[Basic] Skill of the week: Leadership

johndallman · 01-15-2016, 07:10 PM

Leadership is the IQ/A social skill of leading and coordinating groups of people and getting them to attempt difficult and dangerous things. Leadership defaults to IQ-5, and no skills default to it, although it is a prerequisite for all specialisations of Shiphandling. Leadership appeared at GURPS 1e, where the default was ST-5, because "if nobody has leadership training, the strongest usually leads." I might use ST as a tiebreaker among people who were all operating at default.

There are plenty of modifiers: Cultural Familiarity penalties apply, Charisma bonuses, -3 for Low Empathy, penalties for Shyness, -5 for NPCs who have never been in action with you before, and -5 if you're sending them into danger but not going yourself. There are significant bonuses for NPC loyalty: automatic success for Excellent loyalty, +10 for Very Good, or +5 for Good.

While this skill is very much associated with the military, because it's the defining skill for officers and NCOs, it's useful in any context where lots of people have to be organised. On a success, you can lead NPCs into dangerous or stressful situation, though PCs get to decide for themselves if they'll follow.

Leadership can be used in supervising long tasks done by teams, where motivation matters more than organisation: a supervisor can give everyone on his team +1 on a success, or +2 on critical success, if he does nothing else for a whole work shift. It can also be used to lead a march, with skill 12+, allowing a group to roll as a whole against their average Hiking skill, rather than having to roll individually. Much the same can be done in leading a convoy of vehicles.

You can also use Leadership during combat: if you spend a turn doing nothing except giving orders and encouraging the people on your side, then the ones who can hear you get +1 to morale rolls, combat-related Fright Checks, and self-control rolls for disadvantages that would reduce combat efficiency. Critical success increases the bonus to +2. The effects only last until your next turn, but you can keep on doing it. However, only one leader can do this at a time for a group: if two try at once, they both automatically fail.

Leadership is a very common optional skill on templates for military, police or mob types. Action 2 makes it a planning skill, if you're leading a force of NPCs; Action 4 points out that it's useful in business, as well as adventuring. DF14 has the Coordinator psi power-up, which is very effective for this skill, and also applies to Tactics and Strategy; DF16 makes Leadership valuable in getting a party to recover from mental stunning caused by surprise in an ambush. Fantasy makes Leadership valuable in getting a community organised after a disaster, and Magic has an elixir that boosts it, along with Strategy and Tactics. Mass Combat has lots of uses for Leadership. Power-Ups volumes 3, 6 and 7 have examples for this skill. Powers has boosts for it via Telesend, and super-heroic teamwork rules, and Psionic Powers has the Aspect power, a different style of boost.

Social Engineering naturally has a lot about Leadership, from standard adventuring applications and use as an Influence skill to con games, requests for help, speaking without amplification, impersonation, picketing, group Intimidation, and calming a potential mob; Back to School covers the skill's uses in organising teaching and managing student motivation, and Pulling Rank also has applications for it. Spaceships has a rule for successful Leadership increasing the Spacer skill of subordinates, which should generalise to other Crewman skills; Spaceships 3 adds a rule for squadron commanders doing this to increase their captains' Tactics skill. Thaumatology: Urban Magics can use Leadership in mass ceremonial magic.

If a group of berserkers had a leader, I'd allow him to give them +1 to attempts to deliberately go berserk. The accounts of WWI trench combat I've read stressed the role (in the British Army) of corporals and sergeants in encouraging the men of their squads or platoons in combat: that's clearly a job for the squad leader, and it seems reasonable to let the platoon sergeant or the platoon officer do that if the squad leader is not available.

While I've played quite a bit of GURPS in settings where the PCs are an organised group, I've rarely played the leader, so haven't used Leadership much. A diplomat character of mine used it occasionally, typically to take control of the kind of situation where everyone knows someone needs to take charge, and it's thus fairly easy.

What have you done with Leadership in a game?

