What would you spend 10 pts on?

[Fwibos]

Originally Posted by Miles

I'm generally in the camp that would take hyper-specialization to acquire a nice, high paying job, but they aren't thinking big enough. So my set up would look like:

Writing (IQ+0) [2]
Hyper Specialization (Writing sappy romance novels for adolescent girls) [1]
Favor: Contact (Stephanie Myers, Effective Skill 21) [1]

And there you go. With an effective skill of around 16, I should be able to write something that will amass a horde of readers and get taken up by Hollywood, and my favor gets me a "quick, nonhazardous, inexpensive" shout out that will get the ball rolling. From there, I can start raking in the Wealth levels and Independent Income from the royalties.

After that, I guess I put points in Longevity to enjoy my success, and two levels of HT! so I can do so in good health.

This. Is. Brilliant.
Oh, you'd need GM Approval. And s/he's quiet on the matter, it seems.

Gurps Nerd-Out:
Assuming your Writing is 11, then you type 40 WPM. I'd add Typing at 11 for 1 point to do 55 words per minute.

Writing in 10 minute blocks with 5 minutes rest means 2200 words an hour.

Average word count will be 110 thousand words. That's 50 hours of just writing. Let's quadruple the time to add +2, and then +4 for non combat, +1 for author software (yes, they make this) - You are looking at effective writing of 23. 200 hours is 5 weeks full time. Assuming you roll an 11, that's a MoS of 12. Sounds like bestseller to me!

Due to being ham-fisted, I right consiberably slower - about 500 words an hour.

Workaholic never sounded so good.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Fwibos

This. Is. Brilliant.
Oh, you'd need GM Approval. And s/he's quiet on the matter, it seems.

Gurps Nerd-Out:
Assuming your Writing is 11, then you type 40 WPM. I'd add Typing at 11 for 1 point to do 55 words per minute.

Writing in 10 minute blocks with 5 minutes rest means 2200 words an hour.

Average word count will be 110 thousand words. That's 50 hours of just writing. Let's quadruple the time to add +2, and then +4 for non combat, +1 for author software (yes, they make this) - You are looking at effective writing of 23. 200 hours is 5 weeks full time. Assuming you roll an 11, that's a MoS of 12. Sounds like bestseller to me!

Due to being ham-fisted, I right consiberably slower - about 500 words an hour.

Workaholic never sounded so good.

1. I don't think you can claim a non-combat bonus for non-combat skills.

2. I don't think typing speed anything like the same as writing speed. Most of the stuff that goes in to writing is thinking and planning, I'd say if you took a -10 penalty for haste on your writing skill you could say writing speed equalled typing speed. To put that into perspective many positions can require a sustained wpm of 95, such a person would be able to write GRRM's Dance with Dragons in about 9 days assuming an 8 hour work day

[Fwibos]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

1. I don't think you can claim a non-combat bonus for non-combat skills.

2. I don't think typing speed anything like the same as writing speed. Most of the stuff that goes in to writing is thinking and planning, I'd say if you took a -10 penalty for haste on your writing skill you could say writing speed equalled typing speed. To put that into perspective many positions can require a sustained wpm of 95, such a person would be able to write GRRM's Dance with Dragons in about 9 days assuming an 8 hour work day

You sure do. Most people get +4 to drive in normal conditions.

And I am a textbook case of the ham-fisted. My typing speed is the choke point to writing.

Maybe I'd buy that off...

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Fwibos

Most people get +4 to drive in normal conditions.

While normal conditions certainly qualifies as being non-combat, not being in combat doesn't by itself qualify for a normal condition bonus, as the baseline for driving isn't driving in combat:

+10 – Automatic. Tasks so trivial that the GM should waive the need for a success roll, except under extraordinary circumstances. Example: A Driving roll to start a car.

+8 or +9 – Trivial. Situations where failure is extremely unlikely, and would require incredibly bad luck. Example: A Driving roll to drive around an empty parking lot.

+6 or +7 – Very Easy. Tasks where failure is possible, but would require bad luck. Example: A Driving roll to drive down an empty suburban street.

+4 or +5 – Easy. Most mundane tasks, including rolls made by ordinary people at day-to-day jobs. Example: A Driving roll to commute to work in a small town.

