Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-24-2018, 01:54 PM   #51
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Soldier (Naval): Should probably include grunt-level fire-fighting, especially on ships. My youth group got to talk to some military folks from different branches a while back, and they were comparing basic training. Apparently naval combat involves your ship catching on fire a lot.
More that fire is really bad if it happens, so they train crews a lot. However, while not disputing Soldier (Naval), it should cover the things that civilian seamen don't learn, and they do learn fire-fighting.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2018, 09:28 AM   #52
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

Quote:
Originally Posted by acrosome View Post
As described in Curmudgeon's post above, IMHO Savoir-Faire (Military) is more often used for covering ceremonies and hobnobbing, which wouldn't get the +4. That's not really RAW from anywhere, though- it just makes more sense to me as a military guy.
As a poor, dumb, civilian, I've always considered SF (Whatever)* to be as much the unspoken rules of a given group vs. the formal rules.

For example, Soldier skill gives you a default to Law (Military) to recall military regulations, but SF (Military) lets you understand which regulations you can ignore, except for the cases where you can't ignore them, and the things that will never be in the regulations but are just "not the done thing."

A good example is that, until WW2, and even afterwards, officers and other ranks just didn't interact socially, on anything other than most superficial level, in the British military services. In the Derek Robinson Book/TV Series, "A Piece of Cake" an American pilot officer deeply embarrasses one of his NCO mechanics by insisting on playing tennis with him.

That a critical failure with SF (Military) due to penalties due to lack of Cultural Familiarity and the pilot's previous experience with the much more egalitarian forces of the Spanish Republicans.

*Streetwise would be a form of SF (Criminal) but it has to cover more than just social rules and also has to cover knowledge of different criminal groups, so it's an Average skill rather than Easy and gets broken out from SF (Mafia, Triad, Biker Gangs, whatever).
Pursuivant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2018, 09:39 AM   #53
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post
Soldier is obviously the go to skill for performing drill and ceremonial, whether normally or as part of a demonstration team.
At TL4 & 5, drill and ceremony pretty much IS soldier skill. The tactics of the era depended on moving men around in close formation, and volume and quality of firepower depended on units maintaining close formation, not flinching or breaking under fire, and firing or charging to contact as a unit.

Well-trained soldiers might not have been able to shoot accurately, but they were able to shoot fast and in unison, and maintain something like a proper formation even when visibility dropped to nothing due to black powder smoke.

All that marching in formation and manual of arms stuff that seems like BS in a TL6 or higher military organization was, once upon a time, essential battlefield survival skills.
Pursuivant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2018, 09:41 AM   #54
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters View Post
I've long felt that there really ought to be a "Police" skill, by close analogy to Soldier, covering exactly that sort of stuff.
Law Enforcement?
Pursuivant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2018, 09:49 AM   #55
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
I'm unconvinced that Airline Steward-12 would do anything other than job rolls, which I have more of a problem with than having a few different basic, broadly useful skills.
I think that there's a very good argument for a new "Airman" specialty of Crewman. That gives you all the sort of fiddly knowledge of how airplane systems work which aren't related to driving or navigating the thing. Maybe not so necessary at TL7+, but an essential part of being an air steward/ess or military aircrew member at TL6.

Air Stewardess

Primary Skills: Crewman/TL (Airman), Professional Skill (Steward).*
Secondary Skills: First Aid, Diplomacy, Leadership, Savoir-Faire (Servant).
Background Skills: Area Knowledge (Airports and surrounding areas), Fast Talk, Housekeeping, Psychology, Sex Appeal, etc.

* Air Stewards were originally recruited from stewards/porters who served aboard passenger ships or trains. Since the job basically covers the skill of politely herding and managing paying customers while stuck in close quarters aboard a vehicle, there's enough similarity between pullman porters, cruise ship pursers, "air hostesses", etc. that those jobs all share a common pro skill.

Last edited by Pursuivant; 07-25-2018 at 10:18 AM.
Pursuivant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2018, 10:12 AM   #56
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
Airline stewards with emergency training might warrant something, but having a Crewman skill entirely for proficiency in tasks you probably will never perform seems overdoing it.
ALL airline stewards are trained in emergency procedures. That's the main reason they're on board the plane. They just serve drinks and hand out pillows to keep the passengers happy.

Just because you never use certain elements of a skill doesn't mean that you don't practice them. A merchant seaman with a high level of Seamanship might go for his entire career without having to use essential parts of that skill, such as firefighting or lifeboat launching drills.

Air Stewards are trained to deal with medical emergencies, ditching at sea, ditching on land, evacuating the aircraft, use of oxygen and firefighting equipment, use of aircraft intercom systems, and a certain amount of "damage control" in that they can intelligently report damage to the aircraft to the flight crew. They might also be able to fix very minor aircraft problems in flight.

Except for not having to worry about keeping their oxygen masks from freezing up and their electrically-heated suits from failing, the skill set isn't that much different from what the crew of a WW2 era B-17 or Lancaster bomber learned.

Arguably, Crewman/TL (Aircrew) shouldn't be required for flight deck crew, since those jobs are covered by more difficult skills, such as Mechanic, Navigation (Aerial), or Pilot. But, for a large plane where the flight crew and "cabin crew" need to operate as a team, they might have that skill as well.

Last edited by Pursuivant; 07-25-2018 at 10:17 AM.
Pursuivant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-01-2018, 09:17 PM   #57
David L Pulver
AlienAbductee
 
David L Pulver's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In the UFO
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

In a situation where characters are making Leadership rolls to quickly convey orders to subordinates, perhaps a Soldier roll should allow the recipient to more rapidly understand and implement the order?

Player: Okay, I want bob and joe to provide covering fire while the rest of the guys rush the doors."

GM: You want to convey that in a one-second turn? Okay, you roll Leadership."

Player: Success by 3!

GM: Okay, each of the soldiers in your squad gets a Soldier+3 roll to understand what you meant...
__________________
Is love like the bittersweet taste of marmalade on burnt toast?
David L Pulver is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-01-2018, 11:49 PM   #58
Kelly Pedersen
 
Kelly Pedersen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Soldier

Quote:
Originally Posted by David L Pulver View Post
In a situation where characters are making Leadership rolls to quickly convey orders to subordinates, perhaps a Soldier roll should allow the recipient to more rapidly understand and implement the order?
I think the basic idea here is fine, but rather than rolling each person's Soldier skill individually (which for anything larger than a squad, is a lot of rolls!), I'd roll just once against the average Soldier skill of the whole group, and let margin of failure/success determine how well the group understood and carried out the orders.
Kelly Pedersen is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
basic, skill of the week, soldier

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:14 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.