Skills, skills everywhere

[D10]

I dont think 30 skills is excessive, its all about what makes sense.

Last time I made a character that had less than 30 different skills was a viking warrior and he almost hit 30.

I guess this is probably because of the abolisment of the 1/2 point in 4e, making taking a skill a much more serious investment of ones character

[theothersarah]

Whenever I make a character, I go down the skill list in Characters and take down every single one that makes sense for the character concept and that I can justify the character having.

This strategy often does result in a character having a lot of skills, but I don't see anything wrong with that. Because the skill list is very big and many of the skills are fairly specific, I would expect characters to have many, unless they were meant to be young, inexperience, and/or particularly inept.

[Blind Mapmaker]

It might not be exceedingly realistic, but most of my characters at more than 200 points have at least 50-60 skills. Having said that, characters with more than 200 points aren't that realistic either, unless you're talking high society movers and shakers or special forces.

For my lower point characters it depends on the character concept, but I would consider 30 skills to be the floor for adventurer types. A focused gladiator or non-combatant citizen might get away with less, but both concepts mandate a special kind of campaign.

Even with really low-point characters the use of the Dabbler perk (or a less abusive version of 1/2-point skills) would see a skill list in the middle twenties at least. If you want to play ultra-realisically you might get away with a modern working drone with half a dozen actual skills and another six to eight in improved defaults from Dabbler, but where's the fun in that?

[Gollum]

In our modern western world, most of us learn a lot of different things: at school, at university, during our job, our leisures, etc. Of course, we also forget a lot. But we still remember a lot of different skills at low level.

Just try to create yourself as character. It's hard to do it without taking less than 20-30 skills as soon as you aso take into account all your leisures (Chess, Role Playing Games, Wargames and Poker are also Skills in GURPS), all the things you regularly do at home (Cooking, Gardening, Housekeeping...), etc.

So, having a lot of Skills is normal as soon as you want to create a realistic character, one who is not like D&D characters: only focused on the skills and abilities which are absolutely necessary for his class.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Gollum

Just try to create yourself as character. It's hard to do it without taking less than 20-30 skills as soon as you aso take into account all your leisures (Chess, Role Playing Games, Wargames and Poker are also Skills in GURPS), all the things you regularly do at home (Cooking, Gardening, Housekeeping...), etc.

Don't forget Dabbler! If most people are 25 point characters with no severe disadvantages, we probably don't actually have 30+ points in skills. Especially when you consider that most of us have one or two job related skills at professional levels.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Trigonomicon

Hello sjg GURPS-forum. My username is Trigonomicon, and I'm a skill hoarder.
To be exact, I have problems choosing which skills to take, what skills are important, etc. I once made an airship mechanic with more skills than you can fit on a standard Character sheet. Recently, I tried building a questing knight and ended up with 30 skills, which feels rather excessive. Looking at the character templates available in Basic and Fantasy, few characters seems to have more than eight.

How many skills do your characters usually have, and how do you choose which to take?

My advice is that you build characters you want to play, and characters that don't clash too violently with the rest of the group and don't worry about the exact composition of said characters. Ultimately, the game is about having fun and following exact pre-planned recipes are rarely a way to fun.

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Trigonomicon

I once made an airship mechanic with more skills than you can fit on a standard Character sheet.

Not unusual.

Originally Posted by Trigonomicon

Recently, I tried building a questing knight and ended up with 30 skills, which feels rather excessive.

It isn't.

Originally Posted by Trigonomicon

How many skills do your characters usually have, and how do you choose which to take?

Given 100-200 point characters, I usually have around 50+ skills. I general spend about 1/2 of my character point total on attributes, 1/2 on skills, and as many advantages points as disadvantage points. To help keep me from missing anything obvious, I make sure I look over relevant templates, lenses, and GURPS Skill Categories. I also read up on my advantages and disadvantages and pick skills that compliment them.

[JP42]

I'm definitely a skill-o-holic as well, and probably come in around 40 skills as a baseline, often supplemented with a level of Dabbler for some fractional skill goodness to go along with it.

[Vynticator]

The freedom to add a plethora of skills for all the reasons suggested above is one of the best things about GURPS. Getting away from the confines of class and level restrictions allows a much richer characterisation process. Go with it!

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

To help keep me from missing anything obvious, I make sure I look over relevant templates, lenses, and GURPS Skill Categories. I also read up on my advantages and disadvantages and pick skills that compliment them.

Skill category browsing has always struck me as a good component of character creation strategy. That's one reason, probably the main one, that I was unhappy to see them removed in 4th Edition.