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Pursuivant · 07-23-2019, 01:52 PM

If you're interested in brutal realism, multitasking should only negate part of the penalty for doing multiple tasks at once, and penalties for doing more than two things at once should grow at a much greater rate.

Human beings THINK we can multitask without penalties, but numerous psychological tests have shown that even minor distractions affect performance, even things that GURPS would consider to be "free actions" like speaking while engaged in another task or listening to radio commands. Furthermore, we lose concentration, hence productivity, when we have to switch tasks.

The limited exceptions are when the controls for doing two or more things at once are all integrated into one system (e.g., flight controls and weapon controls on a fighter aircraft all mounted on single control column). Even so, there is a very strong tendency, especially in combat, to "single focus" on just one task at the expense of others. Fighter pilots call this "losing Situational Awareness" and losing SA in combat is usually the immediate precursor to getting shot down or crashing. (Related to this, information overload is one of the factors which can contribute to non-combat aircraft accidents.)

Traits like Absent-Minded, Confused, or Short Attention Span might limit your ability to perform any sort of multitasking, or might increase penalties for multitasking.

Alternately, you might have a disadvantage called "One Track Mind" or "Single Focus" which imposes extra penalties for multitasking or makes it impossible to Multitask. It would be the opposite of Compartmentalized Mind and/or Synchronized, and would be realistic for people with certain neurological disorders or for machines which are physically incapable of multitasking.

Finally, consider boosting the base cost per level for Synchronized, but allow special limitations so that the trait doesn't apply to magic and/or psi, or only works for those powers. That fixes the problem of Synchronized being too good a deal in magic/psi campaigns where "on" spells/powers impose penalties to further spellcasting/psi use.

07-23-2019, 01:52 PM	#17
Pursuivant Join Date: Apr 2005	Re: New Advantage: Multitasking If you're interested in brutal realism, multitasking should only negate part of the penalty for doing multiple tasks at once, and penalties for doing more than two things at once should grow at a much greater rate. Human beings THINK we can multitask without penalties, but numerous psychological tests have shown that even minor distractions affect performance, even things that GURPS would consider to be "free actions" like speaking while engaged in another task or listening to radio commands. Furthermore, we lose concentration, hence productivity, when we have to switch tasks. The limited exceptions are when the controls for doing two or more things at once are all integrated into one system (e.g., flight controls and weapon controls on a fighter aircraft all mounted on single control column). Even so, there is a very strong tendency, especially in combat, to "single focus" on just one task at the expense of others. Fighter pilots call this "losing Situational Awareness" and losing SA in combat is usually the immediate precursor to getting shot down or crashing. (Related to this, information overload is one of the factors which can contribute to non-combat aircraft accidents.) Traits like Absent-Minded, Confused, or Short Attention Span might limit your ability to perform any sort of multitasking, or might increase penalties for multitasking. Alternately, you might have a disadvantage called "One Track Mind" or "Single Focus" which imposes extra penalties for multitasking or makes it impossible to Multitask. It would be the opposite of Compartmentalized Mind and/or Synchronized, and would be realistic for people with certain neurological disorders or for machines which are physically incapable of multitasking. Finally, consider boosting the base cost per level for Synchronized, but allow special limitations so that the trait doesn't apply to magic and/or psi, or only works for those powers. That fixes the problem of Synchronized being too good a deal in magic/psi campaigns where "on" spells/powers impose penalties to further spellcasting/psi use.