[Basic] Skill of the week: Carousing

[johndallman]

Carousing is the HT/Easy social skill for partying and socialising, which takes penalties for lack of Cultural Familiarity. Being HT-based, it is rather biased towards the use of relaxation-aiding substances, such as alcohol, although some uses plausibly float to IQ, and it could plausibly be boosted by reaction modifiers on occasion. In cultures that avoid intoxicants, those changes are going to be more common. It's also plausible as an Influence skill for relaxing people, as the skill for drinking less than those around you without being obvious, and for assessing the mood of a party. It's also about avoiding feeing awful the next day!

Basic is clear about Carousing's importance for social and "face-man" characters. Compulsive Carousing isn't a disastrous disadvantage, although it burns up time and money. Killjoy makes the skill feel pointless, while Low Empathy and Shyness just make it hard work. Carousing can substitute for HT in the drinking rules (B439) in somewhat the same way as Jumping does for DX.

Social Engineering, naturally, is the place to look for more details. It offers Carousing as a skill for seeking companionship, recreation and romance, as a substitute Influence skill, and as a complementary skill in many social interactions. It also comes into romantic rivalry, rumours, and working with crowds.

Carousing appears on templates and/or styles in Action, Banestorm, Bio-Tech, Crusades, Dragons, Dungeon Fantasy, Fantasy, Horror, Infinite Worlds, Lands Out of Time, Madness Dossier, Martial Arts, Gladiators, Yrth Fighting Styles, Monster Hunters, Psis, Reign of Steel: Will to Live, Space, Tales of the Solar Patrol, Thaumatology: Urban Magics, Underground Adventures, and Zombies. In Britannica-6, it's pretty well obligatory for social interactions with the nobility. It's a cliché skill for students (although I suspect many of them actually do it at default), sailors, and military folk, appearing on almost all of the WWII templates. PU3: Talents, PU 6: Quirks and PU 7: Wildcard Skills have several examples that include Carousing.

The campaign where Carousing was most important for me was, oddly enough, set in Atlantis. It was meant to be social and political as well as dealing with the gods and their rivalries, which made parties important: "The party has reached the stage where it's time to pass out, go home or set fire to something."

What were your Carousing successes and disasters in a game?

[vicky_molokh]

Wow, that's a jump over quite a few skills.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Wow, that's a jump over quite a few skills.

Que? I've gone from Camouflage to Carousing, only skipping Captivate, which I intend to do with the other Enthralment skills.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Que? I've gone from Camouflage to Carousing, only skipping Captivate, which I intend to do with the other Enthralment skills.

Carpentry. (But yeah, I was envisioning Enthrallment skills grouped under Captivate, like High Manual Dexterity got into the same thread as Arm DX.)

[ericthered]

I am really not fond of the HT based social skill. Yes, for some conditions high HT is useful, but most of the time that can be accomplished with a mandatory complementary roll will cover the HT part.

[David Johnston2]

Personally I love it when we can find an excuse to bring HT into play for a skill roll rather than concentrating everything into IQ and DX. And it's perfect for GURPS Animal House.

[Not]

Partying all night is physically taxing. And it often involves singing, if you're Australian or Welsh. HT makes sense.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Not

Partying all night is physically taxing. And it often involves singing, if you're Australian or Welsh. HT makes sense.

Ditto if you're a performer of any stripe to begin with -- this accurately captures a lot of after-show parties from my experience in amateur theater. When you're rollin' til 2 a.m., stamina matters, even if you're just the guy playing piano in the corner for everyone else. (Raises hand.)

[Not]

So I have a related question. Cultural familiarity is defined very broadly in Basic: "Western," for example. At TL5 or TL6, does this include American Indian or American Negro? Should a French trapper spend a point each to buy these familiarities, or do they come for free with his own?

[Zeta Blaze]

IMO American Indian is between 2-3 familiarities at that resolution one for most of North America one for South America and possibly one for Mazoamerica.
The Black culture of that time is ether using the African CF or CF Western depending on the circumstance as i assume many of them have both at varying levels in each.