starting character" point allocations or hand out something closer to what the pregen characters have.

I don't have as big a problem with the starting character points, though I do wonder how practical it is to build a starting character that makes significant use of traits like Alien or Robot.

Examples, arguments, suggestions from those who've already created characters and/or run the game?

Thanks,

Deadstop

Unfortunatley, the iconic characters seem to have fallen prey to the stat bloat that infects all licensed games.

I don't use those characters. All the PCs in my game were built by the rules and none of their players have any issues with the number of skill points they were given.

Unless you're planning to allow use of the TV show characters alongside originals, I would say go with what the game says and don't worry about it.

Allen

[Kit]

[quote author=allenshock board=general thread=479 post=3609 time=1262976587Unfortunatley, the iconic characters seem to have fallen prey to the stat bloat that infects all licensed games.
[/quote]

I dont know that it is stat bloat as much as it is modelling the characters properly. I never really expect TV characters to balance. I'm interested in them accurately representing the characters in game. I want them to have the numbers they should have to reflect what we've seen on TV rather than being 'balanced.' IMHO, Donna and Martha are starting characters in maybe "Rose" and "Runaway Bride" after that, I'd think all bets are off. YMMV.

[JohnK]

Hullo, deadstop,

Jan 8, 2010 18:31:13 GMT Deadstop said:

Are people finding that 18 skill points is enough to start with?

I began to wonder this when looking through the TV characters' sheets. Now, of course the Tenth Doctor is not going to be whatever the game calls a "starting character," but upon counting I discovered that Donna has something like 30 skill points. This is the woman who is the poster child for the Inexperienced trait. Unless they were building her as DoctorDonna and I missed it (they do explicitly give us post-Pete's World Mickey, but Rose and Donna are both supposed to be the "ordinary gal" versions), that seems odd. If they don't feel they can reflect Donna without that many skill points, should starting characters be stuck with 18?

Seriously, I honestly thought that at least most of the TV companions' stats would obey the starting character rules (that's why we have Traits like Experienced, Inexperienced, K-9's Gadgets, and Jack's Immortality, right?), but none of them do, not even the ones that are specifically called out as inexperienced (and given the Story Point benefits of that trait).

I'm getting ready to run a game and wondering if I should stick with the "starting character" point allocations or hand out something closer to what the pregen characters have.

I don't have as big a problem with the starting character points, though I do wonder how practical it is to build a starting character that makes significant use of traits like Alien or Robot.

Examples, arguments, suggestions from those who've already created characters and/or run the game?

From my own experience, the 18 Skill points are plenty for a starting character in the game. To be honest, I've not bothered trying to tally the points for the various characters that are found in the box on the sheets to accompany the Doctor, but their stats and numbers are only relevant if you're allowing the Mickeys and Donnas in with player-created characters as well. Then you might have a problem to worry about.

I would just go with the game mechanics from character creation as they are, and not worry about it too much.

[JohnK]

Hullo, Allen,

Jan 8, 2010 18:49:47 GMT allenshock said:

Unfortunatley, the iconic characters seem to have fallen prey to the stat bloat that infects all licensed games.

I don't use those characters. All the PCs in my game were built by the rules and none of their players have any issues with the number of skill points they were given.

Unless you're planning to allow use of the TV show characters alongside originals, I would say go with what the game says and don't worry about it.

I'm inclined to agree with Kit that it's not really stat bloat so much as statting the characters from the series according to what they could do in the series and all. That's certainly the way i would stat out many of the characters and the races, and have already done so that way with my write-ups on the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Susan, and the Ice Warriors. Ymmv, of course.

[Kit]

Jan 8, 2010 20:39:56 GMT JohnK said:

Hullo, Allen,

Jan 8, 2010 18:49:47 GMT allenshock said:

Unfortunatley, the iconic characters seem to have fallen prey to the stat bloat that infects all licensed games.

I don't use those characters. All the PCs in my game were built by the rules and none of their players have any issues with the number of skill points they were given.

Unless you're planning to allow use of the TV show characters alongside originals, I would say go with what the game says and don't worry about it.

I'm inclined to agree with Kit that it's not really stat bloat so much as statting the characters from the series according to what they could do in the series and all. That's certainly the way i would stat out many of the characters and the races, and have already done so that way with my write-ups on the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Susan, and the Ice Warriors. Ymmv, of course.

That's always been my theory in writing up TV/movie characters. I give them everything they should have and never consider balance.

[Null and Void]

Yep, 18 points is just fine I think. None of the characters or NPCs I have made have needed more than 18. I've not bothered to tally up the points the characters either. I seldom use signature characters in my games...

[Deadstop]

Thanks, everybody.

It's true that it doesn't matter how the pregens are statted unless you mix them with by-the-book characters. I'm sure, as many have stated, that the TV pregens were simply given the stats they needed to have to model the characters, rather than built according to any kind of system.

I still kind of find it weird, though, that even the most "normal" of the TV companions have skill points in the high 20s or 30s, when 18 is considered sufficient to model a typical scientist, physician, UNIT soldier, or even fresh-from-the-Academy Time Lord. It just seems as though someone, at some point, would have said "If we can't give Donna Noble the skills she 'should' have on 18 points, maybe 18 points should not be the standard." Especially since the whole point of the Inexperienced trait (which trades character and skill points for more Story Points) is to allow the creation of characters more like Rose or Donna.

Deadstop

[JohnK]

Hullo, Kit,

Jan 8, 2010 21:22:13 GMT Kit said:

That's always been my theory in writing up TV/movie characters. I give them everything they should have and never consider balance.

Balance, schmalance, right? Characters from tv and movies and the like should be created with what they need to make them the characters they are in their medium, rather than adhering to the game mechanics.

[allivingstone]

I think it's worth mentioning here that unused Character Points can carry over on a 1:1 basis. This also means that all the benefits of the Experienced Trait can be put directly into skills.
A 'normal' character probably isn't going to use all 24 Character Points on their attributes - more like 20-ish. Take a few more Bad Traits then Good Traits if even more points are needed.

I'm not sure if this is relevant to the OP or not as it hasn't come up so far.
Or I may just be reminding Granny how to suck eggs.