Skill cost question

[DippyTTO]

I came across a fan-made GURPS supplement detailing FMA-style alchemy implemented as Symbol Magic. This document makes reference to a skill (specifically the "Body" symbol) as being an IQ/Impossible skill, with 1 CP purchasing this skill at IQ-20. Is such a thing ever referenced in an Official GURPS product, or is this strictly a fan-made way of making FMA-style Human Transmutation prohibitively expensive?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Strictly Fan Made.

[DippyTTO]

Thank you. I thought it might be. I certainly couldn't find any reference to such a skill difficulty level in any of my GURPS library.

[Anders]

The RAW way to do this would be to slap an Unusual Background cost on the skill. Not just anyone can buy this - it's worth more in this setting.

[DippyTTO]

@Anders Thank you very much. I think I shall implement it that way

[Varyon]

GURPS skills never get easier than Easy (default to Attribute-4, [1] gets you to Attribute+0), or harder than Very Hard (default to Attribute-7, [1] gets you to Attribute-3). That said, if a GM opts to have some skills that are easier or harder, it's easy enough to work out the progression - each step easier is +1 to skill, each step harder is -1 to skill. Alternatively, the way GURPS usually handles "harder than VH" skills is to break them up a bit. For example, in Ritual Path Magic, the Path Skills are effectively harder than VH - you have to buy Thaumatology (itself a VH skill) first, and you can't get any Path above your skill in Thaumatology.

As a note for FMA in particular, how to handle this is going to depend on which continuity you're going with. For a homebrew setting based on FMA (the optimal way to do this, honestly - see here), you can go whatever way you'd like. For the rest, spoilers ahoy! For the manga (and Brotherhood):

Spoiler:  

Creating a human body is difficult, but probably no more so than, say, creating a chimaera. The really tough part is in manipulating the soul. Actually bringing back someone who has been long dead, or creating a brand new soul, appears to be outright impossible - nobody ever pulls it off. The Elrics actually mess up in creating a human body, with the skin and organs being improperly placed (and with the body created not actually matching their mother), but the Blind Alchemist (and probably Izumi) appears to have gotten it right, although the body is shriveled and dessicated by the time the Elrics see it. Of course, the Blind Alchemist (and Izumi) had the advantage of actually using the original body and just repairing it, rather than creating a new one de novo. Someone who has just died, or who is still alive, can have their soul bound into something else. Any attempt at human transmutation exposes you to Truth, which grants amazing amounts of knowledge but basically pulls your body and soul into the beyond, erasing you. An incredibly skilled alchemist, like Edward, can survive this by paying an exit fee - part of their body gets left behind. The lives contained within a Philosopher's Stone can be used for the exit fee instead.

For the anime:

Spoiler:  

The situation is pretty similar to the manga, but you can bring back the long dead - they just come back wrong. The body is typically malformed, but can be restored with incomplete Philosopher's Stones. The original soul is present, but the memories are buried very deep. Actually transfering a soul from a living person isn't human transmutation, it's something a bit more mundane (the serial killer doll maker from early in the series is a good example here) but nonetheless quite difficult. The exit fee is still the same when you're actually doing human transmutation.

In either case, I'd argue that any alchemist could theoretically pull it off (it's a hard "spell," but doesn't have its own dedicated Path), but you need to make a penalized Will-based Alchemy roll. Failure means you can't come back. Success means you can after paying the exit fee, and the more you succeed by, the less it costs. In fact, you probably have to succeed by 5 or more to actually survive the process of coming back - otherwise you come back missing too much to stay alive. Having a Philosopher's Stone probably reduces or eliminates the penalty (maybe even grants a net bonus), and the payment comes from the stone rather than the body.

For reference for the characters (note this has spoilers mostly for the manga, but by the nature of the two series many of these apply to both):

Spoiler:  

Alphonse outright failed (hence his body ceasing to exist) while Ed had a pretty impressive success (losing only a leg). The Blind Alchemist (lost his eyes) and Roy Mustang (lost his corneas, probably - he still had eyes but lacked the ability to see) had comparably impressive successes. Izumi succeeded but was a bit too close to the minimum MoS 5 for survival - she came back with Terminally Ill (1 month or less), but was able to use alchemy to heal herself, reducing it to Chronic Pain.

[Bruno]

There is a sort-of step past "Very Hard" - Wildcard skills, which cost 3x as much as Very Hard skills.

These should really be used for a group of tasks that routinely swap between IQ or DX - if it's only ever IQ based, or DX based, you'll quickly start being cheaper to buy the base stat. If it's only ever Will or Per based, it's an even worse idea.

So if you require a bunch of IQ based rolls to prepare a spell, and then a very-critical DX based roll to cast it, or something like that, a Wildcard skill isn't a totally bad idea. But if it's basically just IQ (or IQ, and sometimes Per and Will) it's way better to have a 5 or 10 point unusual background.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by DippyTTO

I came across a fan-made GURPS supplement detailing FMA-style alchemy implemented as Symbol Magic. This document makes reference to a skill (specifically the "Body" symbol) as being an IQ/Impossible skill, with 1 CP purchasing this skill at IQ-20. Is such a thing ever referenced in an Official GURPS product, or is this strictly a fan-made way of making FMA-style Human Transmutation prohibitively expensive?

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Strictly Fan Made.

Originally Posted by DippyTTO

@Anders Thank you very much. I think I shall implement it that way

Note that Techniques can easily default to a skill, even a Very Hard skill, at -20 (or worse).

That makes it impossible without a lot of training, which might be the desired effect.

Requiring an expensive prerequisite, such as an Unusual Background, for example, can then add to the starting cost as much as the GM wants.