[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Gunslinger

[Tinman]

I've had a few. The most memorable was MH Commando. He was fun & was able to keep up with the spell casters for damage.

In general however, I prefer the Close-Quaters Battle technique.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

The problem with Gunslinger (and to a lesser but non-trivial extent, Trained by a Master and Weapon Master) in GURPS is of course that it mostly gives, in effect, situational bonuses to specific combat skills - and very often, one could get as much or more by dumping 24 points into one's best Guns skill and riding the defaults train from there.

Depends on how specialized you want to be. A sniper may want to take Gunslinger (Rifles Only, -40%) or even Gunslinger (Sniper Rifles Only, -60%)... suddenly you're down to 8 or 12 points.

[Sorenant]

One of my first characters was a sniper so I picked this advantage. At first I just wanted to make him a good rifleman but because Gunslinger gives good bonus to pistols, he ended up looking like a good old CS 1.6 character with a sniper rifle and desert eagle.
Later I found that Gun-Fu comes with limitations that could have allowed me to specialize in rifles and I've been happy to allow it in my games ever since, as it help shooters from differing from each other.

Pyramid #3/107 effectively merges Gunlinger with Guns! wildcard skill. I really like the idea and want to eventually try it out (I don't normally use wildcards).

[Refplace]

I've played at least two Gunslingers and it seems fairly common in a modern or SciFi campaign. Had several other players take it as well.

[awesomenessofme1]

Even in its original form, it's possibly worth it in an UT setting where your typical pistol will have Acc of 8+ and your typical rifle with have an Acc/2 of 6+.

[vicky_molokh]

In the last two sessions of my Space Operators' Problems campaign, we have a case that a Gunslinger (limited to specific rifle type) is pretty effective in free fall despite not having a high Free Fall skill, specifically due to 'outsourcing' the pluses into Gunslinger's half-Acc bonus instead of just buying more Guns (Rifle).

[Rolando]

I have a player with gunslinger, its a Mecha campaign and I allowed it for Mecha weaponry only (gunnery and beams, no artillery).

I'm not very concerned about balance but I believe it worked fine, not overpowered nor lacking in use. There is a lot of action outside the mechas though..

[Christopher R. Rice]

The Sharpshooter enhancement form GURPS Monster Hunter Power-Ups 1 (p. 14) adds some more utility to Gunslinger

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

The Sharpshooter enhancement form GURPS Monster Hunter Power-Ups 1 (p. 14) adds some more utility to Gunslinger

I found that overpriced, for the same reason there was an issue with the original writeup of Gunslinger. 20 points is the equivalent of +5 to a Guns skill, which seems a lot more generally useful when you already have Gunslinger than an additional +Acc/2 in certain situations.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

I found that overpriced, for the same reason there was an issue with the original writeup of Gunslinger. 20 points is the equivalent of +5 to a Guns skill, which seems a lot more generally useful when you already have Gunslinger than an additional +Acc/2 in certain situations.

I suppose that could be the case given certain types of games. I don't know of GMs who would let you sink tons of points in Guns skill(s). In games where the GM says "No skills over X" Gunslinger becomes quite the prize because it is (as you note) effectively a bonus to Guns in certain situations plus gives you access to certain traits that most folks can't get. You can't just look at it as "raw skill vs. Gunslinger" for the same reason you can't look at Trained by a Master or Weapon Master that way.