01-09-2018, 01:01 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Making Techniques Worthwhile
With rare exception, like Ground Fighting, it is often better to improve the base skill than it is to improve more than one underlying Technique, as the improvements increase all of the underlying Techniques and any defenses associated with the base skill. In order to make Techniques worthwhile, I propose the following changes. When feinting with a trained technique (or resisting a feint by a technique that you are trained in) you gain a +1 bonus per level in the technique to the quick contest (cumulative with any feint technique). What do you think?
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01-09-2018, 01:10 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
I find that making techniques cheaper works well in making them a better buy. +2 to a technique (Hard or Average with no buy-in cost) for 1 CP makes them fairly attractive: you can get +8 in bonuses for the cost of a single level of increased skill. That's a decent deal.
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01-09-2018, 01:15 PM | #3 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
Putting 1-3 points in techniques can raise your style perk cap and still have a useful effect, whereas putting points 1-3 points in primary skills does nothing at high levels (and there is also zero rules support for it).
ETA: Also having one or two techniques on the character sheet is a feature, not a bug. GURPS needs less clutter on the sheets, not more, and players need less decision paralysis (not more). Making your trademark move really effective and doing it all the time isn't just efficient, it is also a pretty realistic reflection of the way people actually train. Last edited by sir_pudding; 01-09-2018 at 01:20 PM. |
01-09-2018, 01:36 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
Additionally, remember that techniques stack when using them together.
So let's say I am a Fencer with the style La Verdadera Destreza. And I dual wield Rapiers. Style Perks: -Technique Mastery (Dual-Weapon Attack: Rapier) -Technique Mastery (Counterattack: Rapier) I have the Techniques: -Dual-Weapon Attack(Rapier) +4 -Feint (Rapier) +4 -Counterattack (Rapier) +4 Because they stack, if I do a Dual Weapon Attack, onne being a Feint and the other a Counterattack? I roll at +8 to my Rapier skill for each. That is nice! |
01-09-2018, 01:47 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
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Now, where I argue with myself. A nice feature of the current method is representing gradual progression a bit better. Most of the time, you have to get the full four CP invested in a Skill, bumping it to the next level before you see any return. I don't know if it is permitted via RAW, but I like the thought of investing points into Maneuvers, then - so long as nothing drops below where it was before - eventually shuffling those points over into the underlying Skill when the final point needed has been spent. Example: Vince has DX 12 [40] and Brawling-14 [4]. The adventures keep allowing some downtime to practice, so Vince decides to work on some of his Brawling-based Techniques. After enough study time, he ends up with Elbow Strike (Brawling)-13 [1] and Kicking (Brawling)-13 [2]. Instead of investing his next 1 CP of Brawling practice into another Maneuver and getting Knee Strike (Brawling)-14 [1], the 3 CP from Brawling Maneuvers get moved over to the Brawling Skill itself, along with the latest 1 CP of Brawling practice, so that Vince now has Brawling-15 [8], Elbow Strike (Brawling)-13 [0], and Kicking (Brawling)-13 [0]. Again, without more advanced rules that would make the CP invested matter. If some of the rules in [Basic] already mess with that, let me know. I won't be surprised if I missed something. XP
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01-09-2018, 02:07 PM | #6 | ||||
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
Then characters are free to take unlimited numbers of perks.
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I can't actually think of any martial arts training that I have ever done that really emphasizes more than a few GURPS techniques, notably in Akido I drilled Breakfall, Hand Catch Parry, and Arm-Lock more than anything else, in what GURPS calls Assaulter, Failure Drills and Masked Shooting, MCMAP was mostly body hardening and really not focused on any specific techniques at all, in the I.33 Counterattack, and because my sword is well suited, Binding and Disarm and in the weird varient of kusarijitsu I am learning for this weird sport I do now just Return Strike is the only technique that I focused on more than just mastery of the weapon. Last edited by sir_pudding; 01-09-2018 at 11:40 PM. |
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01-09-2018, 06:25 PM | #8 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
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01-09-2018, 07:09 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
I don't really see a problem with the current scheme.
In the first place, it's not efficient to spend time training up multiple Hard techniques. That encourages players to pick a single "signature" move and specialize in it, which both avoids cluttering a character sheet with a lot of complexity that has only minor payoffs in terms of making play interesting, and fits the way martial artists are often portrayed in fiction and drama. In the second place, the 2-point cost for the first +1 means it's not worthwhile training the technique until you've put 4 points into the skill. That also works narratively, fitting the idea that it's the more advanced student who's skilled enough to have a personal signature move. Back when I ran Salle d'Armes, my campaign about French students of the smallsword, what I did was have each play session include a classroom scene where the characters practiced one or another technique of Smallsword. The idea was that they weren't trying to gain a level of the technique, but were doing this as part of all-round training in the skill; that is, the list of techniques for a skill is also a list of things you might practice while learning the overall skill. It also gave them a chance to size up whether they liked a technique enough to thing about concentrating on it. I recommend this as an added use of techniques.
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01-09-2018, 07:22 PM | #10 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Making Techniques Worthwhile
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