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Old 11-10-2018, 07:53 PM   #1
gruundehn
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Default Skills vs Attributes

Often there is a discussion on the relative merits of buying skills vs buying attributes. I propose an idea that I have not seen yet in the issue.

Skills can be bought with CP as there is the "Ah Ha!" aspect of a sudden flash of insight concerning the skill.

There is no similar flash of insight concerning attributes. One does not wake up one morning and realize that one became more intelligent or dexterous overnight. So, eliminate the ability to purchase attributes with CP.

Attributes could be raised but only by training and a time sheet. The GM can impede or accelerate the growth of attributes by the pace of the campaign. Players will have to manage their character differently than a blanket "Everything is behind the scenes" when improving their character.


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Old 11-10-2018, 08:54 PM   #2
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Skills vs Attributes

Skill improvement is just as gradual as attribute improvement (the Dabbler perk represents such granularity). In my experience, people can become better over time, you just have to improve general capabilities rather than specific capabilities, allowing you to become stronger, smarter, faster, etc. It just takes discipline, effort, and time, just like anything else worthwhile in life.
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Old 11-10-2018, 09:09 PM   #3
roguebfl
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Melbourne FL, Formerly Wellington NZ
Default Re: Skills vs Attributes

Personal what I allow my player to do is when then have enough points in skills, where they if the can move skill points out of the skills into their controlling Attribute Without lowering the skills that the points are being taken from, the can do so.

for example, you have 5 IQ based Skills at [8] each, you can reduce them to [4] each to buy IQ+1 [20] leaved the base skill lives the same.
or foe Example 20 Skills at [2] can be lowered to [1] to by the IQ+1 [20], or any other combination in between.

I based this on the discretion of buying skills from default. To me this represent you have but enough work into the various skills that ever work out a few patterns that you can now generalize to other situations, hence improved the attribute.
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Old 11-10-2018, 09:45 PM   #4
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Skills vs Attributes

Quote:
Originally Posted by roguebfl View Post
Personal what I allow my player to do is when then have enough points in skills, where they if the can move skill points out of the skills into their controlling Attribute Without lowering the skills that the points are being taken from, the can do so.
I wrote detailed rules for this for GURPS Social Engineering: Back to School. But I've also long allowed players to buy up stats. In fact I encourage players to raise Per and Will as steps along the way to raising IQ.
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Old 11-16-2018, 05:01 PM   #5
Black Leviathan
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Default Re: Skills vs Attributes

Generally I restrict attribute purchases unless the player shows concerted effort. Performing hard labor to boost strength. Frequent athletic practice to up DX. Book learning to boost IQ, Focus on endurance training, healthy life choices for HT. I'm not beyond letting you up an attribute one time for free, you could be on the cusp of improvement after a long cycle of working on upping an attribute at the beginning of game.

A while back I implemented a system where you could only put 1 CP towards a purchase each game session. So increasing a high skill happened over 4 game sessions, upping your DX took 20. It made those big purchases much more weighty and required greater commitment to more expensive purchases. My players hated it and we never did it again, but it did do exactly what I wanted.
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Old 11-16-2018, 11:40 PM   #6
johndallman
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Skills vs Attributes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Black Leviathan View Post
A while back I implemented a system where you could only put 1 CP towards a purchase each game session. So increasing a high skill happened over 4 game sessions, upping your DX took 20.
Presumably they could have several multi-point purchases underway at the same time? Otherwise it's just a limit of "spend 1cp per session."
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Old 11-17-2018, 06:02 AM   #7
Gollum
 
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
Default Re: Skills vs Attributes

There is some kind of "Ah ha !" sudden flash aspect for at least one attribute: IQ. It is named illumination (or satori).

Note that I am not telling that it does really exist. It is a matter of belief. But it should be allowed in some settings: those where Zen, or any similar mystical practice, is considered as effective.
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