[Basic] Trained by a Non-Combat Master

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Frankly, bundling in Cultural Adaptability and Social Chameleon and decreeing them off limits to others strikes me as a great way to round it out, but I know that many gamers hate bundles.

Social Chameleon seems awesome for almost any socially-oriented character. Cultural Adaptability seems like an outright liability in most settings, because it costs more points than it is worth in typical campaigns. I'm currently going out of my way to make Cultural Adaptability useful (by making a setting where one can expect to run into a wide assortment of CFs in a relatively short time), and it feels strained.

But yeah, Social Chameleon is the thing.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Social Chameleon seems awesome for almost any socially-oriented character. Cultural Adaptability seems like an outright liability in most settings, because it costs more points than it is worth in typical campaigns. I'm currently going out of my way to make Cultural Adaptability useful (by making a setting where one can expect to run into a wide assortment of CFs in a relatively short time), and it feels strained.

But yeah, Social Chameleon is the thing.

I've found the opposite to be true in my secret-agents campaign.

The PCs have essentially no polite social contact with high Rank/Status people. They operate outside the system, avoiding those in charge except when either engaging in covert operations against them or impersonating underlings. For the most part, Social Chameleon would be a white elephant.

However, I've defined 10 very broad Cultural Familiarities, all of which have shown up, plus a bunch of specialized, narrower ones, many of which have also shown up. As the PCs move around a lot and have no time to acquire new CFs in play, Cultural Adaptability has proven well worth the points spent on it. At worst, it's a handy way to bundle the 10 big CFs; at best, it's insurance against -3 whenever the PC meet villagers in some far-flung locale.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I've found the opposite to be true in my secret-agents campaign.

The PCs have essentially no polite social contact with high Rank/Status people. They operate outside the system, avoiding those in charge except when either engaging in covert operations against them or impersonating underlings. For the most part, Social Chameleon would be a white elephant.

I can't imagine it being useless. It negates the reaction penalty for the discrepancy in the social ladder, and gives a +1 in situations where there is no such penalty. It usually seems a good deal to pick Social Chameleon instead of a level of Status, Reputation, Appearance (with +1 character point spent), maybe even Charisma.

Originally Posted by Kromm

However, I've defined 10 very broad Cultural Familiarities, all of which have shown up, plus a bunch of specialized, narrower ones, many of which have also shown up. As the PCs move around a lot and have no time to acquire new CFs in play, Cultural Adaptability has proven well worth the points spent on it. At worst, it's a handy way to bundle the 10 big CFs; at best, it's insurance against -3 whenever the PC meet villagers in some far-flung locale.

Hmm. I'm assuming you mean these:

Originally Posted by Kromm

We have never published such a list, but behind the scenes, we use this one:

1. Latin American (Mexico and parts south)
2. Anglo (the U.K. and its English-speaking former colonies, including the U.S.A.)
3. Western European ( "the Continent")
4. Eastern European (the former Soviet Bloc)
5. North African (from the Mediterranean coast south to the Sahel)
6. Sub-Saharan (specifically as contrasted with North African)
7. West Asian (from the Mediterranean east to Iran)
8. Central Asian (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and so on)
9. South Asian (dominated by India)
10. East Asian (China, Japan, Korea, etc.)

Of those, I'd say you could afford to break up Latin American and South Asian further, and Sub-Saharan a lot further, if the campaign requires it. But if you want an even 10 to hit Cultural Adaptability on the head, this list works well enough.

You would almost certainly find "Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously" (Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II) and "Speaking in Tongues" (Pyramid #3/54: Social Engineering) to be of value, then.

That's an impressive list to involve in a single campaign in such a way that lack of another 15-30 points spent on languages doesn't negate the usefulness of CA. It's still not better than just learning these / most of these CFs 'manually' for the same price, until highly obscure but distinct CFs show up.
But as far as cinematic traits go, it still seems to have a poorer utility-per-point-spent than cinematic Super-Memorization, Wrenching, or 'Cosmic' jack-of-all-tradeness.

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I'm currently playing in a campaign with a significant focus on corporate and non-corporate espionage. I'd gladly pay 6, maybe even 7 points for Social Chameleon, even though I'm Status 3 and Rank 6 by now. I'd consider paying 8 if I were playing a Status 0 or less character.

As for CFs, I currently have CF:Western (this being Transhuman Space) and CF:Chinese, and it was sufficient. I picked up CF:Japanese mostly on a whim (it had its uses, but not worth 1 character point; bumping influence modifiers seems better bang-per-buck-wise).

[Langy]

I'd like to point out that Gadgeteer is just Trained by a Master (Engineer) and Ritual Adept is Trained by a Master (Ritual Path Magician). I would be interested in seeing what Trained by a Master (Hacker) might be, or maybe Trained by a Master (Scientist).

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Langy

I would be interested in seeing what Trained by a Master (Hacker) might be, or maybe Trained by a Master (Scientist).

Check out H4xx0R, a limited version of Quick Gadgeteer from Action 1 (pg 18). It allows a variety of cinematically fast programming feats, including default use of programs in the Netrunning rules from Pyramid 3/21. You could make it a prerequisite for the cinematic Computer Hacking skill too.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Check out H4xx0R, a limited version of Quick Gadgeteer from Action 1 (pg 18). It allows a variety of cinematically fast programming feats, including default use of programs in the Netrunning rules from Pyramid 3/21. You could make it a prerequisite for the cinematic Computer Hacking skill too.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Good point! How about Trained by a Master (Diplomat) or Trained by a Master (Spy)?

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Langy

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Good point! How about Trained by a Master (Diplomat) or Trained by a Master (Spy)?

Those may be similar to Bard (particularly the inclusion of Social Chameleon and Cultural Adaptability). In fact, there could be an overarching "Social Master" trait, with limited variants for specific fields.

[Flameblade]

The obvious name for this notional "TBaM for Bards" trait would be "Poetic License", ne?

(Blame Celti for this.)

[Celti]

For what it's worth, 'Poetic License' was naught but a passing fancy that I immediately expressed regret for, and I finally settled on 'Silver Tongue'.

I have it halving penalties for haste and audience size (using the variant rule of -1 to skill per 5 people from The Madness Dossier), as well as halving FP costs.

[cacosta]

I feel that "Weapon Master" is a good fit in here too. I tend to see "Trained by a Master" and "Weapon Master" as 2 sides of a same coin: the first represents training with someone proficient in that set of skills, and the second a natural aptitude for some traits, that you could eventually find out your talent. So, I can see just as easily someone needing to have "Trained by a Bard Master" or "Bard Master" as prerequisites to skills like the Enthrallment subset.

I guess... The best solution is to use the ideas on Power Ups 3 - Talents, and require levels of talents for those skills... This book also has some ideas on extra benefits those talents could give, for example:

Originally Posted by Power Ups 3 - Talents page 15

Smooth Operator 15 points/level
Skills: Acting, Carousing, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Intimidation, Leadership, Panhandling, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, and Streetwise.
Reaction Bonus: Con artists, politicians, salesmen, etc. – but only if you aren’t trying to manipulate them.
Alternative Benefit: +1/level to resist any of the affected skills.
Alternative Cost: 13 points/level.

The book also have rules for acquiring a Talent with training (that would be akin to "Trained by a Master) as opposed to having it as a naturally inborn aptitude (witch would be akin to "Weapon Master").