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Old 03-07-2015, 12:12 PM   #1
johndallman
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Default [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

Electrician/TL is the IQ/A skill of practical work with electrical, as opposed to electronic, systems. It defaults to IQ-5 or Engineer (Electrical) -3, and provides a (much worse) default for Engineer (Electrical). Electrician appears as a common skill along with large-scale electricity generation at TL6, and looks set to carry on for several TLs above 8. The main modifiers are equipment or familiarity, although electrical standards often apply to large areas, spanning several countries, and the basic ideas and units are the same everywhere on Earth.

Electrician is a Repair skill in the Design/Repair/Use triads, although most equipment maintained with Electrician doesn't require skills to use; if it did, they would presumably be "Electronics Operation" specialisations. Operating power stations and electricity grids does need real skill, which would presumably be a Professional skill with a default from Engineer (Electrical).

Electrician appears on several templates for technical types, underlining its great use for adventurers: cutting the power to surprise and confuse opponents within a building or installation. This seems like a good use for a One-Task Wonder perk. Action points out its usefulness in dealing with electric fences, alarms, electronic locks, and so on, setting electrical traps, repairing equipment, and restoring the power you took out. Banestorm's Underground Engineers use Electrician/TL5, and Fantasy-Tech 1 has Electrician/TL3+2. High-Tech has tool kits, and Infinite Worlds has a system for recharging conveyors from local mechanical energy. PU3 and PU7 have examples, as usual. Reign of Steel: Will to Live has IEDs made from power cells via Electrician, and SEALs in Vietnam has the skill set for a naval electrician. Ultra-Tech tells you how to jury-rig power cells.

I don't think I've ever had Electrician on a PC of my own, though I've used it at least once on pre-generated PCs from convention scenarios. What have you done with it that was fun?
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Old 03-07-2015, 12:52 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

I've always used Electrician as the practical side and Engineering (Electrical) as the theoretical side of things electrical. I wouldn't exactly call it a fun thing, but when electrical engineers in my campaigns (pulp era) have the design for an item worked out and start to make the prototype, I've had them roll against Electrician rather than Engineering to build it.

Electronics is more or less about using a small current to control a bigger one. TV repairmen are essentially electricians at lower tech levels. They can identify a burnt out vacuum tube or transistor and replace it, but they can't build either. Most gadgets at TL 5 and 6 are electrical rather than electronic with electric tea kettles, typewriters, coffee pots, toasters, stoves, refrigerators, blankets, heating pads, pencil sharpeners, clocks, hair dryers, home heating, car ignition/starter systems, etc. About the only home appliances that are even mildly electronic are the TV and radio.
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Old 03-07-2015, 01:30 PM   #3
malloyd
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

Many of these repair skills bleed into each other so much it is tough to remember which skills might have been used for what.

In addition to the security alarm uses, Electrician would be an entirely reasonable skill to cut the phone lines, tap telegraph or early telephone lines, build a simple generator after a shipwreck, stop a starship power plant from exploding, convince an ancient alien device to run with a modern portable generator as a power supply, repair a lighthouse beacon in a storm, set up an "accidental" electrical fire, light a fire with a battery, or turn a power cell into a grenade.
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Old 03-07-2015, 02:34 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
I don't think I've ever had Electrician on a PC of my own, though I've used it at least once on pre-generated PCs from convention scenarios. What have you done with it that was fun?
I've had two; a Super Gadgeteer and a low power Psi Electro-kinetic.

Was far more useful to the Electro-kinetic than the Gadgeteer.
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Old 03-07-2015, 09:53 PM   #5
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post
About the only home appliances that are even mildly electronic are the TV and radio.
And the phonograph, at least once they acquired electronic amplification.
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Old 03-08-2015, 12:27 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

This comes up surprisingly often in GURPS Spaceships. For my captain-and-crew game, it became one of the more important skills for the Engineer characters.
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Old 03-08-2015, 05:19 AM   #7
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

Funnily enough, Electrician came up in a game yesterday in which John was playing - and none of the PCs had it. Fortunately, we had a lot of good IQs and were rolling at a bonus.

I think I've had one character who took it - the Crimson Skies team mechanic. Basically, if something could fly, he could keep it in the air. I don't recall ever rolling against it, but it was definitely part of his characterisation.
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Old 03-08-2015, 06:32 AM   #8
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

I've generally seen this as a skill that gets added to a character along with Electronics Repair, and they tend to blend into each other. (Hooking up the main emitter on a radar set should perhaps be Electrician, but it's easier to say "ER Sensors" for the whole job.)
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Old 03-08-2015, 06:52 AM   #9
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailanka View Post
This comes up surprisingly often in GURPS Spaceships.
You can't re-route the emergency power to the doubletalkatron without Electrician skill.

Also useful for connecting the starship generator to power things groundside, like a temporary base or hospitals suffering a local natural disaster.
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Old 03-08-2015, 10:46 AM   #10
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Electrician

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
You can't re-route the emergency power to the doubletalkatron without Electrician skill.

Also useful for connecting the starship generator to power things groundside, like a temporary base or hospitals suffering a local natural disaster.
Not to mention damage control.

Electrician is the primary skill for starship engineers.
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