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Old 09-29-2017, 01:02 PM   #1952
Phantasm
 
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Default Re: Ravens N' Pennies - GURPS Content Posts

I like to use required specializations for Occultism in fantasy and urban fantasy/monster hunters games. A true "general Occultist" can use my reverse-engineered house rule of skill generalization (Occultism then becomes an IQ/H skill, but covers all specializations).

I like the idea of scientific skills giving certain benefits. In my games, those are generally skills that give clues that something is wrong because "X does not work like that!" in the "real" world, so I think we approached it from different angles.

Hidden Lore to me is the stuff most players won't have access to unless they're part of or seriously studied the the "enemy" hierarchy. This isn't stuff that would be found on a successful Research roll, but stuff that the enemy keeps hidden from general knowledge.

An example: Occultism (Vampires) would tell my vampire hunter the various powers and weaknesses of the four vampire bloodlines (in one game, they were descended from Cain (son of Enlil and Eve), Judas Iscariot, Longinus, and Vlad Tepes Dracula), and allow the hunter to determine which bloodline(s) the vampires they were dealing with were coming from, tell how new vampires were made, and what weapons would work best. Occultism (Magic), Occultism (Lycanthropes), and Occultism (Fae) were also used in the game, the first being able to tell what a magic circle or pentagram could be used for without actual casting ability. Hidden Lore (Vampires) was then used to tell the inner workings of the Twelve Houses of the Iscariots, the Twenty-One Houses of Cain, that Longinus still worked for the Vatican, and what businesses were run by Dracula, Cain, or Judas.

YMMV, of course.
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