View Single Post
Old 10-06-2020, 10:52 AM   #47
Alden Loveshade
 
Alden Loveshade's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Hmm, looks like Earth, circa CE 2020+
Default Re: The Beauty of GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
This is a point where the mechanics might not be as clear as you think. Skill-14 critically succeeds 2% of the time and critically fails 2% of the time. Skill-16 critically succeeds 10% of the time and critically fails 1/2 of 1% of the time.
I often like to get my PC's primary adventuring skill to 16 for that reason.

This is from Sean Punch (Dr. Kromm) in How to Be a GURPS GM:

"12-13: Primary job skills of most normal people (including cops, doctors, pilots, and soldiers)."

Remember most people, even cops, are typically doing their jobs under known conditions, so have a plus to their effective skill. A friend of mine who was a police lieutenant and built his experience on the streets of Los Angeles said he only pulled his gun while on duty twice (I'm not counting on a firing range). He only fired it on duty once--and that was a warning shot. A PC adventurer is an extreme and unrealistic exception.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Agreed. In addition, players have found skill levels of 30+ useful in my campaigns, as I will gleefully stack negative modifiers. For example, a character trying to shoot a target during a blizzard (-6 for difficulty) at night (-9 for visibility) from 100 yards away (-10 for range) would only succeed on a 10- with an effective skill of 35. In general, I feel that GMs are not assigning the proper modifiers if skill levels of 16+ are considered 'wasted'.
I've run and played Supers and other high powered games, and we never had skills at that level. But as in all things, it depends on the GM/campaign.

In most movies/comics/stories/certainly in real life, someone who fires a deadly weapon under those conditions either needs psychiatric evaluation or a prison cell.
__________________
GURPS Fantasy Folk: Elves My first GURPS supplement
Top 12 Clues You're a Role-Playing Old-Timer My humorous (I hope) article that also promotes SJGames/GURPS
Kerry Thornley: Dwarf Planet Eris, Discordianism, and The John F. Kennedy Assassination Without Thornley, there would never have been the Steve Jackson Games edition of Principia Discordia
Alden Loveshade is offline   Reply With Quote