01-17-2021, 02:34 PM | #31 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
A non-RAW solution might be to put a cap on defaults. I can see that you pick up enough to do things from reading and TV and such for easy cases but not when penalties start hitting. So cap defaults to 10-11.
|
01-17-2021, 02:51 PM | #32 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
That's not very different from my proposal to say that raising a stat above 16 doesn't do anything for defaults. That gives you a default of 10-12 depending on how hard the skill is.
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
01-17-2021, 09:25 PM | #33 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
I'm not using the character for a game, but I constantly use GURPS when fleshing out a character for any game system or story. When I'm writing a story, I sometimes roll for a character's success.
Having a semi decent character sheet also lets me look back, thinking "How would she handle this?" both from skills and advantagres/disadvantages. (If she's got a fear of snakes in chapter one, I need to have that noted in chapter seven. This is the first ultra intelligent character I'm trying to write. (I am reducing will and perception.) She's basically developing rocketry from scratch starting in 1876, a whiz at math--smart and talented enough to be inventing new things for rocketry when she's only got a few points into it, because she's inventing the science as she goes. Lots of math talent (the max of +4) plus high IQ, but she also learns languages fast--but puts her foot in her mouth when dealing with "stupid people" in matters of math/science. I am making sure that she's not a Mary Sue, there are some things that aren't solvable by brains alone. She's going to end up on a level with Newton or Einstein, or close to it, anyway. GURPS gets a lot of use from me when building characters or even whole worlds for any story or game system! EDIT: I do put a "cap" on defaults. |
01-17-2021, 10:08 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
Quote:
Flying the prototype would also be a problem. Since no one can really lear Piloting/TL7 (Aerospace), any pilot would need to learn Piloting/TL5 (LTA) and then default to Piloting/TL7 (Aerospace) at -9 (-5 for the difference in specialties, -2 because of the TL difference, and -2 because of the complexity of the controls). No one with a TL5 background could default Piloting/TL7 (Aerospace) from DX because there is no conceivable way that they are familiar with the basic principle. In essence, both the inventor and the pilot need to be cinematic characters. |
|
01-17-2021, 10:54 PM | #35 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
Quote:
This is not TL 7 overnight, this is a Newton or Einstein that works with what's available. When liquid oxygen is available, she'll develop the liquid fueled rocket. She also has a patron. |
|
01-18-2021, 02:01 AM | #36 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
You need a fuel to burn with LOX. Liquid hydrogen in bulk is TL7, and large-scale oil refining is early 20th century. Alcohols are probably the best bet.
__________________
The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
01-18-2021, 07:08 AM | #37 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
Alcohol with LOX has a horrible ISP. If I remember correctly, the first liquid fuel rockets were gasoline and LOX.
|
01-18-2021, 08:06 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
Quote:
At the very least, unless you want her to be a really good "face," you need to give her one or more disadvantages that lower her social skills drastically. It might work better to give her a modestly high IQ, maybe 12 or 13, and then buy the four levels of Mathematical Ability you mentioned. Starting off with 1 point getting her skill 14 in Astronomy, Engineer, Mathematics, and Physics will get her a long way toward having the needed skills. Or you could boost her IQ to 14 and take a less crippling social disadvantage.
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
|
01-18-2021, 10:04 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and some other bits.
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
I'd say it's more like stats (except ST, maybe) higher than around 16 are unrealistic for normal humans. Superhuman intelligences very well might be as good as trained professional humans at hundreds of skills; we don't know what something on the far side of genius would be capable of because nothing like that has ever existed. IQ 20 is as much smarter than Newton or Von Neumann as they were to normal people, or a normal person is to a small child or smart animal.
|
01-18-2021, 10:20 AM | #40 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Meaning of stats compared to real world
Quote:
To be sure, there are different fixes for this. But ever since I came up with the enhancement to stats for GURPS Supers that lets you default from a stat higher than 20 (so an IQ 24 superbeing could have nearly all IQ skills at 18-20, or world class brilliance, as a default), I've liked the idea that normal humans have the symmetric trait of not defaulting from a stat higher than 16. Either my fix or yours takes us away from RAW, of course.
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
|
Tags |
attributes, historical |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|