[MH] Adding a wildcard

[GarenLiLorian]

A player in our long running MH game wants to play an adventure archaeologist, and would like a Wildcard skill roughly commensurate with Ten-Hut! How do you guys feel this skill stacks up to the other Wildcard skills in Monster Hunters (particularly Ten-Hut!, Medic!, Science!: the ones which are secondary on various templates)?

Tomb Raider!
You are an expert at finding lost civilizations and stealing their stuff. This skill replaces Archaeology, History, Hiking, Naturalist, Hidden Lore (Sacred Places), Research, Survival, Traps, and Scrounging entirely. It can stand in for Pilot, Driving, Packing, Animal Handling (beasts of burden), Boating, Swimming, and Climbing when you’re off the beaten trail and without a map, and Theology, Religious Ritual, Architecture, Forced Entry, Occultism, Poisons, Hazardous Materials (Magical), and Thaumatology when dealing with dead civilizations. Roll in place of Smuggling or Holdout to conceal valuable artifacts from Nazi searchers, or Running to escape from giant boulders. It can stand in for Savoir-Faire (academic) if the conversation is about lost civilizations. Furthermore, you never take penalties for lower TL versions of any these skills and, (if used) may ignore cultural familiarities for ancient civilizations. Finally, you may roll Tomb Raider! when dealing with ancient, human, written texts: success allows you to puzzle out a single concept or simple sentence as per the Gesture skill.

[AlexanderHowl]

I think that it is too broad, even for a Wild Card Skill, and would suggest Scholar! instead from Supers (p. 37). For example, an Indiana Jones character would have Move!, Scholar!, and Whip! (he purchased Brawling and Pistols (Guns) as individual skills) while a Lara Croft type character would have Guns!, Move!, and Scholar!.

[Gumby Bush]

Originally Posted by GarenLiLorian

Tomb Raider!
You are an expert at finding lost civilizations and stealing their stuff. This skill replaces Archaeology, History, Hiking, Naturalist, Hidden Lore (Sacred Places), Research, Survival, Traps, and Scrounging entirely.

All of those, entirely? That seems a bit much. Archeology probably, but not the rest. History, Hidden Lore, and Research would only apply to learning about lost civilizations, and Naturalist, Survival, Hiking, and Traps would only apply to getting to and from such a location--and even that is a bit broad.

It can stand in for Pilot, Driving, Packing, Animal Handling (beasts of burden), Boating, Swimming, and Climbing when you’re off the beaten trail and without a map,

This strikes me as a bit broad, too. Maybe limit it to rolls to get past tomb traps and such.

and Theology, Religious Ritual, Architecture, Forced Entry, Occultism, Poisons, Hazardous Materials (Magical), and Thaumatology when dealing with dead civilizations.

This seems like the core of the skill to me.

Roll in place of Smuggling or Holdout to conceal valuable artifacts from Nazi searchers, or Running to escape from giant boulders. It can stand in for Savoir-Faire (academic) if the conversation is about lost civilizations.

The Running is, again, pretty broad, likewise for Holdout and Smuggling. How often will the character actually have to worry about these restrictions? If most of the hunting occurs in and around lost civilizations, this Wildcard gets pretty close to DoAnything!

Furthermore, you never take penalties for lower TL versions of any these skills and, (if used) may ignore cultural familiarities for ancient civilizations. Finally, you may roll Tomb Raider! when dealing with ancient, human, written texts: success allows you to puzzle out a single concept or simple sentence as per the Gesture skill.

This looks OK. I might expand it to never taking TL penalties for lower TL at all: recall that Wildcard skills aren't a bunch of skills packaged together, they are archetype skills: the skills listed are just to give an idea of what you can do with it most of the time.

[ericthered]

I think the skill should be split into Move! and the more IQ-oriented parts of the skill, similar Guns! and Ten-Hut!.

