Limitations on skills

[FenrisLoki]

I am struggling to find exactly how to recreate a limitation for a character I have.

I want to have the character have Stealth, but only usable in a woodland setting. Specialization makes her better in woodlands and lowers the skill in non settings, but that isn't the effect I'm going for. Same with making a technique. I want it that she'd be rolling at default, as if she didn't have the skill at all, if she's not in the woods.

I saw Dr. Kromm's article in the Alternate GURPS article for turning skills into Advantages, but this seems to make such a skill extremely expensive. It just doesn't then feel like a limited skill use to me. It is almost an Accessibility limitation, but those aren't applied to skills.

Any ideas?

[edk926]

The Silence Advantage is 5 pts/lvl and gives a Stealth bonus vs Hearing. You can put a limitation (Accessibility: Woodlands Only, -40%) on it for 3 pts/lvl. It would cost a bit to go from a default from not having the Stealth skill to a high "default" in Woodland Stealth Only, but it works.

[FenrisLoki]

But Stealth also makes you harder to see as well. You'd have to pile on levels of Chameleon. It just doesn't seem like a fair trade.

[Donny Brook]

Incompetence (Stealth), Mitigator: forest -20% [-1].

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by FenrisLoki

I am struggling to find exactly how to recreate a limitation for a character I have.

I want to have the character have Stealth, but only usable in a woodland setting. Specialization makes her better in woodlands and lowers the skill in non settings, but that isn't the effect I'm going for. Same with making a technique. I want it that she'd be rolling at default, as if she didn't have the skill at all, if she's not in the woods.

I saw Dr. Kromm's article in the Alternate GURPS article for turning skills into Advantages, but this seems to make such a skill extremely expensive. It just doesn't then feel like a limited skill use to me. It is almost an Accessibility limitation, but those aren't applied to skills.

Any ideas?

Just ask the GM if you can use an optional specialization for Stealth. Then specialize by terrain type. So Stealth (Woodlands) becomes an Easy skill.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Just ask the GM if you can use an optional specialization for Stealth. Then specialize by terrain type. So Stealth (Woodlands) becomes an Easy skill.

Ahem:

Originally Posted by FenrisLoki

Specialization makes her better in woodlands and lowers the skill in non settings, but that isn't the effect I'm going for.

My Two Cents: Make a Talent, call it Woodland Ranger (or some such) and pile in some skills (Like Bow, Camouflage, Climbing, Survival (Woodlands), Stealth), then make it only cost like half as much as a standard Talent (in this case 3 per level) and only have it apply in the Woodlands. I'd allow for it to be bought up to level 6 or 8 (to more readily differentiate between Stealth (Everywhere) and Stealth (Woods)).

If you also take the Optional Specialty, yes you'll still have Stealth usable everywhere (but you have that at default anyway), but it'll be 6 higher when you're in the Woods (if you take 4 levels of the Talent).

[coronatiger]

My suggestion:

1. Learn Stealth with optional speciality (Woodland), making it an Easy skill.
2. Take this quirk: Regular Stealth can't use the default of Stealth (Woodland) -2.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by FenrisLoki

Specialization ... isn't the effect I'm going for. Same with making a technique. I want it that she'd be rolling at default

So, rolling in the woods at full skill, but at a reduced value outside of woods is unacceptable, but the effect you really want is for the character to roll at full skill in the woods, but against a reduced value outside of woods?

Sorry to be harsh, but you're really splitting an awfully tiny hair over some exact mechanical details. In actual play, the difference isn't going to show, so it won't affect the actual appearance and effect of the concept.

That said, it's easy to get exactly, literally, what you want in terms of mechanics. Don't use the word "specialization", and instead just invent the skill "Woodlands Stealth". It only works in woods. Outside of woods, the character has to roll at default to be sneaky, as long as you don't buy the general Stealth skill. Feel free to make Woodlands Stealth an Easy skill, because it's not as broad as general Stealth.

[FenrisLoki]

I think the easy version of the skill is the option I'll go for. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking another existing mechanic.