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01-18-2019, 04:28 PM | #1 |
Banned
Join Date: May 2017
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Make contact skill great again.
From an organization perspective and as far as I know, the contact skills are limited to the level 21 according to basic. Are there any rules to surpass the limit, aside of increasing its cost? Does the advantage appear in any other book? What would you think should be the top level and why?
Last edited by Alonsua; 01-19-2019 at 02:18 PM. |
01-18-2019, 04:53 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
Not aware of anything that ups the effective skill level as part of the advantage.
However that high a skill can absorb most penalties pretty easily and intrudes on PC capabilities. Someone with that skill should be more an Ally or Patron rather than a generic contact IMO.
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01-18-2019, 05:15 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
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What is the top possible level depends on the setting. If, for example, you are a member of a tribe of 500 people living in an isolated valley, it would be perfectly plausible for you not to know anyone with effective skill higher than 15 in anything. In a galactic empire, you might have access to effective skills far higher than 21.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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01-19-2019, 02:28 AM | #4 | |
Banned
Join Date: May 2017
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
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For this reason and given that, although they are not numerous, the characters at the top of their profession have a personal skill of about 18, the limit should be increased to at least 24. What do you think? |
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01-19-2019, 07:36 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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01-19-2019, 08:07 AM | #6 | |
Banned
Join Date: May 2017
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
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01-19-2019, 09:31 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
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The Basic Set provides for up to effective skill 21. While GURPS calls itself "generic" and "universal," that has to be assumed to apply to present-day Earth. Therefore effective skill 21 is the highest that's properly available on present-day Earth. It's reasonable to suppose that the same limit would apply to an ancient empire or medieval kingdom or church; they wouldn't be better than the present day. Remember that a Contact is someone who has a position in a local organization: a large business firm, a military base, a crime family, or the like. There's nothing in the description that implies that it's a cutting edge organization, or that it has access to the most highly skilled people on Earth. You can suppose, if you like, that that effective skill 21 represents actual skill 18 with +3 from organizational support, or actual skill 15 with +6 from organizational support; but it's not reasonably probable that you will have that confluence of extreme skill and huge resources in one organization. I don't know where you get the +4 to inventors. I don't see such a rule in the Basic Set chapter on gadgets. Now, yes, you might have a Contact who is a member not of a typical business firm, military outfit, police force, or the like, but of an extraordinary one. There's a comparable rule in the Basic Set: Unusual Background (Gadgeteer Friend) for 15 points. Paying 15 points is probably fair for having a Contact with skill transcending the normal limits—one who has actual skill 18 or higher AND extraodinary organizational support. Or you could say that an organization with such amazing capabilities, and one that is willing to put them at the PC's disposal in adventures, is not a Contact but a Patron, and a fairly high-end one.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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01-19-2019, 01:36 PM | #8 | ||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
Many skills you might want for a Contact are not especially susceptible to assistance from equipment (some example ones I've used have been Occultism, Criminology, and Architecture). Also, a Contact may well not have the use of equipment provided as part of their job. For example, I, as a real world person, might be a plausible contact at a limited skill level for Research/TL8, or Computer Programming/TL8. Research I can do equally well at home or at work. For Programming, I have access to a lot of computer power at work, but my ability to use it for anything that isn't work is almost nil.
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. Last edited by johndallman; 01-19-2019 at 02:39 PM. |
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01-19-2019, 03:07 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
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One thing I do, do however is treat their skill as more or less a Wild Card skill. Your medical contact can provide you with surgery, infectious disease diagnosis, and hospital gossip with equal facility. |
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01-19-2019, 03:10 PM | #10 |
Banned
Join Date: May 2017
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Re: Make contact skill great again.
I also do something similar, but I'm trying to finish polishing the content of "Mass Combat" and "Boardroom and Curia" and seems like "Contacts" are the way to go to represent organizational capabilities...
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