Alternate GURPS: Seeking a minimalistic (25-50) skill list . . .

[vicky_molokh]

Some thoughts on grouping up skills:

Accounting, Administration, Politics, Law, Current Affairs (Business), Finance, Merchant, Research, Market Analysis, Economics, Heraldry, and less-artistic uses of Writing - covered by Bureaucracy.

Assorted ranged weapon skills covered by Marksmanship, with a strong attention to TL-related familiarities (so e.g. no easily picking up a bow and sniping with it until you adapt to using without penalty).

Linguistics, Public Speaking, Writing, Detect Lies, Literature, Poetry, Artist (Calligraphy and Illumination), Gesture, Propaganda, Lip Reading - covered by the Wordsmith skill.

Acrobatics, Aerobatics, Aquabatics, Climbing, Running (sprint), Skiing (sprint), Swimming (sprint), Jumping, Free-Fall, Body Sense, Dancing, - Athletics.

Running/Skiing/Swimming (endurance), Power Blow, Hobby (Feats Of Strength), Roll With The Blow, Lifting, Breath Control, Hiking, Forced Entry - Toughness or Physique.

Acting, Fast-Talk, Disguise, Mimicry (Human Speech), Make-Up, Feints and Ruses in combat, optionally Holdout - Guile or Deceit.

Animal Handling, Falconry, Riding, Packing, - Animal Ken.

Armoury, Mechanic, Carpentry, Cooking, Architecture etc. - Craftsman, with strict familiarities.

First Aid, Physician, Diagnosis, Physiology, Autohypnosis, Biology, Esoteric Medicine, Hazmat (Bio), Hypnotism, Genetics, Bioengineering, biological uses of Chemistry, Poisons, Forensic (biomedical), Body Language - covered by Biotech.

Camouflage, Survival (non-urban), Fishing, Mimicry (Birds and Animals), Tracking, Hiking, Weather Sense/Meteorology, Swimming, Naturalist - covered by Outdoorsman.

Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Linguistics, Physics, Physiology, Mathematics, Cryptology - Science.

Computer Operation/Programming/Hacking, Electronics Operation/Repair/Engineering, Cryptology, - Wire Rat.

Criminology, Tracking, Traps (detection and disarming), ElOps (Security), Forensics, Search, Observation - Investigation.

Psychology, Body Language, Detect Lies, Brainwashing, Brain Hacking, Sociology, Interrogation, Hypnotism, Autohypnosis/Meditation, Propaganda, Memetics, Teaching - Psych.

Streetwise, Intimidation, Gambling, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, Savoir-Faire (Mafia), Filch, Surival (Urban), Traps, Forced Entry, Forensics/Housekeeping (only to remove clues), Forgery/Counterfeiting, Holdout, Escape, Smuggling - Larceny.

[smurf]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Some thoughts on grouping up skills:

Accounting, Administration, Politics, Law, Current Affairs (Business), Finance, Merchant, Research, Market Analysis, Economics, Heraldry, and less-artistic uses of Writing - covered by Bureaucracy...

Politics, Current Affairs (business), Current Affairs (politics), Economics, Public Speaking, writing, Propaganda, History! Research, Philosophy (Marxism), Merchant (selling radical papers and books etc), Enthralment, Persuade. Socialist Agitator?

[Donny Brook]

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of this effort, but I see downsides.

Certainly in many of the examples given it seems to me that it is possible, and even likely, that a person would have some of the skills within an umbrella and not others. For example the typical maverick litigation lawyer is typically tempermentally unfit for learning a lot of Administration.

On the other hand, I would consider reducing inter-skill defaults by 1 across the board.

[Not]

This looks like a d6 skills list.

[Kalzazz]

If its supposed to look like a D6 skills list, could easily look at some of the sundry Open D6 books

[GM Joe]

HERO System is another one to look to as a good example of an any-genre skills list that is small. Of course, they do that partly through having three "misc." skill areas: Knowledge Skill, Professional Skill, and Science Skill. Each is defined when purchased. For example, you might buy Professional Skill (Plumber) or Knowledge Skill (Medieval History), or Science Skill (Chemistry).

Otherwise, skills tend to be pretty broad, with just a few cascade skills such as Driving and Piloting (where you pick from a list of vehicle types when you buy the skill).

[trooper6]

I actually like the number of skills in GURPS...but I'm a "lots of skills" GM.

However, if you really want to reduce the number of skills radically, why don't you go the Over the Edge route and remove the defined skill list completely? Have the players define their own skills (I think they each character has three Skills/Traits in Over the Edge/Warp)

So one character can have:
Marksmanship
Brawling
Detective

Another can Have:
Businessman
Well-Read
Computers

Then you never have more skills than you need.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Certainly in many of the examples given it seems to me that it is possible, and even likely, that a person would have some of the skills within an umbrella and not others. For example the typical maverick litigation lawyer is typically tempermentally unfit for learning a lot of Administration.

Short of having literally millions of skills, that's going to be a problem no matter where you put the boundaries between them.

I suppose the other limit that still preserves some of the GURPS engine is not to have any skills at all. Just roll everything against the attribute you'd base the skill on instead. Effectively you have as many different skills as your game has attributes. This worked OK back before all games *had* skill lists, and still should.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Short of having literally millions of skills, that's going to be a problem no matter where you put the boundaries between them.

I suppose the other limit that still preserves some of the GURPS engine is not to have any skills at all. Just roll everything against the attribute you'd base the skill on instead. Effectively you have as many different skills as your game has attributes. This worked OK back before all games *had* skill lists, and still should.

I wouldn't say it worked OK. I'd call it a constant problem that was improved massively by adding skills to games.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

I wouldn't say it worked OK. I'd call it a constant problem that was improved massively by adding skills to games.

Nah, it did work fine. The thing that tended to be irritating was the fixed values, not what you rolled against. There's no real difference between "Roll vs INT" and "Roll vs Knowledge Skill" or "Charisma" and "Social Skill" The main complaint was there was no way to get better. Note that despite the much finer divisions of AD&D Secondary Skills or Top Secret Areas of Knowledge, nobody thought they were much in the way of improvements because they mostly lacked that too. GURPS attributes can already be bought up.

Another approach, why not just use the skill categories (http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...ill-categories)? There are are already the right number of them, and somebody else already did the sorting work. Yes there is some duplication, but so what? Skills always have the problem of stuff that could be done with more than one of them.