Go stat yourself...

[acrosome]

Secret Advantage [100], eh, Bruno? I like it.

I just did this on GURPS Character Sheet a few weeks ago...

Me [65]

Attributes:

ST 10 [0]
DX 11 [20]
IQ 12 [40]
HT 10 [0]

Wil 12
Per 12

Basic Speed 5.25

Perks
Cultural Familiarity (Anglo)* [0]
Cultural Familiarity (Western Europe)* [1]
Deep Sleeper [1]
Dabbler (Hacker Cred)** [1]
Dabbler (Military Memory)** [1]
Dabbler (Modern Man)** [1]
Dabbler (Old School)** [1]
Dabbler (Wild Man)** [1]
Grip Mastery (Pistol)** [1]
Permit (Concealed Carry) [1]
Recalls some stock phrases in Spanish, French, Latin, German, and Pashto [1]
Style Familiarity (Modern Pistol) [1]

* Kromm had a post a while ago on the Cultural Familiarities that the SJG Skunkworks used behind the scenes, and the Anglophone world was separate from the rest of western Europe.
** See below for Dabbler skills. Dabbler is a great mechanism for modeling me. Hacker Cred- some residua of my younger, more intemperate days, as well as some self-taught "kewl" activities. Military Memory- long ago when I was enlisted I worked in intelligence, but this also includes minimal learning from some professional military courses. Modern Man- stuff like Driving, etc. Old School- old college courses, medical school courses, etc. Wild Man- hiking/camping is my major hobby. I was tempted to take the Outdoorsman Talent.

Quirks
Broad-minded [-1]
Careful [-1]
Responsive [-1]

Advantages
Claim to Hospitality (Family) [2]
Language (English, Native) [0]
Language (Russian, Broken/Accented) [3]
Rank 4 (US Army) [20]
Talent 1 (Healer) [11]
Wealth (Wealthy) [20]

Disadvantages
Code of Honor (Professional; Hippocratic) [-5]
Code of Honor (Soldier's) [-15]
Debt 2 [-2]
Dependent (Child) [-15]
Dependent (Spouse) [-10]
Duty (US Army) [-2]
Honesty (CR:6) [-20]
Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]
Sense of Duty (Comrades) [-5]
Shyness [-5]

Skills
Bow Sport-10 [1]
Computer Operation/TL8-12 [1]
Connoisseur (Camping Equipment)-11 [1]
Diagnosis/TL8 (Surgical)-12 [1]
Guns/TL8 (Rifle)-12 [2]
Guns/TL8 (Pistol)-11 [1]
Naturalist/TL8 (Earthlike)-10 [1]
Navigation/TL8 (Land)-12 [2]
Physician/TL8-12 [2]
Physiology/TL8 (Human)-12 [2]
Research/TL8-11 [1]
Soldier/TL8 (US Army)-11 [1]
Surgery/TL8 (General Surgery)-13 [8]
Swimming-8 [1]
Teaching-10 [1]

Skills from Dabbler perks:
Administration-9
Area Knowledge (Local)-10
Bicycling-8
Biology/TL8 (Biochemistry)-8
Biology/TL8 (Earthlike)-7
Boating/TL8 (Kayak)-8
Connoisseur (Guns)-9
Driving/TL8 (Automobile)-10
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Electronic Warfare)-8
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Medical)-9
Fishing-9
Hiking-7
Intelligence Analysis/TL8-7
Leadership-8
Lockpicking/TL8-9
Phamacy/TL8 (Synthetic)-9
Pro Skill (Locksmith)-9
Psychology-9
Savoir-Faire (Military)-9
Scuba/TL8-8
Skating-5
Skiing-6
Stealth-8
Survival (Woodlands)-8

Notes:

I'm actually a pretty fortunate guy. I've managed to stumble my way through life rather well- that's really the most accurate way I can put it. Would that be Luck? I've also got some pretty high-priced advantages, no physical disadvantages, and some skills that GURPS treats with high granularity, all of which helps to keep my point total up.

