Is there a 'power' skill?

[Anaraxes]

Whether or not there's a single skill, or any skill, or one skill per ability is up the GM (when defining powers) or players (when they build their characters).

"Magic" often has a core skill -- usually called Thaumatology or Ritual Magic. It also often has several skills -- the "path skills" in Ritual Path Magic, or "college skills", or noun/verb skills for syntactic magic. Or it might have a very great many skills, one skill for each individual spell, as with the magic system in Basic.

Other powers are similar. See Psi Powers, for instance, which has one skill per ability, even if that ability is built out of multiple Advantages.

If you want one skill, that's certainly doable. Expect characters all to have very high skill levels in that one skill, as it will be key to their competence. Usually powers with a singe core skill have individual effects default to that skill at significant penalties (e.g., one per prereq spell or prereq of a prereq spell, the whole tree, for Ritual Magic), and it wouldn't be incredibly odd to see skills of 25 or 30. If you want lower skill levels, you might make it a Wildcard skill and lower the penalties. If you want little investment in skills, to give a feel of more innate talent that cannot be studied, though you can improve a bit then you might have a single skill or skill for a broad range of abilities. If abilities are all inborn, or you just want a simple game with no distractions, you might have no skills at all.

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Whether or not there's a single skill, or any skill, or one skill per ability is up the GM (when defining powers) or players (when they build their characters).

"Magic" often has a core skill -- usually called Thaumatology or Ritual Magic. It also often has several skills -- the "path skills" in Ritual Path Magic, or "college skills", or noun/verb skills for syntactic magic. Or it might have a very great many skills, one skill for each individual spell, as with the magic system in Basic.

Other powers are similar. See Psi Powers, for instance, which has one skill per ability, even if that ability is built out of multiple Advantages.

If you want one skill, that's certainly doable. Expect characters all to have very high skill levels in that one skill, as it will be key to their competence. Usually powers with a singe core skill have individual effects default to that skill at significant penalties (e.g., one per prereq spell or prereq of a prereq spell, the whole tree, for Ritual Magic), and it wouldn't be incredibly odd to see skills of 25 or 30. If you want lower skill levels, you might make it a Wildcard skill and lower the penalties. If you want little investment in skills, to give a feel of more innate talent that cannot be studied, though you can improve a bit then you might have a single skill or skill for a broad range of abilities. If abilities are all inborn, or you just want a simple game with no distractions, you might have no skills at all.

Oh, sure, in HERO a power with Requires A Roll can use a Power Skill, named however the GM or player want: Magic, Brick Tricks, Speedster Tricks, Psionics, etc. It could be more focused, which is common in fantasy games: Fire Magic, Sorcery, Mental Magics. It could be based on a previously existing Skill; Acrobatics is a common one. It could be based on a stat roll or a static activation roll. I think the GURPS counterpart allows for all of those, except that I haven't quite seen a generic skill to use.

It's not like I'm hampered by it; I've got enough GURPS 1-3e experience and the GURPS skill system hasn't changed that much between 3e and 4e. As a GM I can certainly create new skills, and make ample use of existing skills. I just wondered if there was a generic power skill in GURPS like the one in HERO.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin

Oh, sure, in HERO a power with Requires A Roll can use a Power Skill, named however the GM or player want: Magic, Brick Tricks, Speedster Tricks, Psionics, etc. It could be more focused, which is common in fantasy games: Fire Magic, Sorcery, Mental Magics. It could be based on a previously existing Skill; Acrobatics is a common one. It could be based on a stat roll or a static activation roll. I think the GURPS counterpart allows for all of those, except that I haven't quite seen a generic skill to use.

It's not like I'm hampered by it; I've got enough GURPS 1-3e experience and the GURPS skill system hasn't changed that much between 3e and 4e. As a GM I can certainly create new skills, and make ample use of existing skills. I just wondered if there was a generic power skill in GURPS like the one in HERO.

Not a generic one no. I have actually used Thaumatology, Mathematics, Music, and Meditation as power skills. I've never used Ritual Magic, but that is another one.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin

I haven't quite seen a generic skill to use.

The obvious answer is "make one up", since you probably want a setting-specific name anyway.

But in RAW, the generic skills for things that aren't already covered are called "Hobby Skill" (Easy, B200), "Professional Skill" (Average, B215), and "Expert Skill" (Hard, B193). The Requires Skill Roll Limitation assumes it's a Hard skill. So, you could call it "Expert Skill (Magic)", or "Power Skill", or "Magic", or "Thaumatology", or whatever suits.

The "Skills For Everyone" section in Powers suggests using a Hard skill named after the ability with which its used. (This is the option GURPS Psionic Powers uses. Possibly worth getting even if you're not particularly interested in psi, as it has some good "under the hood" demonstrations of how abilities can be built.)

[Bruno]

GURPS generally shies away from a single power skill for all powers derived from any power source at all. Using the same skill for Psi, Magic, Spirit, Mutant, and Super-Science powers, such that if you're e.g. a Mutant who also has Psi powers and you only need one skill - that's a thing that I haven't seen suggested anywhere.

It usually is one per power source ("Magic" or "Psi"), per power ("Necromancy" or "Telepathy"), or even per ability ("Raise Dead", "Mind Reading"). GURPS Psionic Powers goes the per-ability route, but compensates for the additional cost with aggressive use of the power-stunt rules and allowing you to buy off the penalty for individual stunts as techniques.

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Bruno

GURPS generally shies away from a single power skill for all powers derived from any power source at all. Using the same skill for Psi, Magic, Spirit, Mutant, and Super-Science powers, such that if you're e.g. a Mutant who also has Psi powers and you only need one skill - that's a thing that I haven't seen suggested anywhere.

It usually is one per power source ("Magic" or "Psi"), per power ("Necromancy" or "Telepathy"), or even per ability ("Raise Dead", "Mind Reading"). GURPS Psionic Powers goes the per-ability route, but compensates for the additional cost with aggressive use of the power-stunt rules and allowing you to buy off the penalty for individual stunts as techniques.

The Power skill in Hero is more of a category -- it's more like Hobby or Profession than it is like Ritual Magic or Thaumatology. It's also effectively Hero's custom skill.

At any rate, thank you all for your input. I've got lots of good info from this thread.

[Hide]

Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin

(...) I guess Powers will be my next purchase.

Sure, the GURPS version of a HERO Variable Power Pool would be a Modular Ability pool, perhaps backed by one or more Innate Attacks with Alternative Attacks (...)

Also, I recommend the book "GURPS limitations". It is very handy in assigning better prices for your (dis)advantages. Here is one example.

- Hide

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Hide

Also, I recommend the book "GURPS limitations". It is very handy in assigning better prices for your (dis)advantages. Here is one example.

- Hide

To be precise, the books Power-Ups 4: Enhancements and Power-Ups 8: Limitations would be handy. (Actually, the entire Power-Ups series is worth picking up.)