+2 or +3 – Very Favorable. Mildly risky tasks that most people would undertake without hesitation. Example: A Driving roll to commute to work in a teeming metropolis.

+1 – Favorable. Tasks that most people would hesitate at, due to the risk, but that a career adventurer would regard as easy. Example: A Driving roll to compete in a road rally.

0 – Average. Most adventuring tasks, and the majority of skill use under stress. Example: A Driving roll in a car chase.

-1 – Unfavorable. Stressful tasks that would challenge a novice adventurer, but not an old hand. Example: A Driving roll in a high-speed car chase.

-2 or -3 – Very Unfavorable. Stressful tasks that would challenge a professional. Skilled adventurers still routinely accept such risks! Example: A Driving roll in a highspeed car chase on a busy freeway.

-4 or -5 – Hard. Tasks so challenging that even an expert will look for alternatives. A true “master” is still unlikely to feel challenged. Example: A Driving roll to keep the car on the road while shooting a gun out the window during a highspeed chase.

-6 or -7 – Very Hard. Situations that even the masters might have second thoughts about. Example: A Driving roll in a high-speed chase during a blizzard.

-8 or -9 – Dangerous. Tasks at which even the greatest masters expect to fail. Example: A Driving roll while shooting a gun in a high-speed chase during a blizzard.

-10 – Impossible. No sane person would attempt such a task. The GM may wish to forbid such attempts altogether. Example: A Driving roll to steer a car with the knees while firing a bazooka twohanded during a chase through a blizzard.

Simply not being in combat isn't enough to claim a +4 bonus for driving, likewise simply saying "my author isn't under fire, I'd like a +4 bonus" isn't going to fly.

If the baseline for writing was typing speed then it would take someone with typing skill (8) 21 days to write GRRM's Dance with Dragons (416,000 words) with +5 extra time bonus that's still only 21 months.

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

If the baseline for writing was typing speed then it would take someone with typing skill (8) 21 days to write GRRM's Dance with Dragons (416,000 words) with +5 extra time bonus that's still only 21 months.

Now add in the time it takes to research and plan (which takes orders of magnitude more time than the typing) and do the editing and you're probably looking at how long he's actually taken to write it. Also, it's rather fatiguing to type. I doubt it would be possible to go much over three or four hours a day while still retaining the mental faculties to write anything of quality.

[Fwibos]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

1. I don't think you can claim a non-combat bonus for non-combat skills.

2. I don't think typing speed anything like the same as writing speed. Most of the stuff that goes in to writing is thinking and planning, I'd say if you took a -10 penalty for haste on your writing skill you could say writing speed equalled typing speed. To put that into perspective many positions can require a sustained wpm of 95, such a person would be able to write GRRM's Dance with Dragons in about 9 days assuming an 8 hour work day

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

While normal conditions certainly qualifies as being non-combat, not being in combat doesn't by itself qualify for a normal condition bonus, as the baseline for driving isn't driving in combat:


Simply not being in combat isn't enough to claim a +4 bonus for driving, likewise simply saying "my author isn't under fire, I'd like a +4 bonus" isn't going to fly.

If the baseline for writing was typing speed then it would take someone with typing skill (8) 21 days to write GRRM's Dance with Dragons (416,000 words) with +5 extra time bonus that's still only 21 months.

You quote the very rule you attempt to refute:

"+4 or +5 – Easy. Most mundane tasks, including rolls made by ordinary people at day-to-day jobs. Example: A Driving roll to commute to work in a small town."

Emphasis, of course, mine. If you are doing anything, without pressure, it can be considered mundane.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Fwibos

You quote the very rule you attempt to refute:

"+4 or +5 – Easy. Most mundane tasks, including rolls made by ordinary people at day-to-day jobs. Example: A Driving roll to commute to work in a small town."

Emphasis, of course, mine. If you are doing anything, without pressure, it can be considered mundane.

A mundane writing check would be something like writing an office memo. Not trying to write a best seller in 5 weeks!

[Fwibos]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

A mundane writing check would be something like writing an office memo. Not trying to write a best seller in 5 weeks!

Writing an office memo, being short, would easily be a +10 task.

GRRM's career is to write. If he can't get the bonus for mundane tasks, I simply don't know how anyone can. That means I must have a computer operation of 14 - and I really don't.