01-15-2016, 07:10 PM	#1
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	[Basic] Skill of the week: Leadership Leadership is the IQ/A social skill of leading and coordinating groups of people and getting them to attempt difficult and dangerous things. Leadership defaults to IQ-5, and no skills default to it, although it is a prerequisite for all specialisations of Shiphandling. Leadership appeared at GURPS 1e, where the default was ST-5, because "if nobody has leadership training, the strongest usually leads." I might use ST as a tiebreaker among people who were all operating at default. There are plenty of modifiers: Cultural Familiarity penalties apply, Charisma bonuses, -3 for Low Empathy, penalties for Shyness, -5 for NPCs who have never been in action with you before, and -5 if you're sending them into danger but not going yourself. There are significant bonuses for NPC loyalty: automatic success for Excellent loyalty, +10 for Very Good, or +5 for Good. While this skill is very much associated with the military, because it's the defining skill for officers and NCOs, it's useful in any context where lots of people have to be organised. On a success, you can lead NPCs into dangerous or stressful situation, though PCs get to decide for themselves if they'll follow. Leadership can be used in supervising long tasks done by teams, where motivation matters more than organisation: a supervisor can give everyone on his team +1 on a success, or +2 on critical success, if he does nothing else for a whole work shift. It can also be used to lead a march, with skill 12+, allowing a group to roll as a whole against their average Hiking skill, rather than having to roll individually. Much the same can be done in leading a convoy of vehicles. You can also use Leadership during combat: if you spend a turn doing nothing except giving orders and encouraging the people on your side, then the ones who can hear you get +1 to morale rolls, combat-related Fright Checks, and self-control rolls for disadvantages that would reduce combat efficiency. Critical success increases the bonus to +2. The effects only last until your next turn, but you can keep on doing it. However, only one leader can do this at a time for a group: if two try at once, they both automatically fail. Leadership is a very common optional skill on templates for military, police or mob types. *Action 2* makes it a planning skill, if you're leading a force of NPCs; *Action 4* points out that it's useful in business, as well as adventuring. *DF14* has the Coordinator psi power-up, which is very effective for this skill, and also applies to Tactics and Strategy; *DF16* makes Leadership valuable in getting a party to recover from mental stunning caused by surprise in an ambush. *Fantasy* makes Leadership valuable in getting a community organised after a disaster, and *Magic* has an elixir that boosts it, along with Strategy and Tactics. *Mass Combat* has lots of uses for Leadership. *Power-Ups* volumes 3, 6 and 7 have examples for this skill. *Powers* has boosts for it via Telesend, and super-heroic teamwork rules, and *Psionic Powers* has the Aspect power, a different style of boost. *Social Engineering* naturally has a lot about Leadership, from standard adventuring applications and use as an Influence skill to con games, requests for help, speaking without amplification, impersonation, picketing, group Intimidation, and calming a potential mob; *Back to School* covers the skill's uses in organising teaching and managing student motivation, and *Pulling Rank* also has applications for it. *Spaceships* has a rule for successful Leadership increasing the Spacer skill of subordinates, which should generalise to other Crewman skills; *Spaceships 3* adds a rule for squadron commanders doing this to increase their captains' Tactics skill. *Thaumatology: Urban Magics* can use Leadership in mass ceremonial magic. If a group of berserkers had a leader, I'd allow him to give them +1 to attempts to deliberately go berserk. The accounts of WWI trench combat I've read stressed the role (in the British Army) of corporals and sergeants in encouraging the men of their squads or platoons in combat: that's clearly a job for the squad leader, and it seems reasonable to let the platoon sergeant or the platoon officer do that if the squad leader is not available. While I've played quite a bit of GURPS in settings where the PCs are an organised group, I've rarely played the leader, so haven't used Leadership much. A diplomat character of mine used it occasionally, typically to take control of the kind of situation where everyone knows someone needs to take charge, and it's thus fairly easy. What have you done with Leadership in a game?