I am in the process of restarting a quite heavy houseruled RMFRP campaign and is in need for advice for how to deal with TPs.
First a bit of background on the houserules used...
*The skill list used has been collapsed to two set of skills.
-One set is skills contains skills like Body Development, Directed spells: Firebolt and other OB skills, these follow the normal rules.
-The second list of skills are such that I think are learnt as a package. Typical examples would be Craft: Wilderness Craftsman (basic supporting skills for a hunter) and Lore: Mundane (basic skills any grown up is expected to have). The idea that you can be an expert on heraldry, but not have a clue about history of the country might benefit some games...but not mine. I want players thinking about character concept and not if fletching is a skill worth the DP for a hunter.
*Players can buy specializations for areas when they want to be especially good. When the specialized skill is used the ranks are counted double. Each skill that can be specialized has a list of typical specializations, but essentially it is open for player suggestions. Below is an example for specializations for Lore: Mundane
Lore: Mundane - Law, religion, bribery, history, heraldry, trading, cooking, appraisal, tales
*The first specialization for a skill cost 1 rank, the second 2 ranks, the third 3 ranks and so on.
*The player must chose if the purchased rank go to the skill or a specialization, with other words you can with a cost of 3/7 spend at most two ranks on skill and specializations on each level up (TPs is intended to have a exception for this in some way).
I think that is enough background. The current idea for TPs is as follows:
*TPs does not give a discount to the DP price (this to speed development of characters, no discount mean less min maxing)
*Ranks from TPs used for specializations does not count towards the limit on number of developed ranks for the level up
*Ranks from TPs that are used for the normal skill _do_ count towards the limit for developed ranks for the level.
*If more ranks are taken for specializations than what normally is allowed during level up the extra ranks use the cost of the last rank cost. A cost of 3/7 mean that the first rank taken cost 3 DP, the second rank costs 7 DP and that any additional ranks put on specializations cost 7 DP each.
*TPs can grant access to TP spell lists after GM approval. Such access does not cost extra DP (but the ranks in the list cost DP).
*TPs can grant extra stat rolls but this increase the price of the TP with 7 dp for every stat gain roll.
*the rank limit of 10 (or 15 ranks) apply to the combination of skill- and specializations-ranks. For instance a character with two specializations and 6 ranks would only get one rank from a TP since he already has three ranks hidden in the two specializations.
The following topics do I need input on...
a) Is there a point with the cap on 10 ranks (sometimes 15 ranks) for specializations? Optionally I could change the rule to be that TPs can not grant more than 10 ranks to the normal skill, but that you can always spend ranks on getting more specializations even if you have more than 10 ranks in total. The idea being that increasing cost of new specializations would keep this freedom in check.
b) I am considering the option that you only get ranks in TP-lists when you purchase the actual TP to limit the problem of people cherry picking of TPs to get access to a certain TP-list but not really using the skills of the TP.
Any opinions? Are there any more issues I need to think about?
