Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
If you have a defaulted skill, with no points spent on it, can you use techniques of that skill at their defaults? Obviously, you can't improve those techniques without buying the skill, but are they usable at their default level?
The case where I noticed this is a character with Guns (Pistol) at 18 (DX+5), and Guns (Rifle) defaulted to that, at 16 (DX+3). His IQ-based Guns (Rifle) would be 19 (IQ+3), which would give a useful default in Precision Aiming (Rifle) of 13, if that default exists at all.
Basic Set p.229-30 isn't clear on this point as far as I can see, and nor is Martial Arts p63-64. Does this fall under the no double defaults rule?
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While
GURPS Basic Set p.229-230 isn't as clear as might be wished, p. B330, which indexes Double Defaults, notes that double defaults are allowed for techniques and disallowed for skills.
My reading of p. B230 is that you only have access to
all the default techniques if you have a full point in the skill. I would interpret that to mean that you
might have access to
some techniques at default even if you only know the skill at default, but which, if any, techniques would be at the GM's discretion, and presumably based on what it seems reasonably might be possible to try undertaking without training.
I'm a bit dubious about your example. Yes, Guns (Rifle) defaults to Guns (Pistol)-2, but
only if both fire the same ammunition, have the same action and use the same grip, none of which is likely to be true. Going from say, a HP Browning pistol firing 9mm Parabellum to an M16 rifle firing 5.56mm NATO, would default to Guns (Pistol) at -2 for being a different weapon type, a further -2 for an unfamiliar weapon type, no penalty for action (the GM feels the pistol's blowback action is "close enough" to the single shot self-loading" action of the M16, but there would be a -2 when bursts or full automatic fire is attempted), -2 for going from to holding it by the pistol grip to holding it by the pistol grip and forestock while attempting to brace it with the sling, and finally no penalty for differing TL (both are TL7 weapons) for a net default of Guns (Pistol)-6, taking your example from 16 [DX+5] to 12 [DX-1]. Floating his default skill Guns (Rifle) to IQ gives 15 [IQ-1] to and,
if allowed, the default Precision Aiming technique would be Guns (Rifle) (IQ-based)-6 for 6-.
I don't have the write-up for Precision Aiming, but 6- sounds fair enough that I'd probably call it something you could try "straight out of the box." Other GMs might rule differently, however.