Reducing the number of weapon skills

[Donny Brook]

I din't understand the purpose.

Also, I disagree with some of the particular proposals:

Two-handed weapons are used substantially different from one-handed ones, in regard to footwork, parrying, and available lines of attack.

Military spear use and training also bears little resemblance to how staffs are used.

Rapier (epee) is a different style of fighting from sabre.

[AlexanderHowl]

It makes a certain amount of sense to have an overarching skill that the weapon skills are merely specialties of. Perhaps a VH Flail would include Flail and Two-handed Flail or a H Axe/Mace that would contain Axe/Mace and Two-handed Axe/Mace.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

I didn't understand the purpose.

The purpose is to reduce the number of skills. GURPS is pretty skill-heavy anyway.

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Also, I disagree with some of the particular proposals:

Two-handed weapons are used substantially different from one-handed ones, in regard to footwork, parrying, and available lines of attack.

Military spear use and training also bears little resemblance to how staffs are used.

Rapier (epee) is a different style of fighting from sabre.

Do you have another suggestion? Maybe merge Axe/Mace and Flail into one skill, and the 2-Handed versions into another would be more sensible.

[Anthony]

I suggest:

Melee Weapons: DX/H
Covers use of all melee weapons. Optional Speciality: any one weapon type.
Ranged Weapons: DX/VH
Covers use of all ranged weapons. Optional Speciality: any one weapon type.
Unarmed Combat: DX/VH
Covers unarmed combat. Optional Speciality: grappling, slams, striking.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I suggest:

Melee Weapons: DX/H
Covers use of all melee weapons. Optional Speciality: any one weapon type.
Ranged Weapons: DX/VH
Covers use of all ranged weapons. Optional Speciality: any one weapon type.
Unarmed Combat: DX/VH
Covers unarmed combat. Optional Speciality: grappling, slams, striking.

That's a little too radical for my taste, although I could certain see them as Wildcard skills.

[smurf]

You could use exclamation skills like Sword!?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by smurf

You could use exclamation skills like Sword!?

Wildcard skills are based on the presumption that regular skills are properly priced, which is mostly false; there's a fundamental problem when training more than 2% of all skills is worse than raising attributes, and deleting 90% of them would be a good start.

[AlexanderHowl]

That is due to the benefits that come from taking skills. I find that reducing specific skill penalties by one for every 4 CP invested in a skill (and specific technique penalties by one for every 1 CP invested in a technique) tends to encourage people to purchase skills (defaults are not considered penalties). That way, a character with DX 10 who spends 44 CP on Karate receives a much better result than a character with DX 18 who spends 12 CP on Karate.

[Gnome]

I already have a problem with weapon skills being very cheap to raise as opposed to DX, where a fighter with DX 10 and Broadsword-25 can easily defeat almost any opponent, despite spending "only" 60 points for the privilege of being the greatest. Capping points allowed in one skill or requiring UB above a certain level can fix this, and there are other fixes as well, but in my mind making a more general skill for the same cost exacerbates this issue. Part of the problem might come from the fact that skill gives you better attacks, better defenses, and even the potential to do more damage (by targeting locations), so there's really a lot in that one package of melee weapon skill. Further separating these components would be a more radical change...

Perhaps there is room for something in between a basic GURPS skill and a Bang! skill? Like a "highly general" skill that costs double instead of triple?

[Rolando]

It's a house rule and seems reasonable as that.

As long as it applies to everyone during the campaign it is balanced.

I can see it done across the board with the guns and gunnery skills, also the sciences, armory, engineer, electronic operation, electronic repair, etc. But most of these are for modern and sci-fi campaigns, you may not have to deal with them right now.

The only concern I would be looking for your weapons skills consolidation is if this will make non combat characters cost more than combat characters. As combat skills are being reduced and made more broad your non combat characters/players will be paying more for the same in their own area of expertise.

So you may think about consolidating musical instruments skills, social skills (fast talk+diplomacy?), other specialists skills (stealth+shadowing), etc.

Do it across the board, not just for combat skills and you will be good.