Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-10-2017, 03:19 PM   #1
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default New Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

Edit: This thread is part of a series where I intend to invent a lot of Techniques, to fill out the support for non-combat skills. There's more about my plans and objectives here.

<Specific organisation> (Administration). Average, cannot exceed Administration.

This allows buying off the penalties to deal with an organisation that works in a strange way. First, buy the appropriate Cultural Familiarity if it's part of an alien culture, then buy up this technique.

The prototypical organisation that needs this is the modern US Department of Defense, which has found the need to operate Defense Acquisition University to teach people how to run its spending programs. These work in ways that make no sense to foreigners at first sight, such as the Foreign Military Sales program. It probably imposes a penalty of -2 to Administration for people who don't know how to work with it.

Last edited by johndallman; 03-12-2017 at 10:47 AM. Reason: Preface
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2017, 03:02 PM   #2
weby
 
weby's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Default Re: Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

Many organizations in my games have strange or arcane methods of doing things that cause a penalty to administration that could be bought off with this, but so far none of the PCs have bought it, though at least two though about it in a campaign where the PCs became members of such an organization.
__________________
--
GURPS spaceship unofficial errata and thoughts: https://gsuc.roto.nu/
weby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-12-2017, 06:03 AM   #3
Donny Brook
 
Donny Brook's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
Default Re: Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
<Specific organisation> (Administration). Average, cannot exceed Administration.

This allows buying off the penalties to deal with an organisation that works in a strange way. First, buy the appropriate Cultural Familiarity if it's part of an alien culture, then buy up this technique.

The prototypical organisation that needs this is the modern US Department of Defense, which has found the need to operate Defense Acquisition University to teach people how to run its spending programs. These work in ways that make no sense to foreigners at first sight, such as the Foreign Military Sales program. It probably imposes a penalty of -2 to Administration for people who don't know how to work with it.
Is this published somewhere or does this series present new techniques?
Donny Brook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-12-2017, 06:22 AM   #4
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
Is this published somewhere or does this series present new techniques?
New techniques. I had better put that on the subject lines from now on.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-12-2017, 06:49 AM   #5
roguebfl
Dog of Lysdexics
 
roguebfl's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Melbourne FL, Formerly Wellington NZ
Default Re: Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

I would note this technique is not need for members of that organizations. Any such penalties from complication for member of the origination are familiarity penalties. This is for "outsiders" working with the origination, for example Defense contract working with the Department, or a policy holder working with an issuance company.
__________________
Rogue the Bronze Firelizard
Gerald Grenier, Jr. Hail Eris!
Rogue's Weyr
roguebfl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-12-2017, 09:04 AM   #6
weby
 
weby's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Default Re: Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

Quote:
Originally Posted by roguebfl View Post
I would note this technique is not need for members of that organizations. Any such penalties from complication for member of the origination are familiarity penalties. This is for "outsiders" working with the origination, for example Defense contract working with the Department, or a policy holder working with an issuance company.
In many cases they are definitely not familiarity penalties, instead being really arcane/strange methods of doing things. I guess you could buy the normal administration as being learned for that organization, but then you would have a penalty for dealing with other more sane organizations.
__________________
--
GURPS spaceship unofficial errata and thoughts: https://gsuc.roto.nu/
weby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-12-2017, 09:09 AM   #7
weby
 
weby's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Default Re: New Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

A note: I have a generic:

Specialized learning: Allows you to add up to +2 over skill when dealing with ONE named organization/thing in skills below or to buy off a penalty for the special aspects of the thing, up to +4, cannot exceed skill in this case.

And the "Administration: Dealing with the bureaucracy of that given organization" is one of them.

You can see more of the list in: https://hups.kivinen.iki.fi/k2011:me...tal_techniques
__________________
--
GURPS spaceship unofficial errata and thoughts: https://gsuc.roto.nu/
weby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-12-2017, 01:21 PM   #8
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: New Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

Somehow this doesn't look to me like a proper technique. On one hand, it might be a familiarity. If that doesn't seem substantial enough, I might call it a perk, comparable to a Craft or Tech Secret perk. I just don't see buying off the -2 penalty for dealing with some arcane administrative procedure as the kind of thing that it would be rational to spend multiples of 200 hours of study on, or that a player would want to spend more than 1 point on.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-13-2017, 11:52 AM   #9
ericthered
Hero of Democracy
 
ericthered's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
Default Re: New Technique of the week: <Specific organisation> (Administration)

I'd argue that this is appropriate, but its more appropriate for normal cases than unusual ones.

If the is a weird structure, its going to be familiarity or a specialty. Technique for a specific organization probably refers to knowing all the little quirks of how things work in that organization: which secretary is the gate-keeper, times when you can find people not busy, exact corporate culture, and so forth.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic

Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog

Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one!
ericthered is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
administration, new technique of the week, specific organisation

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:28 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.