Talents: Do they boost attributes or skills?

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

The write up in Characters calls it a 'skill bonus'.

Odd; mine doesn't say that. I have the Fourth Printing if that makes any difference.

On pg 89, mine starts with the few sentences that explain what a Talent is. Then, after the first bullet point, it states "This effectively raises your attribute score for the purposes of of those skills..."

That's primarily where my confusion came from when compared to the skill section talking about Relative Skill Levels and training versus natural talent.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

Odd; mine doesn't say that. I have the Fourth Printing if that makes any difference.

On pg 89, mine starts with the few sentences that explain what a Talent is. Then, after the first bullet point, it states "This effectively raises your attribute score for the purposes of of those skills..."

That's primarily where my confusion came from when compared to the skill section talking about Relative Skill Levels and training versus natural talent.

yeah, and when I wrote it up for RSL that way for Training Bonus, I was corrected. So it's not clear. I think I even suggested an errata for Basic at the time based on that!

[jamesfoxbr]

Gurps Power-ups Talents pg 4 (boxed text) say add the Talent bonus in the final after all calculations.

[Johnny Angel]

Is handling it that way unique to Talents or do bonuses from other advantages work the same way?


For example, if you were Tracking and in a situation where Acute Vision were a factor, is your Relative Skill Level treated as higher or does it only raise your Effective Skill Level?

As I said before, for most skills, it doesn't matter. For some, it does.

[shawnhcorey]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

On pg 89, mine starts with the few sentences that explain what a Talent is. Then, after the first bullet point, it states "This effectively raises your attribute score for the purposes of of those skills..."

Which would mean that:

Per:10 + 4 - 1 + 2 = 15 [2]
(+4 from Outdoorsman)

RL = 15 - 14 = 1

That would mean you don't have to calculate RL; just use the points spent on the skill.

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by shawnhcorey

Which would mean that:

Per:10 + 4 - 1 + 2 = 15 [2]
(+4 from Outdoorsman)

RL = 15 - 14 = 1

That would mean you don't have to calculate RL; just use the points spent on the skill.

Right, but my confusion was on what the Relative Skill would be at the end; after adding in the bonus. Does the bonus from Talent count when determining relative skill?

Which of the two ways of writing out a skill from my original post is more correct?

Assuming an IQ 11 character

Camouflage IQ/E - IQ+1 16 [2]
........includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

or would it look like this?

Camouflage IQ/E - IQ+5 16 [2]
........includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'


The answer is (from what I gather) the second way; the second way is correct. However, the language in the book sometimes suggests that the first way is more accurate.

For many skills, it doesn't make any difference. However, there are situations in which it is important to know your Relative Skill Level.

[shawnhcorey]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

Assuming an IQ 11 character

Camouflage IQ/E - IQ+1 16 [2]
........includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Talent adds to attribute.

Camouflage IQ/E: (IQ+4) 15 + 2 = 17 [2]
........includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by shawnhcorey

Talent adds to attribute.

Camouflage IQ/E: (IQ+4) 15 + 1 = 16 [2]
........includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

FIFY.

Easy Skill at ATT+1 costs 2. ATT+2 would cost 4.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

Odd; mine doesn't say that. I have the Fourth Printing if that makes any difference.

On pg 89, mine starts with the few sentences that explain what a Talent is. Then, after the first bullet point, it states "This effectively raises your attribute score for the purposes of of those skills..."

That's primarily where my confusion came from when compared to the skill section talking about Relative Skill Levels and training versus natural talent.

End of the page: "However, overlapping Talents can give skill bonuses (only) in excess of +4."


My take? Talent is an Attribute boost for the skills covered and thus has no value to Relative Skill Levels, defaults (unless the Talent covers the defaulted Skill, not the skill being defaulted from), or bonuses derived from Skill level (for example Karate).

[Johnny Angel]

The example characters in the back of the book indicate that Talents do count when considering Relative Skill Levels.


At any rate, the answers to my original post seem to be the second way of writing skills and B.