Dabbler Perk

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

But it is something that the Scotties of fiction can do, and it is a "repair" task that falls under a "design" skill which is used for starships.

No. As I hinted at in my Gurps v. English" observation "Engineer" is sometimes a job title rather than a Skill description. One does not maintain personal weapons with any Gurps Engineer Skill. One does not even maintain starship weapons with a Gurps Engineer Skill. Except by default, Mechanic (specialty) does default to Engineer (same specialty) at -4.

Defaulting from one Mechanic specialty to another is probably a better strategy. That gives a global -4 to other Mechanic specialties.

So a very bright fellow (IQ 14)with Mechanic (Starship) at 18 (one of the best starship mechanics ever) can default to any other Mechanic specialty of his TL at a 14 or less temporarily hindered in some cases by familiarity.

Or he could have Mechanic (Life support systems) and tackle any such system anywhere at full Skill (possibly hindered by familiarity) but still being able to tackle any other Mechanic job at a -4. Scottish accent optional but recommended at this level off competence.

If you really don't want this to happen you need to House Rule the defaults as well as the specialties and if you want Engineer to do any of it you need to re-write the Skill descriptions pretty generally.