Skills and skill levels for building an army, intelligence service, bureaucracy

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Icelander

True, but note that Psychology (Applied) is a Hard skill that is apparently fairly rare. And success just means that you'll have a basic idea of the psychological suitability of the candidate, with increasing margin of success giving you more details. Of course, any attempt by the recruit to delibarately deceive* you will mean a Quick Contest instead of an unmodified roll.

I do envision Sagatafl's Psychology: Practical to be rare, at least in terms of high skill levels. Probably most who are social engineers, beyond the hobby state, have some of it, but usually only a little. In GURPS terms (and you know I hate most GURPS Talents, including this one) it would make sense to have Smooth Operator give a bonus to Psychology (Applied) if it doesn't already.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Personally, I'd allow an Administration roll to evalulate their fit for the corporate culture in your organisation and Leadership (without Charisma bonuses) to evaluate their capabilities as part of a team of individuals. And IQ-based skill roll against their skills within their fields or specialities would always be good for estimating their expertise.

Well, yes, but I think the "risk" here is that you're only vetting for "squareness". For the person's ability to fit in and become a good drone. You risk overlooking instances of great potential, especially unusual potentail.

That's where I see Psychology: Practical (or (Applied)) as being of value: you'll actually get the gold nuggets. You'll get the rare individuals that TvTropes refers to as Bunny Ears Lawyers, whereas a "squareness"-based vetting/hiring doctrine, typical of 2dumb corporate culture", will turn away such individuals.

From that point of view, it makes perfect sense that Psychology (Applied) is a Hard skill. It'll be high-Difficulty to learn in Sagatafl too.

Originally Posted by Icelander

But I don't exactly know which if these skills ought to be most important in selecting a good team of subordinates. And I don't know how much time a character needs to make an unmodified skill roll. That's crucial for estimating how quickly an organisation can be put together.

Based on what I've outlined above, it seem to me that it should be faster to do a quick superficial check for squareness (or "soundness"), than to do a more thorough check that gives you a non-zero probability of identifying and subsequently hiring the eccentric genius, rather than dismissing him because he doesn't fit your preconcieved and highly specific notion of what it is you're after.

Base time 1 hour for Administration. Not sure about Leadership since you've usually already had someone under your command for a while, so it makes more sense to use that skill to evaluate an already-existing underling for possible promotion, than to evaluate a stranger applicant. But say 1 hour again and giving a (potentially generous) bonus for being familiar with the applicant, having seen how he functions under pressure, how he copes with the novel and unusual.

Compared to that, I'd say 4 hours to use Psychology: Practical or (Applied). It's a more thorough check, looking deeper, actively trying to be aware of and work around one's biases. Trying to look beyond the bunny ears, to see if there is unusual ability, or exceptional potentail, in there.

In all cases the standard rushing-or-using-extra time options can be used, and I have a vague idea that some of that 1 or those 4 hours may involve reading a dossier or CV or a written application, or reading recomendations from previous employers, rather than all the time being spent on a person-to-person interview.

Although of course in GURPS, someone with Empathy will get more use of his bonus if he spends most of the time on the interview. IIRC the bonus is +3, so full bonus if 3/4 of the time is spent on the interview, 2/3 bonus if at least 1/2 of the time is spent on the interview, and 1/3 bonus if at least 1/4 of the time is spent on the interview.