05-14-2014, 11:05 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
Another way to think about it might be that skill to skill defaults don't exist at all, but you can roll against more than one skill to perform some tasks. But in order to eliminate the need to think about what might be covered by the other skill and how the penalties might differ, we've "simplified" this in the same way we have stuff like TL penalties, by declaring *everything* covered by one is covered by the other, at a fixed penalty.
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05-14-2014, 11:41 AM | #12 |
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
You can always check out half stat defaulting from alternate GURPS 3.
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05-14-2014, 11:44 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
Nothing wrong with adding half-skill defaulting.
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05-14-2014, 11:46 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
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05-14-2014, 02:04 PM | #15 | |||||||
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
I realize now that I didn't specifically state this in the opening but my question is strictly in terms of defaulting from skills. I have other stuff in place for attributes.
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Half defaults for skills or even better half defaults for skills after a certain point is something I was toying with before posting. It has some nice advantages with letting you continue progressing but at a slower rate. Strictly speaking it can coexist with a hard cap though and I was interested in what people thought about those. Quote:
Please do me the courtesy of presuming that I've actually read the default rules before going to the forums about a house rule. I'm familiar with The Rule of 20. Quote:
There isn't. Default capping from skills shows up occasionally in GURPS but no such general cap exists. Quote:
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Aside from being interested in defaults from skills here, I never really saw the point of half stat defaulting. Increasing stat costs, reducing maximum stat levels and allowing purchasing of attribute roll only levels does what half stat defaulting does in a much more elegant fashion. The incidental unification of defaults and purchasing skills is nice. |
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05-14-2014, 02:39 PM | #16 | ||
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Yorkshire, UK
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
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You could equally apply the Rule of 20 (or 18, etc.) to Skill-to-Skill defaults. As you have acknowledged, you didn't exclude skill defaults from attributes from your question. Quote:
Additionally, by referencing the basic foundations in a thread, anyone else who might come across this thread in the future won't miss out on a relevant point they might not already be aware of. |
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05-14-2014, 02:51 PM | #17 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
The problems with such thinking as "someone who has Broadsword at 24 and thus a default of Two-Handed Sword of 20 shouldn't be as good as somebody who studied Two-Handed Sword specifically and raised it to 20" are twofold:
1. "Good with swords" is part of what you're paying for when you buy a sword skill. And the first character above did pay more . . . other things being equal, he bought a skill at 24 and defaulted another at 20, while the second character only bought a skill at 20 (and defaults the other way at 16). In GURPS, part of the value of a skill is being good at the skills that default to it. Skills are overpriced – especially when they fall into clusters that cover overlapping tasks and are based on the same attribute. That's why skill-attribute optimization works. Letting people default lots of skills from a single master skill serves to mitigate this flaw (and yes, I admit it's a flaw). On a meta level, it makes more sense to me that a character can have, say, Merchant at some high level in order to get all of Accounting, Administration, Economics, Finance, Market Analysis, and Propaganda for what amounts to 4 points/level than that to forbid this and force someone to spend 28 points/level to raise all seven skills, meaning that all money-oriented PCs will become generalized IQ monsters instead, because IQ costs just 20 points/level and does more stuff. 2. Limiting someone after a certain level is actually the opposite of real life in the specific case of weapon-skill defaults. General wisdom among people who do this stuff is that true mastery of a weapon comes with realizing that the weapon isn't the essence but merely a prop, and that concepts such as controlling distance, maintaining situational awareness, staying mobile, and having good timing are universal. To quote the only fencing master I ever knew, "I could have defeated him as easily with a pot lid as a foil" . . . and when called on it, he did! A good case could be made that any Melee Weapon skill at 25+ gives you all Melee Weapon skills at some level; that is, there's a special uncapped default that works only at really high levels.
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05-14-2014, 02:54 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
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05-14-2014, 03:05 PM | #19 | ||||||
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
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Last edited by Sindri; 05-14-2014 at 03:15 PM. |
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05-14-2014, 03:12 PM | #20 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Capping Skill Default Levels
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As for cinematics, skill 20 is a master who is essentially unparalleled in that skill, and while this itself isn't cinematic, having enough cases where it could be problematic most likely is (and getting to the point where defaulted skills are at 20+ means rather high base skill). Still, if you're seeing your problem at base skills well below potentially-cinematic levels, then it is indeed problematic. Quote:
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Last edited by Varyon; 05-14-2014 at 03:22 PM. |
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defaults, house rules |
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