Talent Fatigue?

[thefinaltuba]

Hey guys, today I want to ask about something I'm a little nervous about. I'm about 4 sessions in with my game group (of about 25 sessions theoretically, 5 Fated). One of the things that's on my radar about possible over stimulation with my Fated is the sheer number of talents they receive. Every single level they get at least one talent (2 if i's a new pursuit(level 0 talent)). So by now, many of my Fated already have at least 6 talents to keep track of. Often I find myself saying "Hey, remember you can discard a card to make a skill toolkit if you'd like!" and they say "oh yeah?... Oh, yeah!"

On some level, I understand it just comes down to my Fated reading their abilities and knowing what options are available to them. But I worry about us getting 10 sessions or so in and them having a LAUNDRY list of things they can do that they'll be constantly forgetting them. Never even mind by the time we get to session 20 or more. 

Since this is my first campaign, I'm wondering if this is something that becomes an issue for other groups, or if I'm worried about nothing. By the time the Fated reach total "level" 10 or more, are there just too many talents for them to keep track of? Should I be encouraging them to specialize more, rather than dabbling in a multitude of pursuits? That might help... Anyway, let me know your thoughts.

[fire5tone]

it can be, and if you plan to go for a campaign that long i would stretch out the amount of time before they get a new talent, like multiple sessions for a single level

[J4bberw0ck]

My current group is only 3 players, 1 who’s never played an rpg, 1 who is an rpg veteran but doesn’t know TtB, and 1 who has done 2 or 3 other TtB campaigns with me. For the 2 newer folks, I recommended they pick one or two pursuits and stick with them, to make things easier. I tend to find that as Fated progress along a pursuit, the talents they gain are more about improving what they already do, so it hasn’t been a problem.

The other thing I do is tell them to look over their character sheets when we start a scene and see if anything jumps out at them. For example, if they’re investigating a murder scene, I’ll describe the environment and then say “ok, take a look at your sheets and see if you have any talents of skills that would be helpful here, then let me know what you want to do.” As they’ve progressed, I have to do this less and less, since they’re remembering most things themselves now.

[diki]

Different players want different things. I love rules and leveling up -- I have a terrible memory for most things, but can easily memories all the skills and talents of a party. Other players don't care about rules or their powers and just want to play out their characters behaviour etc.

25 pursuit steps is likley to make potentially VERY powerful characters, so you might want to slow that down anyway. If you players are more focussed on the roleplaying aspect and aren't excited about their next talent or whatever, then taking it slowly is probably good for them too.

You could make or help them make quick reference sheets that quickly explain when thier individual talents might be useful?

Maybe they like not having to think about their talents, and would rather you give them clues, or maybe they are just settling in?

Everyones different though, so I think the best thing to do is just discuss it with your players!

[thefinaltuba]

All great points, thanks. I mean, who even knows, like any role-playing campaign, it's possible that things will fizzle out before we get to the higher levels. Some of the responses have me wondering though, if I'm doing this right. 5 PCs, each with 5 Destiny Steps means that the game should take 25 sessions before we end it, right? And at the end of each session, we resolve that destiny step (congratulations, you walked backwards through the knife!) and everybody levels up in their pursuit. You guys have mentioned "slowing down" but the pace seems somewhat set in stone. Or maybe I'm misinterpreting things. Thanks again folks.

[diki]

Ultimately it's supposed to be a fun game for everyone playing - if new rules every week make it to complicated or stop it being fun, you should choose what suits (I missed my own pun 😂) your group

[fire5tone]

1 hour ago, thefinaltuba said:

All great points, thanks. I mean, who even knows, like any role-playing campaign, it's possible that things will fizzle out before we get to the higher levels. Some of the responses have me wondering though, if I'm doing this right. 5 PCs, each with 5 Destiny Steps means that the game should take 25 sessions before we end it, right? And at the end of each session, we resolve that destiny step (congratulations, you walked backwards through the knife!) and everybody levels up in their pursuit. You guys have mentioned "slowing down" but the pace seems somewhat set in stone. Or maybe I'm misinterpreting things. Thanks again folks.

So, there are some sessions where I can hit out two destiny steps at once, there are some sessions where I'm not going for a single one, there was a campaign where destiny was more like a suggestion than anything else,

[thefinaltuba]

ok, that all makes sense. Yeah I'll definitely check in with them. Hell, they might LOVE having a new talent every week haha. And if not, I like the ideas of bending the rules a little bit. Ok, this week we hit 2 destiny steps at one. Ok, this week, we complete a destiny step, but you don't advance in your pursuit, and so on. Thanks for the tips.