05-31-2013, 09:37 AM | #11 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Research skill
Quote:
On the other hand, Library's have subject librarians for a reason. having a -5 or -4 (countering a 'routine' bonus) for not knowing the subject isn't a terrible idea.
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05-31-2013, 09:55 AM | #12 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Research skill
Research isn't always specific to the knowledge covered by other skills, either – there's plenty of information you might want to know that isn't closely related to any other skill. Research is really useful for turning up such facts, because it's also the skill of using card catalogs and search engines; exploiting tables of contents, indexes, and guide words; analyzing charts, tables, outlines, and bullet lists; and so on. You can roll against it when time is limited and you have to find the phone number in the old white pages, spell in the magic grimoire, single book in the library, etc. in "adventure time." Someone without the skill would need +5 to offset the default penalty and thus have to take 30 times as long; so while you find that passage or number in a second, or the book in a minute, the untrained need half a minute or half an hour to do so.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
05-31-2013, 10:22 AM | #13 | ||
Join Date: Apr 2006
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Re: Research skill
Quote:
Research is not as simple as "look it up in the book". (Well, I guess it could be, for very simple subjects - the kind that would grant +10 and be resolved as "okay, you Google it".) You nearly always have to start by defining the scope of the problem or subject, because you aren't familiar with the problem or subject, because if you were you wouldn't have to research it. So you start by looking at various sources and trying to get a big picture grasp of what it is you need to know, and then you start nailing down the details. Sources aren't always easy to find, especially if you're looking for very particular information. I've done searches on things where after clicking through half of the links on five or six pages of search results I either haven't found what I was looking for, or only found it in terms too general or too technical to be useful to me. Sometimes, important information simply isn't documented at all - or if it is, you can't find it. Sometimes sources offer contradicting information and then you have to evaluate them. Frequently you might want access to scientific journals or proprietary or classified information that you either can't get outright, or aren't willing to pay for. Usually when you get far along enough in this process, you can begin to compile or synthesize the answer(s) you were looking for. Quote:
Sticking with existing GURPS mechanics, I'd suggest that a technical skill can act as a complement to Research, and then that Research roll can act as a complement to the technical skill. This means that skilled or genius-IQ characters are more likely to benefit from research than ordinary unskilled folks. Or use GM fiat to decide whether the character can use the information he finds or if it's simply over his head. |
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