Supposedly skill-12 is sufficient to make a living at anything, but I'm at the point in my career that I can claim to be an "experienced" surgeon, now. Hell, I've got three deployments to Afghanistan. And a couple of months ago I had to take out half of a woman's liver because she ruptured an aneurysm of her left hepatic artery. (Really high sphincter pressure on that one. But I did learn that my little community hospital does have an argon beam coagulator!) So I'm a fairly capable fellow. Also, Ultra-Tech has a surgeon template with Surgery-14, but I'm told that's somewhat of a cinematic/action sort of template, and that I'd get all sorts of equipment bonuses, etc. Thus, I split the middle with Surgery-13.

I'm conflicted about First Aid skill. I could default it, but that really doesn't seem to adequately model how good I am at trauma, for instance. You would definitely rather be shot in front of me than in front of someone who took the ARC lifesaving class. I should probably be at the "no nuisance rolls" level with First Aid: if I can't stop the bleeding then likely no one short of Ken Maddox can. :)

Until this summer I would have had the Fit advantage, but since I got promoted to service chief I haven't had time to work out and now I'm the heaviest I've ever been.

Arguably my spouse could be an Ally rather than a Dependent since she is a capable lawyer, but it seems traditional to list her as a Dependent. She'd definitely be useless in an "adventuring" setting, and would make an excellent hostage.

My rifle skill was publicly derived on a prior one of these "stat yourself" threads (based upon essentially never missing a man-silhouette at 300 yards unbraced with a TL6 military rifle, including all bonuses for noncombat settings, full aiming, etc.). I really only put a point into Pistol skill to claim Modern Pistol style familiarity with its Grip Mastery perk so that I can draw into a two-handed grip, which I do instinctively based upon my training. It has been a long time since I pulled triggers for a living.

Depending upon the model you use, my Rank may actually be Courtesy Rank. But I kept it regular Rank to get Status from it, which I most definitely do have. I am The Man- I'm a white male field grade officer, and a surgeon. You can't get much more of an authority figure. (I'll be the guy turning you back at the checkpoint to the safe zone during the zombie apocalypse.) I'm not sure if I'm Wealthy or Comfortable, though. If I were a civilian surgeon then no doubt, I'd be Wealthy. But I'm not- I'm a poor struggling federal employee. :)

I could probably better work out the skill levels for all of the Dabbler skills- as it is they are pretty arbitrary due to my trying to categorize them into rational groups. My Hiking and Skiing are probably higher than that, for instance.

[DCB]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Surgery/TL8 (General Surgery)-13 [8]

Supposedly skill-12 is sufficient to make a living at anything, but I'm at the point in my career that I can claim to be an "experienced" surgeon, now. Hell, I've got three deployments to Afghanistan. And a couple of months ago I had to take out half of a woman's liver because she ruptured an aneurysm of her left hepatic artery. (Really high sphincter pressure on that one.
...
I'm conflicted about First Aid skill. I could default it, but that really doesn't seem to adequately model how good I am at trauma, for instance. You would definitely rather be shot in front of me than in front of someone who took the ARC lifesaving class. I should probably be at the "no nuisance rolls" level with First Aid: if I can't stop the bleeding then likely no one short of Ken Maddox can. :)

"Average Joe" is listed as having 12-13 in his main job skill, costing about 8 points. You have:
- Many years of intense training
- Many years of intense experience
- A highly selective job
If that isn't enough to qualify for >8 points or >13 skill, the acceptable range of skills for realistic characters is enormously compressed.

I can see that working for a game where anyone interesting and with more than modest skill is inherently cinematic, but I think there's a great many settings that does not describe. Instead, it creates an (arbitrarily) low limit with little room for realistic differentiation, meaning players creating (N)PCs may feel forced to choose between realism and game-useful levels of skill.

