Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-08-2018, 07:06 PM   #1
JanMikal
 
JanMikal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: St. Louis, MO
Default Sub-Guns Skills

So i have a player who wants to build a 'slacker' type of character. The character would be unlikely to have any *real* combat skills, but due to his inclination to play the 'shooter' type of games, where the 'controller' is a brightly-colored plastic mockup of a gun, we figured he would have SOME sort of familiarity with Pistols (and, perhaps, Rifles, depending on the games he's played).

My immediate thoughts are of the Combat/Art/Sport versions of melee skills. Guns would be what a soldier would learn in boot camp, Gun Sport would be, perhaps, what an Olympic-level shooter might learn, and Gun Game might stand in for Gun Art, since I, personally, am unaware of any 'Art' form that has been developed for firearms - perhaps trick-shooting, but maybe that could be justified by Gun Sport?

What say you all? Am I on the right track, or is there a better way? Maybe a Games skill with a specialization of 'Arcade Shooters' which maybe gives a better Guns default than normal?
JanMikal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2018, 07:30 PM   #2
Phantasm
 
Phantasm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

I could see Beam Weapon Sport being a skill he'd pick up playing shooter video games.
__________________
"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991

"But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!"

The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation.
Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting
Phantasm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2018, 07:40 PM   #3
mlangsdorf
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

I would consider Gun/Sport to be competitive shooting, hunting, or paintball, and Gun/Art might be a good candidate semi-realistic VR games that superficially give you experience with shooting but mostly give you a bunch of bad habits.

So I think your approach is a good one.
__________________
Read my GURPS blog: http://noschoolgrognard.blogspot.com
mlangsdorf is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2018, 08:31 PM   #4
tanksoldier
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

Problem is, Guns skill of any kind implies other abilities besides the ability to hit the target. Immediate action drills, for example, which he would have no clue how to do. Reloading. Basic maintenance. Windage and sight adjustments, There’s also no telling how good he actually is with his game laser pistol... how big the target box in the game really is, etc.

In GURPS there’s two components to firearms skill: skill with the weapon type and familiarity with the specific weapon.

It is possible to be skilled in a class of weapons, such as pistols, but unfamiliar with the specific weapon you have... such as da/as semi autos when you’re usd to da revolvers.

It is also possible to be unskilled in a class of weapon BUT familiar with a specific weapon. This happens often in the military. A recruit might gain a point in rifles and be familiar with the M16... but have a few hours instruction and fire a hundred rounds or so on the M240 during “familiarization”. It would be possible to have no points in Guns: Machinegun but be familiar with the M240.

SOmeone who has only “fired” guns in a video game has NONE of this experience. Never experienced recoil. Never reloaded. Never chambered a round. Never loaded rounds in a magazine. Never disengaged the safety. Never safed the weapon. Never unloaded it. Never adjusted aim for range or windage.

All they might have done is shine a flashlight on a computer screen in approximately the right place at about the right time to make the light coincide with an image on the screen.

If you’re playing a cinematic game, sure. Let him have “art” or “sport” skill.... the same skill people who shoot real guns for a living develop.

In a realistic game, not only would he get no skill or familiarity, and take full penalties for both, he’d have Delusion: I know how to shoot.
tanksoldier is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2018, 09:11 PM   #5
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by tanksoldier View Post
SOmeone who has only “fired” guns in a video game has NONE of this experience. Never experienced recoil. Never reloaded. Never chambered a round. Never loaded rounds in a magazine. Never disengaged the safety. Never safed the weapon. Never unloaded it. Never adjusted aim for range or windage.
Depending on the weapon, he may still be decent at shooting, just not anything else that Guns skill covers. I've played a lot of light gun arcades, and the first time I picked up a handgun (a .22 revolver) I used the first shot to figure out what recoil felt like (having never experienced it, unless you count the fake recoil found with some light guns) and the second shot was aimed at the target's backstop to see where the bullet actually hit relative to where I (thought I) was aiming. Shots number 3-6 hit the target (a soda can ~10 yards away) quite readily, and with probably only a second (maybe two) of Aim between shots. Even if we assume a +10 bonus and 3+ seconds of Aim, with an Acc 2 pistol I'd be at a net +3, from my Guns default of DX-4. Hitting with 4 shots out of 4 (the first two were to give me an inkling of familiarity - again, literally never fired a weapon in my life at that point) with ease would have required me to be starting with something like DX 14 or better (skill 13 would have given me a 50% shot of pulling that off), which I'm pretty sure I don't have. Getting a defaulted Guns 10 or better, but only for the purpose of aiming and shooting (at a stationary target), from my theoretical Beam Weapon skill from light gun games strikes me as a bit more likely.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tanksoldier View Post
In a realistic game, not only would he get no skill or familiarity, and take full penalties for both, he’d have Delusion: I know how to shoot.
I have little doubt I'd be unable to hit the broadside of a barn in an actual combat situation, but since then I've taken to doing a bit of plinking with a pellet rifle, and I'm actually pretty decent at that. The above defaulted Guns is going to be more akin to Guns (Sport) than proper Guns skill, of course.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul
Varyon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2018, 10:32 PM   #6
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
Depending on the weapon, he may still be decent at shooting, just not anything else that Guns skill covers.
Remember that ranged weapon skills in GURPS covers combat shooting. Unless the video game can attack from ambush at any time, can shoot back, can attack from unpredictable angles, and can hurt you if it hits at best you've got some sort of "Combat Sport."

More likely, you've got Games skill which defaults to actual Guns skill at -4 or -5.

Just possibly, a background of playing games might justify levels of Talent. All those hours playing realistic simulations, studying the subject, etc. has given you lots of grounding in what you should do in real life. Your status as a well-prepared newbie is likely to impress instructors and fellow students and gives you a bonus to skill beyond what your training level would otherwise indicate.
Pursuivant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-08-2018, 11:46 PM   #7
JanMikal
 
JanMikal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: St. Louis, MO
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

So far, I'm liking the Beam Weapons Art/Sport option the best. It occurs to me that a 'gun' from one of those target-shooting games would, in fact, be a 'beam weapon', since it 'shoots' an infrared 'beam'. The lack of recoil, for one, would make it much closer to a 'laser' sort of weapon than an actual firearm. I might go with that, but I'm perfectly willing to entertain any other ideas anyone might have.
JanMikal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2018, 12:41 AM   #8
PTTG
 
PTTG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

An obsessively detailed shooter game could include a great deal of factual information, comparable to book-learning for firearms. Naturally, it wouldn't help you hit things.
PTTG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2018, 01:17 AM   #9
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant View Post
More likely, you've got Games skill which defaults to actual Guns skill at -4 or -5.
That is what I would do: give a default from Games to Guns for the purposes of hitting. Yes, this means that there is no benefit if you ever put a point in Guns, but it is simple.
__________________
"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper

This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature
Polydamas is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2018, 09:12 AM   #10
Litvyak
 
Join Date: May 2007
Default Re: Sub-Guns Skills

Another possibility for representing such a character is the Dabbler perk spread among Gun specialties and possibly Tactics.
__________________
Blog - Role-ing Solo
Litvyak is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:49 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.