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Old 07-19-2005, 08:09 AM   #1
Dahomi
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Default Skills

Hello dear all,

I need help. I want to start to DM Gurps. Gurps has a lot of skills really more than my older systems I mastered. My Question is exist their a list like:

Action Skill
search secret doors = Architecture
.
.
.


Pls help

Dahomi
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Old 07-19-2005, 09:04 AM   #2
umbros
 
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Default Re: Skills

What I do is allow reasonable player requests.

For example: The player wants to use Architecture to look for a secret door, his reasoning being that with his knowledge of how buildings are normally put together and how one might conceal a door, he should be able to find a secret door. So I say; Okay, float it to Perception and tell me by how much do you make the roll." If they make the roll by an amount that I think would be enough to find this particular door, they find it. Under different circumstances, say the door is in a cavern wall, I might not allow the roll against Architecture.

My first instinct on the skill to use to find something concealed like that would be Search.
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Old 07-19-2005, 09:10 AM   #3
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Default Re: Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dahomi
Hello dear all,

I need help. I want to start to DM Gurps. Gurps has a lot of skills really more than my older systems I mastered. My Question is exist their a list like:

Action Skill
search secret doors = Architecture
.
.
.


Pls help

Dahomi
No, there isn't. Couse you can accomplish the same task using different skills. For the purpose of "searching hidden doors" you can use Search, Architecture, Engineer, Profession (specialization pertinent to the task), and so on ...

Moreover you can also use these skills with attributes other then those specified within the skill description. In other words you can use for example Architecutre making a success roll based on Perception instead of IQ.
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Old 07-19-2005, 09:20 AM   #4
nanoboy
 
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Default Re: Skills

I don't think that architecture is the appropriate skill for looking for secret doors. Architecture is the art of creating useful buildings and spaces, especially in an artistic way. (My wife is an architect, so I feel that I have sufficient authority for talking about it in a gaming context.) It would have more to do with Per. The Search skill would be appropriate, I think.

One minor quip with the original poster: in GURPS (as in most systems) it's GM, not DM. It's no big deal, really, just a little pet peeve. When saying DM around the likes of GURPS players, you are automatically giving away your D&D experience, and not in a good way. Game on. :)
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Old 07-19-2005, 11:57 AM   #5
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Default Re: Skills

This is off topic but after Nonoboy's comment I just have to say how strange I find it is that so many GURPS players tend to get ornery at the even the vaguest reference to D&D.
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Old 07-19-2005, 12:00 PM   #6
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Default Re: Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lancewholelot
This is off topic but after Nonoboy's comment I just have to say how strange I find it is that so many GURPS players tend to get ornery at the even the vaguest reference to D&D.
no kidding. in an hour i'm going to be playing in a d&d game. expect scads and scads of self-righteous ornering. oi.
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Old 07-19-2005, 12:48 PM   #7
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Default Re: Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lancewholelot
This is off topic but after Nonoboy's comment I just have to say how strange I find it is that so many GURPS players tend to get ornery at the even the vaguest reference to D&D.
I personally have had a lot of fun with D&D, AD&D, etc. I don't see the problem either. In the grand scheme of things it's not better or worse than any other game, it's just different. It scratches a different itch for me. It does what it does very well, and other things maybe not so well.

I have found, while good people, gamers tend to be conservative and clannish when it comes to their game of choice. "Blank the Blanking sucks! BLANKS roolz!! and is the one true way!" Hmmm...

-5 pts Intolerance (Players of OTHER game systems)
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Old 07-19-2005, 01:37 PM   #8
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Default Re: Skills

I didn't mean to take the conversation off-course, but the classic terminology is:

D(ungeon) M(aster) for DnD
G(ame) M(aster) for most other games, including GURPS
S(tory) T(eller) for White Wolf

I think that "Referee" and "Narrator" have been used in other less well-known systems.

As for people being adamant about one system, I am very much a D20-hater. I'll admit to my discriminating tastes. I'll fess up to my spiteful intolerance toward what I believe to be a system that poorly simulates life, is less simple than people tend to give it credit for, and is otherwise unsuitable to my play style. I am confident that I am not alone in this attitude amongst GURPS fans. There are few other systems that suffer from my ire. (I myself am a recovering Rifts player. I now realize the utter crappiness of the Palladium rules-set and do repent on humble knees.)

But then, I am also generally a picky person. I will not drink lowsy beer. Budweiser, Miller, Coors, and the like will not touch my lips. Microbrews and European beers only, thank you. They are simply better. Is it opinion? Yes, but then, I can back it up, though I've gotten off-topic enough as it is.
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Old 07-19-2005, 01:49 PM   #9
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Default Re: Skills

On topic comment, go with a skill and Visual Perception.

Off topic fun:
Quote:
Originally Posted by nanoboy
As for people being adamant about one system, I am very much a D20-hater. I'll admit to my discriminating tastes. I'll fess up to my spiteful intolerance toward what I believe to be a system that poorly simulates life, is less simple than people tend to give it credit for, and is otherwise unsuitable to my play style.
Hear, hear!
Not that I don't play D&D if there's nothing else to do, but I do have to actively tone down my commentary regarding the general rules silliness, and apparently no one really appreciates the dududududoo sounds I make after killing something that will level up my characters.

Then of course, when I run in that system, it's barely recognizable as D&D.

Last edited by Ze'Manel Cunha; 07-19-2005 at 02:28 PM. Reason: Kromm says use Traps.
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Old 07-19-2005, 02:06 PM   #10
Kromm
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Default Re: Skills

Generally, you have to read skill descriptions to learn about possible skill uses. This isn't because we're evil, but because a full list of actions and necessary skills would be as long as Chapter 4! We had space limits, after all. Also, the GM can debase a skill from its controlling attribute to another attribute if he feels like it, creating additional uses that we couldn't begin to enumerate.

Finding secret doors is normally a Per-based Traps roll, since the triggers for traps and those for opening secret doors tend to be one and the same, and since "trap door" vs. "secret door" is largely a semantic difference. However, the GM could certainly allow one to make an Architecture roll (this is a canonical use of the skill; see p. B176). In the right circumstances, even a Per-based Carpentry or Masonry roll should work; after all, it's craftsmen who build these things. But Search is the wrong skill -- it's about finding items hidden on people and in parcels.

I could write a paragraph like the last one for every adventuring task imaginable.
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Last edited by Kromm; 07-19-2005 at 03:22 PM.
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