Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters
Psychology has always struck me as a schizophrenic sort of skill, because the skill name tends to to suggest the academic field of rats-in-mazes study, whereas the definition, and actual uses in play, make it much more of a semi-cinematic "being really good at understanding people" skill. (As with other GURPS people skills, I suspect that this sort of ability to get inside other people's heads is much rarer and less reliable in reality than it is in fiction.) Which is why I tend to favour full enforcement of the optional Theoretical/Applied division, if only as a point of style.
Which is a divide that also perhaps ought to apply to Sociology, which I've always taken to mean the academic sort of study; a pragmatic applied understanding of groups is rarer in fiction than an understanding of individuals, after all. However, my latest character may make me change my approach here. She's in the same game as John's applied psychologist, and she's a rather nerdy (i.e. Oblivious) academic type with a very solid grounding in the humanities. I gave her a point or two in Sociology as a bit of an afterthought, but then I realised during the first session of play that it might be the key to the character.
She found herself in a rough East End pub for the first time in her life, and it occurred to me that she'd say to herself "Hold on - this is exactly the sort of social group that those books I've read talk about. So can I understand and appraise these people as a group? Can I try to understand the sub-groups and their interactions?" And, she being IQ 14, Will 14, Per 14, the answer ought to be Yes, I hope.
So, as the campaign bounces around 1930s British society, she'll be trying to work out what's going on at the social level. I don't know how much use this will be, but at least it's a handle on the character.
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I think that the lack of interest by many GURPS authors in this skill probably reflects its academic-sounding name.
Not having been around when 4e was written (or being in the same country as my 3e books), I wonder if this is an example of a skill whose writeup was changed to give it a clear use in adventures. And I can't think of a better name for being good at modelling minds!
It does have the disadvantage that people who are good at reading other people are good at avoiding adventures. Adventures often begin when someone catastrophically misjudges how someone will respond when they do something.