Really Smart Characters - Some Rules Ideas

[alex_greene]

I'm working on something. Right now, the rules are a little rough but this is what I have so far on running characters with really high Intelligence and/or Education.

High Education and The Memory Palace

Characters with high Education have the equivalent of degree-level minds, even if they have no other formal qualifications.

Characteristic --DM - Academic Equivalent
9- +1 - Degree (BA, BSc)
10-11 - +1 - Masters (MA,MSc)
12 - +2 - Doctorate (PhD, DPhil)
13-14 - +2 - University Chair, Professorship
15 - +3 - Post-Doctorate (Nobel Prize winner, Fields Medal winner)

High Education means access to incredible knowledge, stored away in the character's mind. Most such characters have access to what is called a Method of Loci, or Memory Palace - in Traveller, they'd probably have a Memory Space Station or Memory Startown.

Method of Loci, Education, 1-6 minutes to store, 1-6 seconds to recall, Average(+0).

Roleplaying: A successful roll allows the Referee to remind the character of a relevant fact which the player might have forgotten.

Well?

 

[alex_greene]

Another snippet:- a rule for quick learning. This version is nowhere near as quick as those monstrous creatures encountered in Secrets of The Ancients, where they could learn a new skill to level-0 in 1d6 combat rounds, level-1 in 1d6 minutes and level-2 in 1d6 hours; this is a more balanced game mechanic, although I'd be happy to let the players develop that genetic ability of The Hunters of Men if they could persuade me with enough money / women / a guaranteed freelancer job for life.

Quick Learning
The mirror neurons in the brains of some people are more active than others, allowing for new skills to be learned at a far more rapid pace than normal people.
In game terms, the following game mechanic supersedes the “Learning New Skills” section of the Traveller Core Rulebook, page 59.
Speed Learning
A character using this ability learns new skills with incredible speed, drawing upon what he already knows and cross-referencing existing skills and knowledge. This ability applies to skills where Intelligence or Education can be applied, such as Astrogation, Language or Science.
When improving a skill, a character can ignore his Skill Points count. Rather than take 1 week per point of the new level he is trying to learn, the character takes 1d6 days per point of the new level he is trying to learn to learn that new level of skill – so to go from Recon-2 to Recon-3 would take the character just 3d6 days of down time.
As a bonus effect, the character can learn such skills to level-0 in 1d6 hours.
This ability requires no die roll: it is automatic.

 

[CosmicGamer]

All too often I've seen or heard of games where it seams to be about the players following clues and solving puzzles and coming up with the solutions.

It can be problematic for a average player to role play a much higher Int and Edu character. It also can be an issue reigning in a high int/edu player who's character has lesser capability.

Well?

Why not just use the rules from the book? It seams like the same thing.

Characteristic Check: These checks are used when the character’s innate abilities are the most important influence on the result.
- When trying to decipher an alien puzzle-box, a character uses his Intelligence Dice Modifier.
- When attempting to remember some trivia or piece of common knowledge, a character uses his Education Modifier.

 

[alex_greene]

Because the Traveller Core Rulebook rules do not cover using Intelligence and Education in this way.

 

[Mytholder]

Turning every High-Edu character into Sherlock seems a bit weird. I'd model stuff like Memory Palace as skills; a successful test lets you make Investigate or Science tests taking 1-6 seconds inside your own head, so you can investigate a scene instantly.

 

[alex_greene]

Turning every High-Edu character into Sherlock seems a bit weird. I'd model stuff like Memory Palace as skills; a successful test lets you make Investigate or Science tests taking 1-6 seconds inside your own head, so you can investigate a scene instantly.

The best high-Edu characters already are Sherlocks, and it's not weird to have a tool that can help keep all of the memories and knowledge in your head in order.

In fact, possession of such a tool might be the USP that brings the Patrons to the character's yard.

Also, the remit is to avoid creating new skills as much as possible, so these must come across as natural talents and abilities which can be universally applied to all skill task checks.

Imagine no Jack-of-all-Trades skill. Now imagine what could fill that gap.

 

[Condottiere]

This one's difficult, since the essential part is the role-play, and the ability to stay in character.

I can see a face-off between the player and the DM having contested dice rolls, as it's slowly established what the character knows. Someone should take notes.

 

[alex_greene]

This one's difficult, since the essential part is the role-play, and the ability to stay in character.

I can see a face-off between the player and the DM having contested dice rolls, as it's slowly established what the character knows. Someone should take notes.

There are those who can take notes, and roleplay people who are smarter than they are; and for everybody else, who want to roleplay someone who can crunch complex numbers and work out tensors in their heads, or play multiple Grandmaster-level chess games simultaneously in their minds without once looking at a board, there should be simple hacks that can allow their characters to do what they, the players, cannot.

 

[Old timer]

I like these rules, seem a good way to represent high EDU/INT characters in a Traveller game, regardless of the actual player capabilities to play such a character.