I'm not convinced that the IQ half is Scholar though. Tomb-Raider! for just the lore, traps, architecture, archeology and so forth sounds like a good division to me.

With the above mentioned Tomb-Raider! and Move! I'd still leave out survival and naturalist from the list, unless you're talking about species of vines commonly growing on old ruins.

[GarenLiLorian]

Good notes! Thanks everybody. How's this?

Tomb Raider!
You are an expert at finding lost civilizations and stealing their stuff. This skill replaces Archaeology for all purposes, and History, Hidden Lore (Sacred Places), Research, Savoir Faire (academic), Theology, and Thaumatology to learn about ancient civilizations. While at a lost temple, ancient city, or other similar archaeological site, an IQ-based roll can be Religious Ritual, Architecture, Poisons, and Hazardous Materials (Magical) to understand what you’re seeing, while a DX-based roll can be Forced Entry or Climbing to navigate. Roll a perception based skill for Survival (to avoid natural hazards), or to detect Traps (to avoid man-made ones). Once the treasure is yours, a HT-based roll can stand in for Running to escape from giant boulders and collapsing temples. Furthermore, you never take penalties for lower TL versions of any these skills and, (if used) may ignore cultural familiarities for ancient civilizations. Finally, you may roll Tomb Raider! when dealing with ancient, human, written texts: success allows you to puzzle out a single concept or simple sentence as per the Gesture skill.

Most Monster Hunting is pretty urban: heading out into the jungle to visit the Lost City of Ur is totally in genre, but not exactly standard. Compared to the monster hunting utility of Ten-Hut! and Science!, this feels quite a bit more niche.

[Engurrand]

My version is your first version sans move! skills and slightly re-arranged.

Tomb-Raider!

You are an expert at finding lost civilizations and stealing their stuff. This skill replaces Archaeology, Anthropology, Connoisseur (Antiques), History, Hidden Lore (Sacred Places), Research, Traps, and Scrounging. It can stand in for Architecture, Forced Entry, Occultism, Poisons, Hazardous Materials (Magical), Thaumatology, Theology, Sociology, and Religious Ritual, when dealing with ancient civilizations. It can stand in for Savoir-Faire (academic) if the conversation is about ancient civilizations. Furthermore, you never take penalties for lower TL versions of any these skills and, (if used) may ignore cultural familiarities for ancient civilizations. Finally, you may roll Tomb Raider! when dealing with ancient, human, written texts: success allows you to puzzle out a single concept or simple sentence as per the Gesture skill.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by GarenLiLorian

Good notes! Thanks everybody. How's this?

Tomb Raider!
You are an expert at finding lost civilizations and stealing their stuff. This skill replaces Archaeology for all purposes, and History, Hidden Lore (Sacred Places), Research, Savoir Faire (academic), Theology, and Thaumatology to learn about ancient civilizations. While at a lost temple, ancient city, or other similar archaeological site, an IQ-based roll can be Religious Ritual, Architecture, Poisons, and Hazardous Materials (Magical) to understand what you’re seeing, while a DX-based roll can be Forced Entry or Climbing to navigate. Roll a perception based skill for Survival (to avoid natural hazards), or to detect Traps (to avoid man-made ones). Once the treasure is yours, a HT-based roll can stand in for Running to escape from giant boulders and collapsing temples. Furthermore, you never take penalties for lower TL versions of any these skills and, (if used) may ignore cultural familiarities for ancient civilizations. Finally, you may roll Tomb Raider! when dealing with ancient, human, written texts: success allows you to puzzle out a single concept or simple sentence as per the Gesture skill.

Most Monster Hunting is pretty urban: heading out into the jungle to visit the Lost City of Ur is totally in genre, but not exactly standard. Compared to the monster hunting utility of Ten-Hut! and Science!, this feels quite a bit more niche.

Wildcard skills by default are unaffected by TL (GURPS Power Ups 7) so that is not a detail that is needed in the skill itself.

Thief!+History! would seem to fit much of this.