[Basic] Skill of the week: Animal Handling

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Tiggurix

Well, they did come with a bonus that isn't available as a separate trait, according to what I know, and that was the ability learn Animal or Plant college spells, respectively, as if they were one difficulty level easier. Though I guess that may have been a little OP?

Nah, that's mathematically equivalent to Magery +1 (One-College Only)

[Calion]

There seems to be a discrepancy between GURPS Lite (p. 14) and GURPS on this skill: In GURPS Lite, a specialization requirement is not mentioned. Is that a typo? I.E. should I require a specialization in Animal Handling when running Lite?

What particularly piques my interest on this subject is the fact that the Survival skill does require a specialization: "There are many different types of Survival skill, which must be learned independently." This says to me that either this was a deliberate omission or a typo, not a general policy of not requiring specializations in Lite.

[johndallman]

I think that's a matter of simplifying Lite.

[Calion]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I think that's a matter of simplifying Lite.

Okay. I didn't know if Lite was meant to be 100% compatible with Basic or not.

[simply Nathan]

GURPS Lite has a lot of skills lack a required specialization. Armoury, History, Law, Theology, and so on.

[Dammann]

Falconry defaults to Animal Handling (Raptors) -3. What can you do with Falconry that you cannot do with Animal Handling (Raptors)? Hunt? Get the bird to not eat its kills? Aim the bird at specific prey?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Dammann

Falconry defaults to Animal Handling (Raptors) -3. What can you do with Falconry that you cannot do with Animal Handling (Raptors)? Hunt? Get the bird to not eat its kills? Aim the bird at specific prey?

Historically, falconry was so much a prestige hobby that I would think it might cover aspects not fully related to falcons. A kind of savoir faire among fellow falcon-ists for starters.
That's if I agreed with such skill bloat.

[Flyndaran]

I'm not sure how realistic animal empathy for every animal is. Even Steve Irwin was out of his element when dealing with arthropods, and many placental mammals.

Exactly what AH covers must differ for intelligent adaptable animals vs. instinctual critters.

It's not like you can train a spider to do anything.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I'm not sure how realistic animal empathy for every animal is.

I don't think it actually makes any sense at all. It's probably my least favorite GURPS trait. This is probably a better discussion for the Advantage of the Week (when it comes up).

[Calion]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It's not like you can train a spider to do anything.

"A few years ago, Bailey was teaching a course on stimulus control for her students. His stimulus was a laser pointer. One day, he was in the bathroom and saw a spider. “I looked down at this spider and said, hmmm.” He took out his laser, turned it on, and gently blew on the spider. “Spiders don’t like wind—it blows their web down,” he says. “They pull themselves down into the smallest size they can get and hunker down.”

Turn on laser. Blow. Turn on laser. Blow. Bailey did this at several intervals during the day. “By the time I finished all I had to do is turn that light on,” he says, and the spider would go defensive. He returned to the classroom where Garrett was lecturing and announced: “You’ve got a trained spider in your bathroom.”"

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...qe0K5ujxwtH.99