So many skills
 

I am a noob I have played a few games but with my new group I am the most experienced so I am the GM and I know only take what you need and I play in a more narrative fashion but I run a Nerd Club and I was asked to run a game at the store no problem but I want to give people more options for skills but there are so many and the point system on skills still confuses me. So I could really use some advice from more experienced players please I am going to have 3 people that have not played gurps and I don't want this to ruin their first experience

Re: So many skills
 

I suggest starting with GURPS Lite in this case. If your friends like the basic gameplay mechanics, you can start adding supplements into later games.

And what's confusing you about skills?

Re: So many skills
 

The way points are distributed into skills I know that some skills cost more because they are more difficult it adds less of a bonus like if i put 12 points into occultism i get a +3 bonus but if I put 12 points into physician I get a +2 bonus how do I know which skills get what bonus according to points and I have been using gurps lite I am trying to gradually move into the whole game and on top of that there are just so many freaking skills like I want a pirate game but looking through the character creation book there are tons of skills that can apply here

Re: So many skills
 

No, you get the same increase in skill for the same number of points. The difficulty of a skill determines where it starts in relation to its controlling attribute.

Easy skills start at their controlling attribute for 1 point, Average skills are Attribute -1, Hard is Attribute -2, and Very Hard is Attribute -3. Page 170 of the Basic Set has a handy table you can use for reference, until you get the hang of it.

Re: So many skills
 

Ah, you need to look at the Skill Cost table. This is on p170 in the Basic Set, or p13 in GURPS Lite. The values in the tables are the same, except that GURPS Lite doesn't have a column for Very Hard skills.

Occultism is an IQ/Average skill, which is marked at the start of the skill description on p212 of the Basic Set, or p16 in GURPS Lite. If you find the Average column in the table and read down to the row with 12 points, you'll see that gives you IQ+3. If your character had an IQ of 12, that would give them Occultism at (12+3) = 15. So roll against Occultism, you'd roll three six-sided dice. If the total of the dice was 15 or less, you'd succeed. If it was 16 or higher, you'd have failed.

Re: So many skills
 

Skills have difficulties, which determines their initial offset from their base attribute. Easy, Average, Hard, and Very Hard. So Occultism is easier (by one level) than Physician, in your example. This represents the relative ease or difficulty of acquiring a particular skill.

Re: So many skills
 

ah thank you my good sirs you are gentleman and scholars I feel so silly now I have found the chart and I cannot believe how confused I was but putting together your comments made me it click now is there a method to narrow down the tons and tons of skills

Re: So many skills
 

Yes but it's considered cinematic, There are the Wild Card Skills or Bang! skills.
like Science! [B175]

Where they cost 3 times the costs of VH hard skills but anything related to theme of skill you roll against the wildcard skill

You want to want to to have a dual across the rafters and not fall off, you don't need to roll against acrobatics not to fall off, you roll Sword! instead

Re: So many skills
 

Several. Experience will take a bit of time to acquire, so let's go for other documents that will tell you about skills needed for a pirate campaign.

GURPS Skill Categories is free for the downloading, and breaks up the great big skill list into a lot of useful categories. Pirates go around on ships, which are vehicles, so they need Vehicle Skills. They take goods by combat, or the threat of combat, so they need Combat/Weapon Skills. They use intimidation and threats a lot, which comes under Social Skills. If they have the same ship for a long time, they need to maintain and repair it, which requires Craft Skills.

If you're willing to spend a small amount of money, there's a GURPS book, Age of Sail Pirate Crew which has a complete pre-built pirate crew. GURPS PDFs are discounted by 40% until December 15th, so it's a good time to buy.

A bit of web searching was also worthwhile. Here's someone's account of how he created a small pirate campaign using the Pirate Crew book.

Re: So many skills
 

Skill Categories is really helpful and like John said its free.
There i a simiar PDF for advantages and others.

A major thing to remember is that not everything in the Basic set (much less the entire GURPS sysem) is designed for every game. Use what fits your setting and tone and ignore the rest.

Re: So many skills
 

A useful guideline for new GMs; if you think a skill could be used for a task let it be used for the task. It's unlikely that a new player is trying to game the system by having everything run of the same skill.

Re: So many skills
 

Good advice and defaults help here. Most things can at least be attempted even if you dont have the best skill.

Re: So many skills
 

Also, I like to keep 5 points in reserve for use on those one or two skills that really ought to be part of the character but I missed. If it comes up during play, I can just say "Oh! I ought to have had that, concept wise. I have points, can we say he has this skill?"

The basics of skills:
Kromm's every adventurer skill list
Combat Skills
Social Skills
Vehicle Skills

Will give you most of what you need. Then find a few skills for your profession and that rounds you out to start with

Re: So many skills
 

Second this. Peel away any skill or Advantage you don't have in your world or just don't want and the lists get a lot more manageable. Don't list a skill if it's not in the world or not one adventurers will have a use for. Don't feel obliged to include every possible Advantage and Disadvantage. Also setting up templates for characters might be helpful.

Re: So many skills
 

When it comes to skills...how many a character has is partly GM style.

There are GMs here who prefer PCs to have a small number of skills--say only the most important 5-9...everything else goes off of default. I am a GM who prefers lots of skills (15-25).

But how do you make the process easier? The Skill Categories pdf is really a life-saver.

You could also go with only three skills if you wanted. One skill that is a cinematic bang skill based on concept: ToughGuy! Femme Fatale! Honest Cop! and supplement with two other normal skills the person things is really important.

Re: So many skills
 

I would also recommend Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Swashbucklers. Even if DF is too powerful or the wrong tone for you, the 5 templates in it will give you a good idea as to what skills PCs need.

Re: So many skills
 

I recommend putting together your own list of which skills fit your scenario. If there are no cinematic martial arts you leave out the esoteric skills; if it's a low-tech environment you leave out the skills based on advanced technology, and so on. You can also leave out the academic skills if it's going to be a purely adventure-focused scenario.

The other thing I recommend is not giving your players a list of skills and asking them to pick. For a one-shot, do pregenerated characters. But even for a continuing campaign, ask them what they envision their characters as being good at, and figure out what skills apply. There's some helpful advice in How to Be a GURPS GM, I believe.

Re: So many skills
 

Agreed. To that end, there is the offcial Online Trait Sorter.

I have also compiled a list of cinematic/exotic/magic skills. Should one want to drop such skills from a more mundane campaign, they're all listed there so you don't have to comb through the skill list looking for offenders.