Acceptable Skill levels for professionals?

[Xplo]

I always wonder if threads like these are partly prompted by insufficient rules emphasis on positive modifiers. After all, GURPS focuses on adventurers, who usually do dangerous, difficult things that most people presumably can't, and so they always seem to be rolling at minuses and need skills in the 16-20+ range to make up for it. Positive modifiers in combat invariably have some cost or unusual requirement. The idea that many things are EASY to do seems to get lost in the shuffle, despite sporadic reminders that GMs should give bonuses for easy or routine tasks, and it seems to me that the rules often call for unmodified rolls for tasks that are the normal, everyday use of the skill.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Xplo

I always wonder if threads like these are partly prompted by insufficient rules emphasis on positive modifiers. After all, GURPS focuses on adventurers, who usually do dangerous, difficult things that most people presumably can't, and so they always seem to be rolling at minuses and need skills in the 16-20+ range to make up for it. Positive modifiers in combat invariably have some cost or unusual requirement. The idea that many things are EASY to do seems to get lost in the shuffle, despite sporadic reminders that GMs should give bonuses for easy or routine tasks, and it seems to me that the rules often call for unmodified rolls for tasks that are the normal, everyday use of the skill.

Which is actually related to one house rule i use with the Magic System.

I use the fatigue cost bonus for high skill, to be bassed on Effective Skill rather than bass skill. This allow for your non Adventuring mages with Spells at 11 and 12 Base get the Fatigue Reduction of Skill 15, form the +4 for the rutine tast modifer, so the can use Heat to warm the coffine, Apportion to fetch their Staff, Seeker to check up on ther Children etc with much conserner, and with out being Archmage Experts (skill 15) in the Spell to do so.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Hacks are special case, and can have any skill level need by the plot even if it is only Fast-Talk-14 and Contacts 8)

If all you want is the money, good Contacts and Fast-Talk-14 are probably more useful than Physics-18 or Biology-20 . . .

[Pmandrekar]

Originally Posted by Kromm

If all you want is the money, good Contacts and Fast-Talk-14 are probably more useful than Physics-18 or Biology-20 . . .

... Ain't that the truth. You can pick out the cars of the Marketing from the R&D people in my building. R&D people all drive Subarus (myself included). Marketing and Sales folks tend to drive the nicer cars...

-P.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Xplo

I always wonder if threads like these are partly prompted by insufficient rules emphasis on positive modifiers.

A bigger problem is that people seem to ignore the many generous bonuses given under individual skills for uses that are likely to be most uses by PCs. I mean things like "+3 for buying drinks or other entertainment for your fellow carousers," "+5 if you are being supervised or assisted by someone with skill 15 or better," "Up to +5 to build a gadget if you can give the GM a good description of what you want it to do," "+3 if the light is dim; +3 if you have a confederate to distract attention," and, "+1 to +4 for displays of strength, bloodthirstiness, or supernatural powers." It's hard to emphasize these in the general rules, as they're skill-specific and the right place for them is in Chapter 4 under individual skills. Even so, they are all in brightly colored paragraphs that open with italic lead-ins and that are set off on both sides by whitespace:

Modifiers: A whole block of vividly colored text that I find hard to ignore, despite being colorblind, with a visible gap above and below it to indicate a mode shift.

Also, a lot of players seem hell-bent on doing things the hard way. The rules were written under the assumption that most PCs would be getting +1 or +2 because the players would be sure to have decent equipment for their characters' most important skills (p. B345), and generally +1 to +5 more for taking extra time (p. B346) in any situation where the GM wasn't saying, "Hurry! The guards are coming!" When people compare real-life success rates to those in the game, they regularly overlook these bonuses, which get the honor of their own Large Headings to make them obvious (unlike those in skill descriptions).

When I hear somebody complain that they thought 12 was good enough but it bit them on the butt, I always ask them whether they considered the above modifiers. Generally, they didn't.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Pmandrekar

... Ain't that the truth. You can pick out the cars of the Marketing from the R&D people in my building. R&D people all drive Subarus (myself included). Marketing and Sales folks tend to drive the nicer cars...

-P.

Bah! Subaru WRX is one of the only cars on the racetrack that my buddy with the Porche Boxster "doesn't even bother to try; I just move over."

Seriously, though--all wheel drive, four doors, good headroom, and 227HP. It's a Minnesota communter's car! (Well, I'd rather it get 30mpg, but that just means when Subaru comes out with their hybrid, I'll trade my Rex in for that...)

[benz72]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Well, I'd rather it get 30mph, but that just means when Subaru comes out with their hybrid, I'll trade my Rex in for that...)

How long does it take you to commute if you can't get up to 30 mph?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by benz72

How long does it take you to commute if you can't get up to 30 mph?

I do the "LA Story" commute...

[Pmandrekar]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Bah! Subaru WRX is one of the only cars on the racetrack that my buddy with the Porche Boxster "doesn't even bother to try; I just move over."

Seriously, though--all wheel drive, four doors, good headroom, and 227HP. It's a Minnesota communter's car! (Well, I'd rather it get 30mpg, but that just means when Subaru comes out with their hybrid, I'll trade my Rex in for that...)

*sigh* Not a WRX, I'm afraid. Just a boring, utilitarian Outback Wagon.

We tend to fill it to the brim when we go to see family at Christmas. Me, wife, two kids, and a lot of babyjunk.

-P

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Pmandrekar

*sigh* Not a WRX, I'm afraid. Just a boring, utilitarian Outback Wagon.

We tend to fill it to the brim when we go to see family at Christmas. Me, wife, two kids, and a lot of babyjunk.

-P

I'll stop tangenting right after this, I swear. But our other car is a Forrester, which, despite the Great Screamin' Fun of my rex, is far and away the best car I've ever owned or driven.

[previous contenders, owned: Honda CRX Si (traded in); Acura Integra GS-R (stolen. twice.); 2005 WRX; 2003 Forrester 2.5. contenders, driven: too many to count, but Saturn SW1 and SL1, Nissan Stanza and Maxima, Honda Accord (this one's a prime contender, actually), Suburban (accept no substitutes for haulin' 4x8 sheet goods, but OUCH, my WALLET!, more rental cars than I care to count. driven, and Just Fun: Saturn EV1 for test drive]