Realistic Point Gains

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Really, to me, the question for all of this is, what narrative purpose is the character in questions supposed to serve? Why do you want a character with those astonishing gifts and qualities? Will their presence make the campaign more fun for the players, and if so, how?

Well, I thought about starting this campaign in the near future and I wanted some extraordinary characters to point at and say "Hey, that´s the girl who invented Artificial Intelligences... Oh! And there goes the cancer cure inventor and by his side the designer of the cutting-edge spaceships we enjoy today!"

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Realistically, though, there is no one "cure" for all cancer, and one person is unlikely to be the sole discoverer of any cancer treatment, since these are incremental technologies that improve as our understanding of the underlying molecular biology improves.

Yeah from my very limited understanding of the subject, 'cancer' is actually a wide range of different diseases that happen to share a common symptom i.e. unchecked malignant cell growth.

So a 'cure for cancer' is a bit like a 'cure for disease'. We can posit a superscience cure for cancer but it would presumably fix a lot of other things as well, not just cancer.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't see how that is at all relevant. Recovering from surgery isn't at all the same thing as being a single cell, differentiating into cell lines, developing into an infant, being born, being raised in a good environment, and then training for years to realize your potential. You simply can't just edit the genes in a few cells (using gene-editing) or a significant population of a tissue (with retroviral gene-therapy) and expect gross phenotypical changes in an adult organism (in days, or weeks, or even months). You also can't guarantee large-scale quantifiable phenotypical changes like "70% stronger" by just changing how a few proteins are expressed, even with germline engineering.
...

It would be like giving upgraded plans for a building to the maintenance staff of an already built edifice. They could replace drywall with better drywall, but not alter the foundation.

Strength is probably the easiest thing to improve from base. Just lower myostatin expression. That will have a very real effect on muscle mass and fat percentage, but nothing superhuman.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Realism may mean "not silly or supernatural enough to break suspension of disbelief" more than how some of us may otherwise define the word.

But seeing as how incredibly subjective that is, I don't see how our opinions would or should matter or even help much.

It helps very much, I dont want to break suspension of disbelief

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by Evadam

I just want to be able to point at some hystorical character and say: "See, she is just another (insert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Shakespeare, Mozzart)..." and I want them to be able to repeat her extraordinary feats if they want.

The way to do that isn't to search for some real world way to create and then spend hundreds points via training though. You can model a plausible world-famous genius by starting with IQ 14* [80] and Talent +4 [20], then add 20 points in skills. When they are famous they acquire a Reputation. If they become rich, they get Wealth and Status. And so on.

* This is a ballpark, what a realistic 'genius IQ' should be, gets argued a lot on this forum.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by mr beer

It's not controversial at all to create exceptional NPCs for your campaign setting but it's also not realistic to use Back to School, if by 'realistic' you mean a 'reliable method to model real world study and training in extreme scenarios'.

If you want exceptional real world characters, go ahead and build them. If you want some basis for calculating how many points to use and you like Back to School, go ahead and use it. If you want a way to model realistic long-term training which reliably produces 1,000 point people, you may be out of luck.

Yes, I need a system so they can use it and develop their characters to perform amazing feats if they want to :)

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by mr beer

The way to do that isn't to search for some real world way to create and then spend hundreds points via training though. You can model a plausible world-famous genius by starting with IQ 14* [80] and Talent +4 [20], then add 20 points in skills. When they are famous they acquire a Reputation. If they become rich, they get Wealth and Status. And so on.

* This is a ballpark, what a realistic 'genius IQ' should be, gets argued a lot on this forum.

Exactly, this is what I tried to do. I have been running this campaign for some time and I am just looking for plausible ways to develop the most important NPCs, because the main setting is at a time, and then there are some future parallels alternatives, so to speak, and the main setting can directly and violently impact on the others. In this world you can be a genius with IQ-13 (145/148 real life IQ in average). Thing is that since inventions do not take much time (a couple years in average), I considered making some of the NPCs polymaths. This girl started with IQ-13, then and thanks to Biotech, her IQ increased to 14. Talents are allowed and very encouraged, but I would like to set up a maximum limit at 16 or so (around 197/204 real life IQ).

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Evadam

Well, I thought about starting the campaign in the near future and I wanted some extraordinary characters to point at and say "Hey, that´s the girl who invented Artificial Intelligences... Oh! And there goes the cancer cure inventor and by his side the designer of the cutting-edge spaceships we enjoy today!"

None of those people need to be ludicrously over-the-top self-made demigods.

Unless that's the genre you're trying to play in, I guess, but that's the kind of detail you probably should have mentioned by now.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

None of those people need to be ludicrously over-the-top self-made demigods.

Unless that's the genre you're trying to play in, I guess, but that's the kind of detail you probably should have mentioned by now.

Yes, but I want to set up like a maximum limit for human potential, so to speak.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Evadam

Exactly, this is what I tried to do. I have been running this campaign for some time and I am just looking for plausible ways to develop the most important NPCs, because the main setting is at a time, and then there are some future parallels alternatives, so to speak, and the main setting can directly and violently impact on the others. In this world you can be a genius with IQ-13 (145/148 real life IQ in average). Thing is that since inventions do not take much time (a couple years in average), I considered making some of the NPCs polymaths. This girl started with IQ-13, then and thanks to Biotech, her IQ increased to 14. Talents are allowed and very encouraged, but I would like to set up a maximum limit at 16 or so (around 197/204 real life IQ).

One thing to bear in mind is that, at least in GURPS 4/e, there is no such translation between GURPS IQ and real world scores on IQ tests. GURPS IQ represents a lot of things that IQ tests don't measure: sensory acuity (since Per defaults to IQ), emotional stability (since Will defaults to IQ), social perceptiveness and adroitness, and so on. And even if you look just at the "pure intellect" part of GURPS IQ, there isn't a formula for converting it to IQ test scores. You can adopt such a scale if you like, of course, but it won't necessarily tell you that much; a lot of brilliant thinkers don't have known IQ test scores, and may never have taken an IQ test. And people with high IQ test scores may well not be all that brilliant in terms of real world achievement, which depends equally on having sufficiently strong motivation to make effective use of your talents and on having good enough luck to come up with a brilliant idea that actually leads somewhere.