[Basic] Skill of the week: Speed-Reading and Typing

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

So it does. But that's still a bit too high for the average speed IMHO. That's where it break down for me. The low end seems fine - but the high end is damn near impossible for some speeds.

Stats of 10 in GURPS seems to give something like the capabilities of an average healthy adult rather than the average person. Part of the data in the paper you linked to earlier probably comes from outside that group of healthy adults. Certain disadvantages and quirks probably also reduce your reading rate.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

That's still an issue because I can go between 110wpm and 120wpm for hours on end.

You're claiming to have a very high skill level at typing. That maybe true, but all it means is you're not a good representation of what a normal typist should be capable of.

Originally Posted by wikipedia

An average professional typist types usually in speeds of 50 to 80 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 (usually the minimum required for dispatch positions and other time-sensitive typing jobs), and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120 wpm.

50 to 80 is skill 10 to 16.

80 to 95 is skill 16 to 19.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

You're claiming to have a very high skill level at typing. That maybe true, but all it means is you're not a good representation of what a normal typist should be capable of.



50 to 80 is skill 10 to 16.

80 to 95 is skill 16 to 19.

Going by that skill 12 should probably be 40 WPM with people at default around 20 WPM

[RogerBW]

While these are certainly things that a human being can be trained to do, I'm inclined to think that for the vast majority of characters they're either used at "default" (Speed Reading becomes just "reading things") or regarded as being subsumed into other skills (you don't need to learn Typing and Computer Operation).

I could easily see Typing as a job skill for a TL6-7 character, but I wouldn't expect ever to roll on it in-game. Speed Reading seems to be aimed at the spy who can't carry a camera or a notebook and therefore has to memorise documents; but Eidetic/Photographic Memory is much cheaper in 4e now that it doesn't roll in a skill discount.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

While these are certainly things that a human being can be trained to do, I'm inclined to think that for the vast majority of characters they're either used at "default" (Speed Reading becomes just "reading things") or regarded as being subsumed into other skills (you don't need to learn Typing and Computer Operation).

These days I call Typing a perk. By itself it lets you type n x DX wpm, where n is keyboard technology dependent, or you can take it as a skill adaptation for a skill where it's important (any computer skill, Writing, Administration, whatever) and type at n x skill wpm. Yeah, yeah there are people who will complain that doesn't let them build a character with the exact typing rate they want, but it's an unimportant detail, and mostly only an issue because it is something lots of ordinary people have measured. Much the same reason people complain Guns accuracy doesn't cover real shooting but relatively few bring up the far worse mismatch to reality with, say, Literature.

Speed Reading seems to be aimed at the spy who can't carry a camera or a notebook and therefore has to memorise documents; but Eidetic/Photographic Memory is much cheaper in 4e now that it doesn't roll in a skill discount.

Actually it comes from Conan, and let you read ridiculously slowly, but less ridiculously slowly than the setting specific default (you can read 2 x (IQ+Speed Reading) wpm there). I really don't know why it was included in the first place, let alone propagated to other genres. It's rather difficult to come up with a case where it really matters how fast you can read where the differences are small integer factors. Superpower versions where you can absorb the secret documents in a few seconds sure, but 10 minutes vs. half an hour is much harder to make adventure relevant, either way if there's a time constraint you steal the folder or photograph all the pages rather than read it here.

[sir_pudding]

The only actual in-game use I have seen is for the scholar's modular ability.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

50 to 80 is skill 10 to 16.

80 to 95 is skill 16 to 19.

Originally Posted by Refplace

Going by that skill 12 should probably be 40 WPM with people at default around 20 WPM

Which is below even the hen and peck rate. It just doesn't seem to play out. You're calling six or seven people I've worked with/known Skill-19 "Best in a generation" typists and that just seems absurd. No, it just doesn't work the way it should.

[lachimba]

I shudder to think of the game where typing speed (as opposed to just being able to type) matters.


Ok Cthulhu is rising we need this ritual read by 100 people at the same time. Get typing boys we need to get 100 copies out in the next ten minutes!

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by lachimba

Ok Cthulhu is rising we need this ritual read by 100 people at the same time. Get typing boys we need to get 100 copies out in the next ten minutes!

Rapidly typing dispatches can be an important job, but isn't usually a PC job.

On the other hand it's pretty easy to come up with ways typing speed would be valuable for espionage in a certain period. Both to be able to pass as one of the typists who is supposed to be there, and to be able to copy things in small windows of opportunity.

Heck, a cinematic feat of typing, if you will: typing so fast you can churn out unauthorized duplicates of everything without any suspicious slow-down in work. (Of course, getting those duplicates out of a secure office is still likely to be a problem.)

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Heck, a cinematic feat of typing, if you will: typing so fast you can churn out unauthorized duplicates of everything without any suspicious slow-down in work.

For those too young to remember, the solution you want for this (and probably for the ritual copies too) isn't faster typing, it's carbon paper.