What would it be like to wake up with 20 dex?

[Winged]

I'm always interested in the aspect of super fiction where a character suddenly discover their power. One point sink I think would be especially interesting I think would be a sudden boost in dex.

If someone just woke up one day at 20 dex, how would they find out? What would be the first thing to tip them off? What freakish feats would they be able to preform? What limetatiosn would surprise them? Would a normal person be able to change careers with this new power, if so what would they do?

Likewise, have you ever played a character who put a large percentage of their total points in dex, to the exclusion of anything else?

[Flyndaran]

I immediately think of the Spiderman movies.
As a normally clumsy individual, I would notice not bumping into walls and having to catch myself from falling within mere hours.
I think normals may not notice until they needed to move quickly and accurately.

That could lead to interesting mini-mystery based on how long it took them to notice their powers. I'd notice within a day, while they took a week or so.

[Flyndaran]

Limitations on Dx would be not having gained superhuman or "just" extreme strength along with it.
Spiderman's amazing full body motions, for example, require such strength.

If you couldn't do handstands, flips, etc. before, you can't now.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Limitations on Dx would be not having gained superhuman or "just" extreme strength along with it.
Spiderman's amazing full body motions, for example, require such strength.

If you couldn't do handstands, flips, etc. before, you can't now.

You might be surprised how much you could do, however. A lot of the strength required for handstands is in the adjustments needed as you start to shift off-balance, so with a 20 DX a ST 10 individual could probably manage a handstand for at least a little while simply because their DX would bring the needed ST to a minimum.

[Bruno]

I think I'd be confused. And whenever I'm surprised, I get alarmed, so I'd probably go through a bit of that too.

I suspect the first thing I'd notice is the lack of tremor in my hands while I get my morning pills out of the box, rapidly followed by how easy it is to e.g. do my hair, a two-handed co-ordination task I do fairly early after waking. Cooking breakfast would be another tip off, and like Flyn I'd eventually notice that I'm not a rolling disaster area (I'm a person who stubs their toes, bangs their elbows on door frames, slams their hand into the shelf, knocks over glasses, drops cutlery, etc etc etc daily).

I don't think someone with normal neurology would be oblivious, however. If you have to do anything requiring two-handed dexterity (rather than using your off hand for power gripping and steadying while your good hand does small things) and you aren't ambidextrous you'd immediately notice your "off" hand is doing amazingly well, even if you're very good at the task and thus don't notice your effective skill going from 16 to 26 or whatever.

If you have little kids, you're going to notice you've become very good at catching the things they've dropped (or thrown), presuming you're still bothering to try. Juggling the baby, the diaper bag, the toy bag, the bottles, soothers, car seat, and all the other things needed to leave the house with an infant for anything more involved than a walk around the block would be dramatically easier (to the point where you might be literally juggling things while you try to sort out what goes where and did you forget anything).

Commuting in heavy traffic with bad drivers is likely to be less stressful, although I think PER is such an important factor when avoiding bad drivers that it won't be trivial. But your reflexes when you have to make a correction will be lightning fast.

If you have little kids and chase them around, or do running/jogging/walking, you're going to notice how much faster you are (remember, +10 DX is +2.5 Basic Speed and about +2 Move, depending on what your Basic Speed was). +2 Move is a big difference.

If you're an artist or a craftsman you're going to quickly notice, even if your day job skill is ostensibly IQ based.

[Winged]

What do you guys think would be the most lucrative what to monetize this power?

Without taking the time to improve other stats like strength and maybe health, most professional sports would not be much of an option. Likewise it does not matter how steady your hands are, without med school you are never a surgeon.

There are some really niche tasks that might be doable, like playing pool or juggling, but does being amazing at that stuff actually pay well?

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Winged

If someone just woke up one day at 20 dex, how would they find out? What would be the first thing to tip them off?

On screen, or in comics, it usually takes a specific incident to reveal this sort of thing - a glass falls off the table and the hero surprises themselves by catching it, or whatever.
That's a convenient way to show what's happening, in visual fiction.