FWIW, based on your description I would use a Surgery skill of 15-16, as per the following three estimation methods:

1) "Ordinary folks" tend to have job skills of 12-13 on attributes of 9-11, or about stat+2. Your description indicates a level of training, experience, and dedication well beyond most ordinary folks in their job skills, suggesting stat+3 or even stat+4. That would give skill 16-17, but reduced by 1 due to the skill being VH.

2) When creating templates, it is recommended they should have the normal skill 12 for job skills, but skill 14 for jobs with risk, specifically including surgeon (B.447). Increased by +1 (or even +2) as your description indicates better-than-average experience and skill.

3) This skill level table from earlier in the thread.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Ransom

In what way is Bow Sport different from Bow? Ability to score targets?

Bow Sport is the ability to shoot at targets, but not at things that are actually dangerous (such as live animals). It also includes knowledge of (and practice with) the rules of Bow shooting as a sport.

Doesn't First Aid default directly to Physician? I guess you could buy it up from there. Most character sheets I've seen seem to treat First Aid as the skill for paramedics and first responders, being redundant if you have the "higher" medical skills.

Yeah, First Aid has a -0 default from Physician; I think it's the only -0 default in the book. He could put 1 or 3 points into First Aid to improve it relative to Physician if he liked, since he only has 2 points in Physician and First Aid is an Easy skill.

---

Here is my updated self, three years after the last time I wrote it up:

Attributes [-10]:
ST 9 [-10]
DX 9 [-20]
IQ 11 [20]
HT 10 [0]

Secondary Characteristics [1]:
Damage 1d-2/1d-1
BL 16 lbs.
HP 12 [6]
Will 10 [-5]
Per 11 [0]
FP 10 [0]
Basic Speed 4.75 [0]
Basic Move 4 [0]

Advantages [25]:
Mathematical Ability 1 [10]
Computer Wizard 1 [5]
Resistant (Viral Infection ) +3 [2]
FNORD Advantage [5]
Courtesy Rank 2 [2]

Perks: [1]
Dabbler [1]

Disadvantages [-20]:
Sense of Duty (Friends) [-5]
Honesty (15-) [-5]
Pacifism (Reluctant Killer) [-5]
Unfit [-5]

Quirks [-5]:
Overweight [-1]
Teetotaler [-1]
Picky Eater [-1]
Doesn't Like Talking on the Phone [-1]
Incompetence (Carousing) [-1].

Skills [42]:
Artist (Digital)-8 (IQ/A) [D]*
Physics-8 (IQ/VH) [D]*
Teaching-8 (IQ/A) [D]*
Scuba-8 (IQ/A) [D]*
Accounting-10 (IQ/H) [1]
Bicycling-9 (DX/E) [1]
Computer Operation-13 (IQ/E) [2]
Computer Programming-12 (IQ/H) [4]
Connoisseur (FNORD)-10 (IQ/A) [1]
Current Affairs (Headline News)-11 (IQ/E) [1]
Driving (Automobile)-9 (DX/A) [2]
Economics-10 (IQ/H) [1]
Finance-10 (IQ/H) [1]
Games (Computer Games)-12 (IQ/E) [2]
Games (Role-Playing Games)-12 (IQ/E) [2]
Hobby Skill (Science Fiction)-11 (IQ/E) [1]
Housekeeping-11 (IQ/E) [1]
Mathematics (Applied)-11 (IQ/H) [2]
Mathematics (Statistics)-11 (IQ/H) [2]
Mathematics (Computer Science)-10 (IQ/H) [1]
Research-10 (IQ/A) [1]
Skating-9 (HT/H) [2]
Swimming-11 (HT/E) [2]
Typing-13 (DX/E) (Bought from Computer Operation-3 Default) [10]
Writing-11 (IQ/A) [2]

D: +2 from Dabbler

Attributes: -10 points
Secondary Characteristics: 1 point
Advantages: 25 points
Perks: 1 point
Disadvantages & Quirks: -25 points
Skills & Languages: 42 points
TOTAL: 34 points