In reality, though, I think you'd notice immediately, as soon as you woke up. You'd be inhabiting your body in a hugely different way, and you'd notice that long before any specific DX-roll-requiring incident occurred. Even as you lay there in bed, you'd be feeling exceptionally odd, because you'd be vastly, vastly more aware than you ever had been before of exactly where your body parts are, precisely how they relate to each other in space, and so on.

So I think you'd notice immediately, and it would feel very, very funny, and it would take you a while not to be utterly weirded out by the whole thing.

Later, it would be awesome...

[SRoach]

Originally Posted by Bruno

...
Commuting in heavy traffic with bad drivers is likely to be less stressful, although I think PER is such an important factor when avoiding bad drivers that it won't be trivial. But your reflexes when you have to make a correction will be lightning fast.
...

You might notice when you dodge that newspaper-reading, coffee-drinking, cell-phone-texting, driver just a tad TOO fast...right into the next car over. You'd have faster reactions, but they'd be the WRONG reactions.


Personally, I think your chances of noticing would be in direct proportion to the gap between your new abilities and your previous level. If you jump from 16 to 20, you probably wouldn't notice, 'though it may be pointed out to you. If you jumped from 8 to 20, you'd probably catch on while getting out of bed.

Also, I'd say it'd be something you'd have a chance to notice again and again, with a cumulative penalty, since the longer you went without noticing the more the New you would seem the be the Normal you.

I have found myself, sleep deprived, making basic errors in mental arithmetic. When rested and refreshed, I'm rather good at such. I've also noticed, when sleep deprived, my ability to tune out distractions is severely eroded.
That said, outside such little clues, I don't FEEL any different, mentally. It's just when I'm sleep deprived, I can't reliably figure sales tax in my head, and I need a quiet room in which to read.

Or perhaps I'm just oblivious, especially when fatigued.

Also, would having a sudden jump in Dex really improve a PRACTICED skill that much? If you type as a matter of course, your typing is probably high enough that the "improvement" from suddenly defaulting to very high Dex would probably be fairly negligible. I think if your skill is already reasonably high, you'd not be so quick to notice what you could now do it smoother, but you might eventually realize you were improving at an increased rate. I guess you just got over that mental block that you couldn't do that.

You'd probably have an easier time noticing when improving a skill which was previously fairly low. If you dabbled at Darts, and knew that you hit the board, not the bullseye, but the board, 9 times out of ten. Getting all the darts inside the 5 would probably be more noticeable than if you were already pretty good at it.
And again, if your Dex did not improve by much, your default would have already been pretty high, so again, you might not notice.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

You might be surprised how much you could do, however. A lot of the strength required for handstands is in the adjustments needed as you start to shift off-balance, so with a 20 DX a ST 10 individual could probably manage a handstand for at least a little while simply because their DX would bring the needed ST to a minimum.

Definitely. Most acrobatics are balance, not sheer strength. Using pure power for such things is doing it wrong, unless "it" is stacking or pulling off a trapeze act. I know plenty of yoga practitioners who can stand on hands, head, one arm, etc. yet who would be ST 8-9 in GURPS terms.

—

As for what it would be like . . . I take an hour of classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 90 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays. I also have an hour of private instruction on Saturdays and Sundays. I put in three hours of practice on Sundays, too. I accompany three hours of dance classes on Mondays, 90 minutes on Fridays, and 90 minutes on Sundays. And I go out dancing at least once a week. With 16+ hours of tango, I'd notice inside of a week – inside of a day on any day but a Wednesday.

Also, since I'm carless and walk for transportation, I'm pretty sure I'd notice having 50% higher Basic Move PDQ.

Little things like playing with the cat would probably be clues as well.

[Minuteman37]

Originally Posted by Winged

I'm always interested in the aspect of super fiction where a character suddenly discover their power. One point sink I think would be especially interesting I think would be a sudden boost in dex.

If someone just woke up one day at 20 dex, how would they find out? What would be the first thing to tip them off? What freakish feats would they be able to preform? What limetatiosn would surprise them? Would a normal person be able to change careers with this new power, if so what would they do?

Likewise, have you ever played a character who put a large percentage of their total points in dex, to the exclusion of anything else?

Well for starters I can't think of a DX based skill with a default above -6 so you've basically be able to preform any DX based skill at least at expert level if not better.